Names ______Period___
Blood Pressure, Heart Rate Lab
Objectives: Observe how your heart rate and blood pressure reacts to exercise.
Blood pressure is a measure of two pressures, systolic and diastolic. Systolic pressure is the top number and is the pressure exerted on the blood vessel walls when the heart beats. Diastolic pressure is the pressure that is exerted on the blood vessel walls, and is measured between the heart beats. Diastolic pressure is the bottom number of the blood pressure reading.
Equipment:
Lab sheet, Pencil/Pen, Stopwatch, Stethoscope, Blood Pressure Cuff
Procedure:
1. After resting (no talking/moving) for 5 minutes take and record your resting heart rate.
2. Take and record your resting blood pressure ( make sure your legs are uncrossed).
Blood Pressure:
v Put the cuff on with the right arm in a straight relaxed position, with forearm resting on the desk.
v Find the pulse with the stethoscope on the inside of the elbow.
v Close the valve next to the bulb and pump up the cuff until you cannot hear the pulse (between 170-200 mmHg).
v Open the valve slightly and allow the cuff to deflate slowly.
v While the cuff is slowly deflating listen for the pulse. When you first hear the pulse, make a mental note of what number is registered on the gauge. This is the systolic pressure.
v Continue to listen to the pulse until the beat fades (the last time the needle ticks). Note this pressure on the gauge. This is the diastolic pressure.
v Open the valve and release the rest of the air from the cuff and then take off the cuff.
3. List your heart rate on the Excel sheet and record the class average.
4. Now, have one partner complete as many jumping jacks as possible in 2 minutes, do not take any breaks.
5. At the end of 2 minutes one partner will take their own pulse and the other will time out 15 seconds. Multiple the amount by 4 to get your beats per minute.
6. Return to your seat and remain calm, we will take pulse rates as the body recovers. Record these rates in your data table.
7. After taking the recovering heart rate, you will need to do the jumping jacks again for 2 minutes. Have a member of your group ready to take your blood pressure directly after the bout of exercise.
8. Record your “after exercise” blood pressure in your data table.
9. Repeat these steps for the next partner.
Data Hypothesis:
Table:
Time / Partner A: Heart Rate (bpm) / Partner B: Heart Rate (bpm) / Class Avg: Heart Rate (bpm)Resting Rate
Heart Rate After Exercise: 0 minutes
1 minute
2 minutes
3 minutes
4 minutes
5 minutes
6 minutes
7 minutes
8 minutes
Partner A: Resting Blood Pressure / Partner B: Resting Blood Pressure / Class Avg: Resting Blood Pressure
Partner A: “After Exercise” Blood Pressure / Partner B: “After Exercise” Blood Pressure / Class Avg: “After Exercise” Blood Pressure
Questions: Support your answers with physiological evidence and use complete sentences where possible.
1. What changes did you observe in your heart rate after exercising? What caused these changes?
2. From your data, what can you infer about exercise and respiration? (How are they related, interdependent?)
3. What do the changes in heart rate and respiration indicate about how the human body accommodates exercise? (Describe the physiological changes.)
4. What else, besides exercise, might speed up your heart rate? Give two examples.
5. What factors do you think affect recovery time? How?
6. How would an Olympic athlete’s data (under the same conditions) vary from yours? Why?
7. What did you encounter any issues/problems during your experimentation that may have affected the accuracy of your data? Explain your reasoning.
8. What are some factors that could affect your data? Why would they?
9. Pick a different exercise now, something slightly strenuous, and have one partner do it. Check your pulse and blood pressure after 2 minutes of the exercise. Is it different results than the jumping jacks? Why or why not?
Create 2 bar graphs; one comparing your resting/exercise heart rates to the class averages and one graph comparing your resting/exercise blood pressures to the class averages.