Maladaptive versus Adaptative Cardiovascular Phenotype in Response to Exercise Training: Expert Opinion of the Evidence

Abstract

Sports physicians, physiologists, cardiologists, and researchers indistinctly use the terms “cardiac maladaptation,” “maladaptive cardiac remodeling” and/or “hypertrophy,” “adverse cardiac remodeling,” and “maladaptive cardiovascular (CV) phenotype/system” to describe pathophysiological responses to chronic and/or high-intensity exercise (i.e., extreme exercise). These terms may be somewhat vague and ambiguous, suggesting a lack of clarity about these mal/adaptations. There is a need to standardize which acute and/or chronic CV responses to exercise training may be considered physiological and which pathological. We aim to present a compilation of CV exercise-induced modifications from a morphological, structural, and electrical perspective that we consider CV maladaptation.