Equipment:
- Rowing machine
- Stopwatch
- Writing equipment and a results table ready
- Sports clothes
- Inhalers for asthmatics, also any more necessary medication
Method:
- Record your resting heart rate
- Prepare all necessary equipment, as not having it ready will delay taking your heart rate.
- Do a rowing exercise; we are going to do 200m at a very slow pace.
- Record the time it took to do your 200m, and take your heart rate at minute intervals until it returns to your resting heart rate.
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Repeat this exercise 3 times, aiming to repeat your 1st time again so you know you are working at the same level.
- After recording all heart rates, half the average time it took to complete the exercise.
- This is your target time for your next exercise, which should be a 200m rowing event at a moderate pace.
- Record heart rate at 1 minute intervals until it returns to your resting heart rate as before, repeat the test 3 times to calculate an average.
- Half the time again, this is your new target time for a 200m sprint, you will have to work especially hard to finish in time, do the exercise and record heart rate at one-minute intervals, repeat the test 3 times.
- The last exercise you will do is a 500m rowing sprint. To work out your target time, add together your 200m slow time, and half of your 200m sprint time.
- Do this exercise at least 3 times, recording your heart rate at 1-minute intervals until it returns to your resting heart rate.
Prediction:
I predict that as we exercise for longer or harder, our pulse rate will rise and take longer to return to my resting heart rate (around 70 beats per minute). My breathing rate will quicken and become more laboured as my body requires the extra oxygen, and my muscles will begin to be ached and fatigued as they are exercised over time, making my performance level go down.
Results:
Calculating averages:
Conclusion:
As I worked harder and for greater lengths of time my heart rate increased. Each different exercise took slightly longer to recover from. During my 200m sprint rowing I worked the same as I did at 500m sprint rowing, yet my pulse was higher as I was exercising for longer during the 500m sprints. My heart rate peaked at 150, which is well in the recommended target for exercise to be beneficial for health. During the first 200m rowing session my heart rate peaked at 85 beats per minute, and took 4 minutes to return to my resting heart rate of 72, during my second and harder rowing session my heart rate peaked at 119 beats per minute, but still returned to normal in under 5 minutes. During the 200m sprints, my heart rate climbed to 134 beats per minute, and took 5 minutes to return to my resting heart rate. During the final rowing session of 500m sprint rowing, my heart rate topped at 150 beats per minute, recovering in 6 minutes. I have therefore come to the conclusion that my heart rate recovers quicker when it rises to a higher rate, perhaps because the heart works harder to cool down when it is working extremely hard.
Evaluation:
I did not find this experiment scientifically sound at all, many things should be improved before making any definitely true conclusions from the experiment. Firstly the rowing machines, advanced as they are, did not take our heart rate during exercise, this meant that we A: had time to recover before taking our own heart rate, and B: we had to take the heart rate ourselves, giving a possibility of miscounting or being inaccurate with results, this could be remedied by either using rowing machines with built in heart rate sensors, or using a heart rate reader while exercising. Secondly the chances of us putting in the maximum effort possible isn’t very likely, though driving us to reach target times was an effective way of making us work hard, we still could probably have worked harder, changing the rowing machines resistance settings would help us to achieve maximum effort input.
