CSSD Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Study Resource

Elite athletes typically experience high cardiac outputs as a physiological adaptation to their training regimens. This adaptation is crucial for enhancing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to working muscles during sustained exercise.

Cardiac output, which is the amount of blood the heart pumps in a minute, is comprised of two components: heart rate and stroke volume. Elite athletes often demonstrate remarkable increases in stroke volume, allowing their hearts to pump a larger volume of blood with each beat. When combined with potentially lower resting and exercising heart rates due to enhanced cardiovascular efficiency, their cardiac output during intense physical activity can be significantly elevated.

This increased cardiac output supports the high demands placed on the athlete's body, particularly during endurance sports, where sustained activities require enhanced oxygen delivery and waste removal from muscles. Thus, the adaptation of high cardiac output is essential for meeting the physiological needs associated with elite athletic performance.