Exercise Pulse Rate

Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that the running would give me more beats in my pulse rate than the jumping jacks and dribbling.

Procedure

    1. Do jumping jacks for 60 seconds

    2. Check and record pulse rate from neck

    3. Wait until pulse rate goes back down to beginning resting heart rate

    4. Run for 60 seconds and record pulse rate

    5. Wait until pulse rate goes back down to beginning resting heart rate

    6. Dribble a basketball for 60 seconds and record pulse rate

    7. Complete steps 1-7 with four other people

    8. Find the average pulse rate for each exercise.

    9. Show results in a bar graph.

Problem

For my science fair project I chose to find out what Which exercises raise your pulse rate the most.

Abstract

Which Exercise Raises a Person’s Pulse Rate The Most?

Have you ever thought about which exercise would raise your pulse rate the most? It’s an important question to consider because the more your heart beats during exercise, the healthier you’ll be. The question my project sought to answer is which exercise would elevate your pulse rate the most: running, jumping jacks or dribbling a basketball for 60 seconds. I chose this project because I wanted to know which exercise would make a person sweat the most. I hypothesized that running would raise a person’s heart rate more than the jumping jacks and dribbling because running uses more leg muscles.

I tested three different 8th grade boys and myself. The first exercise I tested was jumping jacks. Each subject did jumping jacks for 60 seconds and I immediately took their pulse on their wrists and recorded the results. On another day, I tested running with the subjects. Each person ran for 60 seconds and I recorded the pulse rates. On the third day of testing, I tested dribbling a basketball. Each boy dribbled for 60 seconds and I recorded the pulse rates for each. After I recorded all my data, I found the average pulse rate of each exercise.

The average pulse rate for jumping jacks is 1.5 per second. The average pulse rate for running is 1.73 per second. The average pulse rate for dribbling a basketball is 1.13 per second. According to my calculations, running raised the heart rates the most by .23 beats per second.

In conclusion, my data proved my hypothesis correct. Running did give my subjects the most beats per second. I learned that while running increased the pulse rates the most, the other two exercises had close pulse rates. Based on my data, I would suggest that if a person wants a cardio exercise to increase their pulse rate, they should run. I could have improved my experiment by testing more people and collecting more data.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my data proved my hypothesis correct. Running did give my subjects the most beats per second. I learned that while running increased the pulse rates the most, the other two exercises had close pulse rates. Based on my data, I would suggest that if a person wants a cardio exercise to increase their pulse rate, they should run. I could have improved my experiment by testing more people and collecting more data.

Data Table