Raise the Rate!
Primary | Health | Views: 754
Did you Know?
- Your heart is always pumping, and it does so at a regular rate. You can feel your heartbeat, or pulse, by gently placing your fingers on
- your wrist or neck. Give it a try…did you feel your pulse?
- Adults hearts beat around 70 times per minute, and a child’s is a little higher.
- A mouse’s heart rate is 500 beats per minute!
Investigation
- When you exercise, your heart rate increases. This is because your muscles are working and they need more oxygen, so your heart beats more to carry more oxygen in your blood.
- To increase your heart rate, you need to exercise!
- First, measure your resting heart rate. Count the number of beats in 1 minute, or if you like, count the number of beats in 30 seconds and
- double it!
- Choose an exercise – running, hopping, jumping, skipping rope – the choice is yours! Do that exercise for five minutes and then take your pulse again.
- Now rest up! Take your pulse after resting for a few minutes and see how it has changed. How long did it take for your heart rate to return to its resting pulse?
- If you like, draw a bar graph that shows the difference between resting before, exercise and after.
See your pulse!
- Find your pulse point on your wrist. Can you feel it?
- Place a piece of Blu-Tac on your wrist and gently push a straw into it, so it stands upright on your wrist.
- Lay your arm flat and look for small movements in the straw – that is caused by the beating of your pulse!
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