Cardio/Respiratory/Muscular Activity

How does your body respond to stress? What would your body need more of, or to do faster when responding to physical demands?

You are going to look at the effects of several different exercises on your heart and breathing rates. Of the 5 exercises listed below, predict which one will have the highest impact on your heart and breathing rates. Give a number system from 1 to 5 (one being the lowest or least impact and 5 being the exercise with the most impact).

Push-ups

Bridges

Running (short)

Running (long)

Squeezes (tennis ball)

Directions:

1)Each person will start by taking their resting pulse. (15 seconds/ multiply by 4 to get beats per minute)

2)Record the resting pulse for each person.

3)Each group will get a designated physical activity to do as a group. Complete the activity and immediately record your active pulse. (beats/minute)

4)Check the time as you finish taking your active pulse. Continue to take your pulse every 2 minutes until your pulse returns to normal. Record your data.

Activities:

1)Push-upsDo as many push-ups as you can without stopping. Rest 1 ½ minutes. Do as many push-ups as possible in a 30 second interval. Record your active pulse.

2)BridgeHold a bridge position for a 2 minute time interval. Record your active pulse.

3)Running (short)Jog an easy lap across the quad area (between 100-200 blocks) and back. Rest 30 seconds. Jog across to the 200 block, sprint back to the classroom. Record your active pulse.

4)Running (long)Jog, keeping a steady pace down to the track, around the track and back. Record your active pulse.

5)SqueezesObtain a tennis ball. Using your dominant hand, squeeze the tennis ball as many times as possible for 30 seconds. Record the number of squeezes. Repeat 2 more times (20 seconds off in-between). Record your active pulse at the end.

Name / Resting Pulse / Active Pulse / Time to Recover

Questions:

1)Which exercise produced the greatest increase between resting and active pulse? Why?

2)Which exercise required the longest recovery time? Why? Was it different from #1?

3)Why does your heart need to beat faster when responding to physical stress (2 reasons)? Does it also beat stronger as well?

4)Why do you breath faster when under physical stress (2 reasons)? Why not breath deeper? Why do you breath deeper and slower to recover after exercise?

5)What is the “burning” feeling you feel when stressing a muscle beyond its normal capacity? Why does this occur as your muscle fatigues? How do you get rid of it?

6)Would our results have been different if everyone had done all the exercises? Why would that data be more accurate?

7)Is there a correlation between the breathing faster, heart beating faster, and muscle burning? What can your body do to accommodate for each situation? (training)

  1. Breathing faster
  1. Heart beating faster
  1. Muscle “burning” feeling

8)What blood vessels are responsible for gas exchange between the blood supply and muscles?

  1. What could you do to allow more blood (oxygen) to get to the muscles?

9)What are the cells called that control how fast your heart beats? Since they are not under neural control, how do they know to make the heart beat faster when you are exercising?