SPORTS: EFFECTS OF EXERCISE ON HEART RATE

Investigation into the effect of exercise on heart rate Abstract Regular physical exercise is considered to be an important factor in reducing the chances of developing cardiovascular and any othe r dangers of Morbi-mortality. With regular exercises it is feared that the heart might go through resting heart rate which is recipe for most of the heart diseases the people develop with age. Heart rate is affected directly by activity of the autonomic nervous system and this happens through the sympathetic and parasympathetic through the different activities over the sinus node (Karvonen & Vuorimaa, 1988). For the process to take place, there is always a predominance of the vagal activity at rest, which is activated once someone begins to exercise. The behavior displayed by the human heart has been observed during different conditions when one is under an exercise. The process uses a reduction of the cardiac vagal tone and a diminished heart rate variability as measurement tools to calculate chronic degenerative diseases, autonomic dysfunction and increased mortality risk in an individual. For people that exercise on the regular, they are reported to have a lower resting heart rate while those that rarely exercise have a higher resting heart rate. Regular exercise is also reported to cause a larger parasympathetic activity as well as a smaller sympathetic activity. Key words: Heart Rate, Exercise, resting heart rate Introduction As human beings, there are many things that we should incorporate in our lives to lead a healthy lifestyle as well as increasing life expectancy. Exercising is one the practices that reduce morbidity as well as mortality rates that are associated with cardiovascular and all other heart conditions. According to (Borresen & Lambert, 2008), people are encouraged to incorporate exercises in their everyday routine with the recommendation being to start from moderate exercises to strenuous activities according to one’s physical strength for a period of thirty minutes or more. Reports have shown that people that are people that engage in intense and strenuous activity have reported to have a higher life expectancy as compared to the ones that were involved in moderate exercises. Therefore, because physical exercises result of acute and chronic effects on the body, many researchers have been able to conduct research on this issue. The heart rate behavior has been studied trough many scientific researches and this has been facilitated by the possibility of measuring the heart rate. It has been found that the heart rate is mainly controlled by direct activity of the autonomous nervous system, through conditions that take place in the sinus node. The process is also facilitated through the vagal activity which gets inhibited once someone starts to exercise and as one intensifies their exercises, the sympathetic comes into play. When one is on an exercise, there are different that take place in the human body to make adjustments on the heart rates at different moments of body movement. The systolic mechanism facilitates the calculation of the increase in the heart rate at the first four seconds when one starts to exercise. The study is conducted through observation of the systolic volume that increases due to an increase in cardiac output. During an exercise, the maximal heart rate rarely changes, whereas, when someone is taking a rest, the values increase slightly and this is usually during a submaximal exercise (Yamamoto, et al., 1991). it has been found out that the mechanism is often associated with an increase of venous return and myocardial contractility. Through this process some of the determining factors might include, a maximum uptake of oxygen, gender, and age of the person taking the exercise. These factors are also the determinants of aerobic condition of an individual which then determines the mortality risk of an individual. With a high aerobic condition, the lower the mortality risk. Sympathetic-vagal balance changes are caused by adjustments in the heart rate behavior from exercises and in the same way they influence the intrinsic adaptations, such as improvement in the atrioventricular conduction system. Through these studies it has been proven that doing mere physical exercises might not guarantee decrease in mortality risk from a heart related condition. Therefore, heavy training is the main remedy in adjusting autonomic functions and aerobic conditions of an individual. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out the effects of exercise. To facilitate the research, the study will focus autonomic nervous system to control resting human rate and the effect of pharmacological block. Methods Risk assessment The study is conducted through systematic reviews and analysis from previous studies conducted on the research. The research can either be conducted from home or from a scientific laboratory. When conducting the research from home, some of the risk that should be considered include; the individual taking the exercise, how intense they can go with an exercise, the age of the individual and their general health conditions. When conducting the exercise at the lab it is important to consider is all the equipment that is used in the process is correctly working so as collect accurate data. Before conducting the research on an individual, it is important for them to be informed that the process is taking place. If the process is being conducted at home, researchers should be able to determine if the research will cause inconvenience to the household and if so, how they can deal with the issue. All participants should also sign consent form, allowing the researcher to conduct research on them. They should also be informed of risk of the research. Method. The research was conducted through one male participant aged 21 years of age through and heart rate calculation recommended by medical experts were used. First the heart rate of the individual was recorded while sitting and having a conversation. The participant was then instructed to sit without talking to record resting pulse rate. After this activity heart rate was recorded and the participant was instructed to climb up and down through a staircase for three minutes and the rate was recorded. After this, another rate was taken after very minute of rest for 4 minutes. The participant then participated in 3 different physical exercises, cycling the stationary bike at moderate level for 10 minutes, did the elliptical at high level for 5 minutes, did a treadmill walk at low level for 5 minutes. The results from the activities were aimed at calculating the target heart rate. The heart rates were recorded using a heart rate monitor. For this exercise the monitor run for the all period the participant was taking the exercise. Activity Duration Level of intensity Treadmill: Walking 5 Low Elliptical machine 5 High Stationary Bike 10 Moderate Results and calculations At the beginning of the experiment, it was found that; Sitting Pulse Rate (after resting for 1 minute) = 93 bpm Resting Pulse Rate (sit without talking for 3 minutes of rest) = 68 bpm After climbing the stairs for three minutes, it was found that the heart rate was; Activity Heart Rate= 151 bpm Pulse rates results from each minute of rest was recorded as; • Pulse after 1 minute= 103 bpm • Pulse after 2 minutes= 112 bpm • Pulse after 3 minutes= 91 bpm • Pulse after 4 minutes= 97 bpm For the heart to recover from the exercise, it took three minutes. Previously the resting heart rate was recorded at 68 bpm Target heart rate is generally expressed as a percentage of the maximum safe heart rate. The maximum heart rate is calculated as 220- current age. The Maximum Heart rate therefore is 220-21 =199 bpm Heart rate reserve = maximum heart rate-resting heart rate. =199-66 =133 bpm Using Heart Rate Reserve, we can then calculate training heart rate of the participant. (Heart Rate Reserve*.85) + Resting Heart Rate = Upper end of the training zone = (133*0.85) + 66=179.05 (Heart Rate Reserve *.50) + Resting Heart Rate = Lower end of the training zone = (133*0.5) + 66 = 132.5 Therefore, target heart rate is 46.55 bpm Discussion When the body is in motion the heart rate monitor records higher pulse rates unlike when the body is stationary. The recorded heart rates in all experiments therefore show that exercises have effects on the heart rate. In the results there was a discrepancy of +1, -1 because it took extra time to stop the monitor in some exercises. If the experiment was conducted at home, it would be hard to count the pulse rate due the absence of the heart rate monitor and the results would have errors. At home it would have been hard to access the elliptical machine and the stationary. The researcher would be forced to find other exercises that have the same result which is hard. Conclusion From the research it is evident that the heart rate is high after an exercise and low when the body is stationary. The muscles of the heart become stronger with exercise and this is because of the blood circulation. With exercise, the heart becomes stronger and this is why people that are involved in intense workout over a period of time report to have lower mortality rate and less likely to experience cardiovascular conditions (Sandercock, 2005). Exercise has the benefit of making the heart have a decreased resting heart rate, because increased heart rate over a long period of time rises the target heart rate. It also creates an improved ability to draw in deeper breaths, reduced resting blood pressure, increased calories burned to aid weight loss and reduced risk of heart disease, and seen from the results, the upper end of the training zone of an individual has a higher rate. Work Cited Borresen, J. and Lambert, M.I., 2008. Autonomic control of heart rate during and after exercise. Sports medicine, 38(8), pp.633-646. Karvonen, J. and Vuorimaa, T., 1988. Heart rate and exercise intensity during sports activities. Sports medicine, 5(5), pp.303-311. Sandercock, G.R., Bromley, P.D. and Brodie, D.A., 2005. Effects of exercise on heart rate variability: inferences from meta-analysis. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 37(3), pp.433-439. Yamamoto, Y., Hughson, R.L. and Peterson, J.C., 1991. Autonomic control of heart rate during exercise studied by heart rate variability spectral analysis. Journal of applied physiology, 71(3), pp.. Appendix Images 1- Heart rate Monitor Used to measure heart rate. image 2 Elliptical machine- used in the exercise activity 2 image 3 Treadmill- used in the exercise activity 1 image 4 Stationary bike- used in the exercise activity 3 Activity Actual heart rate range Duration Fitness zone Treadmill: Walking 147 5 Zone 1 Elliptical machine 167 5 Zone 3 Stationary Bike 133 10 Zone 2 Table 2 The activity rate of the heart from table 1 Show Less