Relation of Pulse Rate With Weight in Excercise

Relation of Pulse Rate With Weight in Excercise

Setting The Scene.

Two people climbed a hill and when they got to the top one of them

said he was out of breath, and his heart was beating really fast.

The other one said it was because he was overweight.

Investigate the theory that when you exercise the more weight you

carry the more your pulse rate will increase.

Prediction.

I predict the harder someone exercises, the higher his or her

heart/pulse rate would be. The blood has to be pumped round the body

quicker by the heart. There are several reasons why this happens.

Before and during the early stages of exercise the sympathetic nervous

system is alerted and adrenaline is secreted in to the bloodstream.

Triggered by impulses from the brain before exercise, the heart beats

faster and general constriction of the arterioles except for those

serving vital organs so that the blood under high pressure is diverted

to the active muscles.

The metabolic rate increases. This is caused by the shortage of ATP.

The increased metabolic rate results in carbon dioxide building up in

muscle tissue. If the level of carbon dioxide builds up then this is

monitored by chemoreceptors. This makes adjustments in the ventilation

rate because you need more oxygen to replace the carbon dioxide. The

heart rate increases to carry the waste away and replace it with

oxygen quicker.

Rapid movement of limbs stimulates receptors in the skeletal muscles

and tendons. These transmit impulses to the heart, leading to a

further increase in the heart rate.

Diagram.

Method.

Note: You can either use a staircase or a block step to do the

step-ups depending on which you can get hold of.

1. Find your pulse (wrist or neck most common places) and measure it

for 1 minute. Record this on some paper.

2. Get your stopwatch and time yourself doing the step-ups for 1

minute with no weight.

3. Record the result and keep it in a safe place.