Exercise And Heart Rate example essay topic

How Does Exercise Affect The Human Heart Beat Aim: To find out how aerobic and anaerobic exercise affects the heart beat. Introduction: Respiration is continually occurring through out our lives, it may be taken for granted, but without the presence of respiration it would be impossible to survive. Respiration is the breaking down of energy, particularly glucose, from the food we eat, either using oxygen (aerobic) or not using oxygen (anaerobic) to release energy that the body uses for various different processes. Aerobic respiration is the complex reaction in which glucose is broken down by oxygen. The glucose is broken down into carbon dioxide, water and energy. The carbon dioxide and water are disposed of in different ways, where as the energy is used to power muscles for thing like exercise, movement and growth.

Anaerobic respiration is the breaking down of glucose without the use of oxygen. With anaerobic respiration glucose is only partially broken down and the muscles produce lactose acid. This is why, in humans, anaerobic respiration can only happen for a short period of time. As well as these two types of respiration there is aerobic and anaerobic exercise. During these two different types of exercise different types of the body are improved. Aerobic exercise is exercising with oxygen.

Whilst doing an aerobic exercise such as walking, running, cycling or swimming a person's heartbeat will be increased and there will be an increase in oxygen carrying red blood cells. Aerobic exercise builds endurance and burns away fat and calories. Anaerobic exercise (exercising without oxygen) such as weight lifting or push ups, which use short bursts of energy and increase muscle mass and strength. As exercising without oxygen relies on stored energy the heart rate is not raised as much as when exercising with oxygen, this is because the blood does not need to pump blood to muscles as quickly because they will not being carrying more energy.

Aerobic exercise can be carried out for a much longer period than anaerobic, but after time aerobic exercise becomes anaerobic, this happens once the heart has reached approximately 75% of its maximum heart rate. Both types of exercise will raise the heart beat, but I hope to find out, by doing this experiment which type of exercise, aerobic or anaerobic, will raise the heart beat more. Method: To test how much aerobic exercise raises the heat beat of a people, a person will take there resting heart rate, this is the heart rate of a person before doing any form of strenuous activity, for 1 minute using a stop watch, to make sure it is accurate. This will be recorded in a table in B.P. M (Beats Per Minute). After their heart rate is recorded, the same person will jog up and down, on a flat surface, for 2 minutes, as jogging has been defined as aerobic exercise.

The 2 minutes will be timed with a stopwatch. After the 2 minutes are up the person will take their heart rate again for another minute. The persons B.P. M will be recorded again, this is there heart rate after aerobic exercise. This process will be repeated a further 2 times, with different people each time, this is to make sure the results are more accurate because the same person may not have recovered to their resting heart rate. To test how much anaerobic exercise raises you heart rate, a person will take their resting heart rate for 1 minute, as in the experiment to show the effects of aerobic exercise. After the 1-minute is up it will be recorded in B.P.M. After the resting heart rate has been taken the same person will begin doing anaerobic exercise for 2 minutes, being timed with a stopwatch.

They will do 30 seconds of push-ups, then 30 seconds of sit-ups, then another 30 seconds of push-ups and finally another 30 seconds of sit-ups, with no break between the sets. Push-ups and sit-ups have been defined as anaerobic exercise. After the exercises are complete the person will record their heart rate again for 1 minute using a stopwatch. Their heart rate after exercise will be recorded.

The test to find out the effects of anaerobic exercise will be repeated another 2 times, with different people each time, to make sure the results are accurate and so that an average can be worked out. Prediction: I believe that aerobic and anaerobic exercise will raise the heartbeat from its resting rate. I also believe that the effects of aerobic exercise will increase the heartbeat on average more than the effects of anaerobic exercise. I believe this because aerobic exercise uses oxygen so the heart will have to pump oxygenated red blood cells to the muscles being used faster than it would during anaerobic exercise, because there is no need to pump blood with cells carrying low levels of oxygen to muscles when it is not needed. Aerobic Exercise: Resting Heart Rate (B.P. M): Heart Rate After Exercise (B.P. M): Anaerobic Exercise: Resting Heart Rate (B.P. M): Heart Rate After Exercise (B.P. M): Person 1 Person 1 Person 2 Person 2 Person 3 Person 3 Conclusion: I found out that aerobic exercise raises your heartbeat more than anaerobic exercise.

The results of this test support my prediction in saying that aerobic exercise does raise your heartbeat more than anaerobic. I know that this is because there is no oxygen being pumped to muscles during anaerobic exercise and that glucose is only partially broken down so the heart must conserve energy so it beats less. This is the reason why anaerobic exercise can only continue for short periods of time. Evaluation: I feel that my experiment went well as I have obtained enough results to come to a conclusion. I think that my result are accurate as I repeated every thing 3 times and have been able to draw up and average resting heart rate, heart rate after aerobic exercise and heart rate after anaerobic exercise. All my results follow a trend that is aerobic exercise has increased the heart rate of a person more than anaerobic exercise has, all 3 times.

Having repeated every thing 3 times and my results following a similar trend I belive makes my results reliable. I don't think I had any anomalous results all though for test 3 of the effects of anaerobic exercise the resting heart rate did not follow the trend of being under 65, this may be because either the person had just taken part in some strenuous activity or there may have been a mistake when taking the hear beat of that person, however anaerobic exercise still caused the heartbeat to rise above 80. To improve my experiment I could have used equipment such as a heartbeat monitor, if it were available, to record a person's heart rate more accurately. Also if a person could have done push-ups for 2 minutes with out having to swap to sit-ups I think this would have made my results more precise. Using a heart beat monitor would also have given me the opportunity to expand my experiment, given me options to work out the speed of which the heart rate increased, because I would have been able to take the heart rate with out having to stop the experiment and allow time for the heart rate to slow down again.