Unit 2- Lab Project- Exercise Physiology

The purpose of this project was to measure our body's metabolic rates, (pulse, respiration rate and blood pressure) at rest and after an activity to see the changes an activity can make on our metabolic parameters. I chose for my three activities to ride a bike, toss a football around and to do ten jumping jacks. My hypothesis is that at rest my metabolic rates will be within the normal range but once I'm done with an activity they will all be higher, especially after the bike ride and jumping jacks.


These are the materials I used.. my nephew's bike and football, grandpa's blood pressure taking apparatus and my sister's watch..



Taking my blood pressure, pulse and respirations at rest.. My hypothesis is that my metabolic rates will be within normal range here..

Activity #1: riding the bike, which is so much harder when out of shape!!! My hypothesis for this activity is that my metabolic rates will be much higher.
Activity #2: tossing the football around the yard... I think that for this activity my metabolic rates will rise some but not as much as the bike ride or jumping jacks.
Activity #3: the jumping jacks, which thankfully did get easier!! I think here my metabolic rates will rise the way they did after my bike ride.
*********************Metabolic Rate Data Table***************
(A little hard to see I know, I couldn't get this copied to my blog so I had to take a picture of the computer screen and upload it that way..)

Bar graphs of the means showing the measurement changes for each activity are below: As the bar graphs show my hypothesis was partly correct, at rest I was in normal limits and with the bike ride and jumping jacks my were the activities with the higher metabolic measurements, but with activity #2, tossing the football around my measurements didn't really rise that much not the way I anticipated. Overall definatley the bike ride had a greater impact on my metabolic measurements.

I believe the only problem with my data and my hypothesis is that I thought tossing the football around would take more out of me and cause my metabolic rates to be higher, guess I'm a tiny bit more in shape than I thought! HA!

Whenever we are active or just resting no matter what it is, it is having an effect on both our circulatory and respiratory systems. It is definatley interesting to see what kind of effect or how much on one an activity or exercise can have on our metabolic rates. This assignment has helped me to want to work at getting in shape and exercise regularly.