Billy Kavalos
SLM
Jona French
Web Drop-In
Introduction –
As we enter our track and field unit and begin to train for the county play days, it is important to understand the difference between resting heart rate and target heart rate, which is also referred to as training heart rate. Our heart rate adapts to changes in our body’s need for oxygen, such as during exercise or sleep. Resting heart rate is used to determine training/ target heart rate. Athletes often determine their heart rates to see whether they are over or under trained. In general, the more fit a person is, the lower their heart rate will be and the less fit that person, then the higher their resting and target heart rates will be.
Information
The following sites will provide you with the information required to complete this assignment. Please review them carefully. Your first step is to visit http://www.fitwatch.com/glossary/activity.html to learn the definitions of target heart rate and resting heart rate. After reading and understanding the definition, select the following link to learn more about measuring your heart rate: http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-489.html.
Assignment
After reading the related information about heart rates at the sites provided, you will make a graph representing your own heart rate and someone else’s heart rate at various levels of physical activity. Heart rate should be measured at rest, after two minutes of walking, after two minutes of jogging, and after two minutes of sprinting. Do this for someone you know as well; try to find someone who is in different shape (better or worse) than you are so that you can see the differences. The graph should be a line graph made on Excel with different colors representing the two different people.
After making your graph, visit http://www.healthchecksystems.com/heart.asp to determine your training heart rate range. Follow the direction provided and click the calculate button at the bottom. You will need to know your resting heart rate, which you measured in the first step, to calculate your training heart rate. This site will give you your maximum and minimum training heart rate, therefore giving you a training heart rate range.
After you have graphed your heart rate, compare the target heart rate range calculation provided by the website above. Using a word processing program, answer the following questions in short essay form.
1) In general, how do the heart rates of the two people compare? Explain why they are alike or different.
2) How does your heart rate after two minutes of physical activity, whether it be walking, jogging, or sprinting, compare to you resting heart rate?
3) Compare your calculated target heart rate to your heart rate after sprinting for two minutes. Are you at your target heart rate?
4) What are some things you can do to lower your heart rate?
5) How drastic is the change in heart rate for each increase in physical activity?
Please bring your short essays to class, along with your graphs. These will be used as a baseline for your heart rate as we progress through our fitness unit. After completing the unit, we will again measure our heart rates. This will give us a good idea of how exercise affects heart rate.
