Medical science says that, like all muscles, a heart can only contract so many times before it is destined to fail. If this is true, then it would be antithetical to figure that getting your heart to beat more quickly would be anything but a bad idea. The irony of this supposition is that it neglects the fact that the heart is a muscle. And just like the muscles of your legs get stronger when you run and your arms get stronger when you pick up a weight, your heart grows stronger when it beats faster than its average speed. If you want to get into better shape, you need to jack up your heart rate.

The concept of a heart only having so many beats in its operational life span is a reasonable thought to carry on with. After all, a muscle carries physical stress forward, the same way that aluminum air plane bodies carry metal fatigue that they accrue with every flight they go on. When a plane’s body mysteriously rips apart in mid air (or especially during the especially damaging take off and landing phases of the flight), it is much like what could happen to your heart after a long enough life span. It might just explode, you never know.

But when your heart beats more quickly, its muscular components do something that airplane parts will not do. They take small amounts of damage, but then they heal themselves and become stronger for it. And as your heart grows stronger, it needs to beat less frequently when you are in a state of rest. So when you raise the rate at which your heart beats, you end up giving yourself the ability for it to beat more slowly most of the time. The notions starts out ironic, but quickly becomes very sensible.