The Effect of Exercise on Heart Rate

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The Effect of Exercise on Heart Rate

Introduction

The heart rate of a human varies from 150 beats per minute in young children, to about 60 in the aged. However, I am going to investigate whether doing exercise may alter the rate substantially.

Prediction

From my scientific knowledge I predict that the rate of respiration will increase as a result of exercise. I think that there will be a gradual increase to begin with, but as the body has to work harder I believe that the heart will then increase at a faster rate. When the exercise is complete I think that the heart rate will gradually decrease back to the resting pulse rate.

I have made these predictions because I believe that the supply of Oxygen to the muscles will decrease which will push the heart rate up. I also think that a lot of energy will be used up as the exercise takes place, thus resulting in a further increase. If the body is unable to continue aerobic respiration anaerobic respiration will take place. This results in lactic acid being formed. Finally, the CO2 levels would also rise which would also contribute to the heart rate rises.

Method

I am going to carry out step-up exercise on a 3cm stair on my eleven-year-old sister. The heart rate will be taken by feeling the pulse in the neck.

Here is the procedure of the experiment:

· The resting pulse will be taken and recorded.

· Five-minute exercise begins with a break of 30 seconds every half-minute of exercise in order to calculate the current heart rate.

· When exercise is complete, I will be recording the current heart rate every minute until it returns to it's normal heart rate.

Results Table
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Time (min)

Heart Rate (per minute)

2

3

Average

0

64

64

64

64

68

68

70

69

2

00

94

92

95

3

16

20

22

19

4

40

42

40

41

5

40

48

46

45

6

16

20

22

19

7

76

02

84

87

8

68

84

...

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