Exercise and Cardiovascular Fitness Name
Everywhere you turn, there are ads and articles encouraging us to improve our health and general well being by
getting "fit". But what exactly does this mean? This investigation is about the relationship between exercise and
fitness, suggesting the need to be proactive - looking after our own bodies before someone in the medical field
has to do it for us! What effects do different factors have on our cardio-pulmonary fitness?
Thinking & Investigation (10 Marks)
Pre-lab Questions
1. What relationship exists between pulse rate and your heart beat?(1)
Prediction
2. Predict how quickly the pulse rate will return to the normal rate following exercise for a person in good or
poor physical condition, respectively.(2)
Safety
Do not participate in this activity if you have a known heart condition or a respiratory condition, such as asthma.
Materials
watch with a second hand
handout
Procedure
1. Locate one of your radial arteries. It will be found on the inside of the wrist in line with the thumb, as shown
in the figure.
2. Take your pulse at rest. Do not use your thumb because it also has a pulse. Count the number of beats in a 15
s period and multiply by 4 to obtain the pulse beats per minute. Record your results into table A
3. Now do1 round of the chosen physical activity. You can run up the stairs and back down 3 times as 1 round.
4. Record the new pulse rate as in step 3 into table A
5. Repeat these steps 5 more times and record your results into table A
6. After 1 min of completing the activity, take your pulse again. Continue taking your pulse at 1-min intervals
until the heart returns to the original "at rest" pulse beat. Add lines to table B to record your data, if
necessary.
7. Prepare a graph of your results, plotting pulse rate (beats per minute) against time in minutes after completing
the final set of activity. Be sure to include the data from Table B. Identify your recovery rate.
Observations Record your data in the tables provided. Be sure to provide a title for each table. (3)
Table A___________________ Table B___________________________
Heart Rate Heart Rate
(Beats per min) (Beats per min)
Resting Heart Rate After 1 min
Heart Rate after 1 round After 2 min
Heart Rate after 2 rounds After3 min
Heart Rate after 3 rounds After 4 min
Heart Rate after 4 rounds After 5 min
Heart Rate after 5 rounds After 6 min
After 7 min
After 8 min
After 9 min
After 10 min
Graph your data. Be sure to include a title and labels for each axis. (4)
Knowledge & Understanding (10 Marks)
1. Suggest 3 reasons why the time required for the pulse rate to return to normal would vary between different
individual. (3)
2. a) Predict what effect, if any, smoking would have on a pulse rate. (1)
b) Predict what effect playing a wind instrument or singing would have on a classmates pulse rate. (1)
3. What effect does an individual’s age have on the recovery rate? Explain (2)
4. Mario is stronger than Bill but Bill is more fit.” How can this be? Explain the difference between “strength”
and “fitness”. (3)
Application (8)
1. In general, what conclusions can you draw about the effects of exercise on the human pulse rate? (1)
2. Based on your data, what three factors had the greatest impact on an individual’s recovery rate? (3)
3. What are 4 lifestyle changes that you can make to improve/maintain your cardiovascular health? (4)
Communication (10)
1. What are 4 possible sources of errors that could have influenced the results you obtained? Explain (4)
2. If you were to redesign this experiment, what 3 changes would you make and why? (3)
3. What are three issues with drawing conclusions from this activity? In other words, why would any
conclusions drawn from this lab be considered scientific invalid.(3)
