Equipments
-Stop watch to measure the 60 seconds
-Paper and pen to record the results
Procedure
- Choose 5 people from each exercise group that matches the controlled variables.
- Measure 60 seconds with your stop watch while your subject measures their resting hear beat.
- The subjects will exercise for 30 minutes.
- Measure 60 seconds with your stop watch while your subject measures their heart beat right after exercising.
- Steps 3 and 4 will have to be repeated once more for each exercise to obtain the sample size replicates.
- Process the data so that it shows the percentage of heart rate increase.
Using this formula: (changed heart rate)/(resting heart rate) X 100
Plan of the Experiments
08/10/10: first experiment on aerobics group (V)
10/10/10: first experiment on power walking group (V)
17/10/20: second experiment on power walking group (V)
19/10/10: second experiment on aerobics group (V)
RAW DATA
PROCESSED DATA
Sample Calculation
Here, I will choose one data to show a sample calculation. Have a look at the first data, person with the initial Y.A, in power walking. Her resting heart beat was 79 and the heart rates after exercise were 111 and 102. As shown on table 3, you just simply minus the resting heart rate from the heart rate after exercise in order to find out how much have increased. Then you divide this by the resting heart rate and multiply it by 100 to figure out the percentage of increase. This is important since it will measure how much the heart raise was able to rise in proportion to the original heart rate.
So in this case it would be (111-79)/79X100=40.51(2dp) and (102-79)/79X100=29.11 (2dp). Then you would have to find the average of these two numbers in order to find the mean percentage of increase in heart rate for the person.
And that would be (40.51+29.11)/2=34.81. Then this kind of average of the increase in heart rate will have to be found for everyone. You can get the same results by also finding the average increase of heart rate first and then dividing that by the resting heart rate in order to find the percentage. However, I chose my way, because I wanted to see the percentage for each time the activity was done so that I can analyze the data more thoroughly and find out some errors, if any, in the end of the experiment. Here is the table that shows the result of the calculations:
Then in the end we will have to find the mean and the standard deviation of each type of sport. This is done in order to prove whether the experiment is valid or not. For instance, if the standard deviation is high, it would mean that the data is diverse which is unreliable. Also, with standard deviation, we can compare the similarity of the two data.
So for power walking it is: (34.81+25.70+48.16+36.88+38.24)/5= 36.76(2dp)
And for aerobics it is: (17.19+17.50+12.50+10.00+22.66)/5=15.97(2dp)
Below is the summary table of the dependent and independent variables:
The standard deviations for both of them are found by using the calculator. For power walking it is 8.04(2dp) and aerobics is 4.91(2dp)
Graph of the Results
CONCLUSION
By looking at the graph, you can clearly see that power walking increases the heart rate more than twice compared to aerobics. And the error bars do not meet each other which exhibit that there is a large difference between the two data. Thus, my hypothesis was correct. Before I did not finish my experiment, I was actually not very sure about the results. Aerobics exercises “burn fat faster than any other type of exercise” and is “a type of physical exercise that integrates rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the objective of improving all elements of fitness (flexibility, muscular strength, and cardio-vascular fitness)” This means that, although power walking has more regular active movements, aerobics may need as much oxygen since it burns a lot of fat and it is also known to impulse the heart and circulatory system of the body. Yet, the result clearly indicated that power walking increased the heart rate much more. This is because power walking is a constant movement of the skeletal muscles. As mentioned earlier, skeletal muscles are the source of power for all skeletal movement in the body and “these cells are supplied with oxygen and nutrients, such as glucose or fatty acids, through the capillaries that extend directly into the muscle.” Compared to aerobics where there are some rest between the different exercises the muscles have to move continually which would require more energy and the movements are relatively more strenuous as well. Also, we have to take into account that the skeletal muscles are one of the organs that has the highest increase in blood flow after exercise.
EVALUATION
I believe that the research this time was valid and reasonable in the end. There were five subjects and they were all tested twice which made the result more reliable. And looking back at table 4 on page 5 and 6, the results are quite realistic and there are no anomalous data. However, there were some parts where improvements could have been made.
The major random errors I had was the measuring of the heart rate. I have asked my subjects to measure their heart rate after exercise. Although I did make sure that they knew how to measure it, I am not fully sure that it was accurate all the time. I was always there with a stop watch to time them but maybe it would have been better if I took their pulse so that it is more certain.
Additionally, there were some systematic errors as well. The basic outline of the experiment was quite successful but I think some of the controlled variables were not accurate. For example, I have said that I will test with people who had break fast and enough amount of sleep but this may differ from people to people and there isn’t a fair method to measure this. When I reflect on the error bars, the aerobic one is tolerable but the bar for power working is quite big. This basically means that the results of the subjects were diverse. I think it is because the walking paces of the people are very different. In aerobics, we all have to follow the instructor’s movements so we put similar effort into the exercise. However, when we go power walking, some people have the tendency to walk slower than other people. The experiment would have been fairer if I had taken this to account and used people with similar walking pace.
Overall, I think the experiment was a success. Since I chose a research question that I could not really guess the result, I learned a lot and it was enjoyable as well. If I have to suggest a related investigation with a different independent variable, I would like to know more about how gender affects the heart rate when exercising, since it was the controlled variables that I was not sure about.
Aerobic. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. <http://www.aerobic.org/>.
"Skin and Muscle Blood Flow During Exercise - - World of Sports Science." Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education - Faqs.org. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. <http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Sc-Sp/Skin-and-Muscle-Blood-Flow-During-Exercise.html>.