Research Question: What is the effect of Hula-Hooping on heart rate as measured by pulse?

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Ib Bio 2 HL

30 January 2012

Internal Assessment:  The Effect of “Hula-Hooping” on Heart Rate

Design: Aspect 1: Problem and Selecting Variables

Research Question: What is the effect of “Hula-Hooping” on heart rate as measured by pulse?

Independent Variable: “Hula-hooping” for five levels of fifteen seconds increments.

Dependent Variable: The subject’s heart rate after exercising for each allotted measurement of time.

Background: Exercise has a number of effects that benefit the heart and circulation (blood flow throughout the body). These benefits include improving cholesterol and fat levels, reducing inflammation in the arteries, helping weight loss programs, and helping to keep blood vessels flexible and open. Studies continue to show that physical activity and avoiding high-fat foods are the two most successful means of reaching and maintaining heart-healthy levels of fitness and weight. The instant you begin your workout, your muscles consume more energy and produce more waste products. In order to continue making more energy, the muscles require additional oxygen pumped from your heart. The amount of oxygen needed and the amount supplied are tightly controlled by your brain, which senses the concentration of waste products in the blood. The harder the muscles work, the more waste products are produced, and the more your brain increases your heart rate. Once the brain has increased your heart rate to the point where oxygen supply meets the demand of the muscles, your heart rate will plateau for the remainder of your workout. But what if you turn into a stiff head wind? Your muscles work even harder, producing more waste products sensed by your brain which, in turn, causes a further increase in heart rate to meet the elevated oxygen requirements of your muscles. Dehydration also increases heart rate during exercise. Sweating draws water from the blood and, over time, leaves less blood flowing through your heart and to your muscles, reducing oxygen supply to the muscles. Your brain counters with an increase in heart rate, but if dehydration continues, heart rate will continually increase since oxygen supply never meets demand. Drinking an amount of fluid equal to what is lost through sweating prevents dehydrations leaving heart rate at its normal level. Once you stop exercising, your muscles demand less oxygen but the brain continues to supply extra oxygen to help with the recovery process. Some aspects of recovery, like lactic acid removal, happen within minutes, but others, such as repair of muscle proteins, can take hours to complete. This means your heart rate will remain high for minutes or even hours after exercise, supplying extra oxygen to help with recovery. As you perform regular aerobic exercise over months and even years the chambers of your heart enlarge, allowing them to fill with more blood. The walls of your heart become thicker, making your heart a more powerful pump. Therefore, every time your heart contracts; more blood is pumped to your muscles. At any given exercise intensity level, your bigger, stronger heart can supply the required oxygen at a slower heart rate.

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Aspect 2: Controlling Variables

∙        I consistently used the same location.

∙         I repeatedly used the corner outside the classroom door on the staircase side of the hall.

∙        I used only girls as test subjects.

Materials:

1.        Stop watch. I used the stop watch device on my phone.

2.        Empty Hallway space for physical activity, there needs to be enough room for the subject to easily spin the hula-hoop around their waste without hitting anything.

3.        One large Hula Hoop. I used a Wave Hoop®, 36 inches wide.

4.        5-10 test subjects, that are comfortably able to “Hula-Hoop”

Procedure:

1.        Take test subject’s heart ...

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