The Effects of Exercise on Cardiovascular Physiology

The Effects of Exercise on Cardiovascular Physiology

By Kayla Waymyers

Abstract

This paper displays the scientific investigation to determine whether exercise will have an effect on cardiovascular physiology. We tested blood pressure, electrocardiogram readings, and pulse rate as our dependent variables. The form of exercise used was running up and down three flights of steps one complete time. Using a paired median test, we determined if the chi squared value was significant and whether exercise did or did not have an effect of cardiovascular physiology.

Introduction

Exercise makes the heart stronger, by allowing it to pump blood and oxygen quicker and more efficiently throughout the body. Harvey (2009) says that exercise is good for the human body and affects the heart and its functions. Exercise also challenges bodily homeostasis. To begin with, the heart rate should increase after exercise. This is due to the simple fact that the heart has to work harder to pump blood to the body. According to Kosinski (2009), exercise has an effect on all bodily functions that deal with the heart. This is mostly due to the fact that exercise requires the muscles to work. In order for muscles to work they will need more oxygen and the oxygen is circulated through the heart. The body needs increased oxygen supply during exercise which would allow the heart to beat faster than when the body is in a resting state. Kosinski (2009) states that the electrical activity of the heart will decrease, the heart rate and pulse rate will increase and the blood pressure will also increase. As far as blood pressure, the instrument we used was a digital sphygmomanometer, which uses a blood pressure cuff that puts pressure on the veins in the upper arm and then releases the pressure slowly to calculate systolic and diastolic blood pressure. This instrument also measures pulse rate. In our experiment an electrocardiogram was also used. This instrument uses foil electrodes that calculate the electrical activity of the heart.

For this experiment our explanatory hypothesis is that exercise has an effect on cardiovascular physiology. Based upon our research we predict that exercise will have an effect on cardiovascular physiology. The different cardiovascular variables that we tested in the experiment include pulse rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the electrical activity of the heart. Our null hypothesis is that exercise will have no effects on cardiovascular physiology.

Materials and Methods

To conduct this experiment we initially took the blood pressure and pulse rate of each member of our group. We obtained the digital sphygmomanometer with the attached blood pressure cuff to find the systolic and diastolic blood pressures and the pulse rate as they were digitally displayed onto the monitor. Then each member in the group was hooked up to the electrocardiogram machine to record PT and TP intervals and the pulse lag. We used the instructions given in the Cardiovascular Physiology OMP (Kosinski 2011) to place the foil electrodes and the pulse rate transducer clip in the correct areas of the body. After each member of the group was correctly hooked up to the machine we had to measure the PT interval, TP interval, and the pulse lag using the instructions in the Cardiovascular Physiology OMP (Kosinski 2011). All of the results for the before exercise information was recorded in a table. Then one by one each member ran up and down three flights of stairs and immediately following the blood pressure, pulse rate, PT interval, TP interval, and pulse lag were calculated again. This was done for each member of the group and the results were recorded in a table. When the entire class had finished the experiment, we calculated the mean before exercise values for each dependant variable and then calculated the mean after exercise values for each dependant variable. From these results the chi squared and p value was calculated and all the results were recorded into a table. We used the paired median test on pg. 7 of Kosinski (2011) to determine the chi squared values and p values.

Results

Table 1 showing the before and after