Basically, are their drugs or similar that can specifically enhance the heart? I bring this up because I'm writing a story where a character has a disease which will overexert his heart, and probably kill him, if it isn't a lot stronger faster than is humanely possible to exercise to without the help of something like steroids. I'm guessing no, but maybe I'm wrong here.
Slower exposure to exercise for endurance works. Lots of drugs and supplements just mask the condition. Stop using them, you revert. I have asthma and I do 90 to 120 minutes per day on a modern vintage StairMaster at the age of 62. Most kids cannot break 20 minutes. I did not start out that way, but I added a minute or two per week. Then I kept raising the level of resistance. Most people with bad tickers or knee surgery can barely walk across a room when they begin. I used to jog with a guy who had his chest cracked.
you are a writer of fiction... so you can 'invent/develop' whatever you need to make your story make sense...
Yes, you could, and you'd be discussing Captain America. If you had to find a potion or treatment, and you were hell-bent on this train of thought, I think HGH might be a posssible method. You could create a "super enriched" variety, the basic emulsion spun down in a centrifuge and injected during a painful cardiac needle scene. I think science fiction works the best when not using Star Trek babble, but with one foot in reality. Granted Jules Verne got lucky with the Nautilus, but not all of us have that gift.
Well, this case involves a fictional disease which will kill the character... in less time than such endurance exercise would work in, again without the help of drugs. But okay, looks like I might use something like HGH, however perhaps a sci-fi variant to fit the story in question.
