A leading cause of death in weight training athletes is heart attack caused by thick blood.

High testosterone, SARMs and Roids are linked with increased blood thickness. Many weight trainers pride themselves by shunning aerobics and embrace anaerobic training and the muscle pump.

The blood itself is an adaptive substance that thickens its viscosity with exercise.

Blood will congeal and thicken when compressed into muscle tissue. When it pools in some area its natural tendency is to congeal and become thick.

This increases the nutrient density in the muscle tissue. However its bad for your heart when this happens over and over with no relief.

Think if all you do is this blood thickening exercise every day. It strains the heart and burdens the brain and other organs.

The muscles will grow big and strong. Health benefits will occur but there is a hidden bad effect on the cardio vascular system and all of the organs.

Eventually for some this means heart attack or stroke.

Aerobic exercise on the other hand will lower plasma viscosity. Hematocrit is what we measure to check the blood viscosity.

Dehydration is a common factor to increase the risks.

Aspirin, garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper, Vitamin E, grape seed, ginkgo & turmeric can all help to thin the blood as can coQ10. Venesection & blood donation is another big help. There are other natural substances that can also assist. Chinese medicine has its offerings too.

Interestingly Isometric training while a strength regimen that immediately raises blood pressure actually conditions the cardio vascular system & lowers blood pressure with time. Weight training will also lower blood pressure in the medium to long term.

The bottom line is that we love to lift weight & get big & strong. But we must also love endurance and aerobics.

It doesn’t matter what can be done with HIIT anaerobic conditioning. Sure its great & saves time. But it wont replace the requirement for aerobics and endurance training.

You have to do cardio. Long endurance training to thin your blood and lower your blood pressure.

There are plenty of scientific papers backing this up – you can google the following one for starters:

“Effects of a moderate-intensity aerobic program on blood viscosity, platelet aggregation and fibrinolytic balance in young and middle-aged sedentary subjects”

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