Name: Isha Henry

Experiment: # 15
Date: January 8, 2015
TITLE: BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART RATE.
Aim: To investigate the blood pressure and heart rate on two (2) subjects.
Theory: The pressure of the blood that pushes out on the walls pf the blood vessels is called blood pressure.
Generally the blood pressure in a humans aorta is around 120mmHg or 16kPa. A sphygmomanometer is used
to measure blood pressure which measures the pressure in a large artery close to the elbow joint. The unit
mmHg means millimeters of mercury and refers to the distance which mercury is pushed up the arm of a Utube when a sphygmomanometer is used. Measuring a persons blood pressure is a part of checking their health
thus is important. Both systolic and diastolic pressure is measured. The systolic pressure is the larger value and
it is produce as a result of the contraction of the left ventricle of the heart while diastolic pressure is the lowest
pressure produce from the relaxation of the ventricle muscles in the heart. Diastolic pressure reveals most about
the condition of the circulatory system.
The arteries are responsible for transporting blood to the body, and each time the ventricle contracts about 70mL
of blood is force into the arteries. When the ventricles contract and blood is forced into the arteries there is an
increase in blood pressure in the arterial system. After blood enters the capillaries this pressure falls and only
rises after another contraction of the ventricles. . Ideally, blood pressure should be less than 120/80 mm Hg.
However, the American Heart Association does not consider blood pressure to be "high" until the systolic
number exceeds 140 or the diastolic number exceeds 90.
The surges in the arterial pressure is called pulse, each pulse corresponds to one heartbeat.
Exercising increases the heart rate though the extent to which it depends on how fit an individual is. The
stronger the heart the more efficiently it pumps blood; therefore a weak heart does not pump blood efficiently.

The heart performance is a measure of a persons fitness; the pulse rate of a persons fitness will not increase as
much with exercise as will that of a physically unfit person.
Blood pressure and heart rate is affected by the activity of a body.
Heart performance score
200-250
250-300
300-325
325-350
350-375
375-400
400-450
450-500

General Fitness Level

Endurance athlete
Athletic
Very good
Good
Fairly good
Fair
Poor
Very poor

Apparatus and Material: sphygmomanometer, subject 1, subject 2, rope

Procedure:
Part A
1. For all pulse rate measurements, radial pulse was measured for two times for 20s, values were then
average and multiplied by three (3) to get the rate in beats per minute. Radical pulse rate was taken in
both wrist and while quietly sitting down after a period of inactivity.
Part B
1. The heart performance score of both subjects was calculated by adding together four (4) pulse rates
(taken lying down, standing, after 60s of exercise, after 60s of rest after exercise) plus the difference
between lying down and standing pulse rates. The general fitness level was then check by looking at the
table shown in theory.
Part C
1. The Blood pressure and pulse of two subjects were measure and recorded while they were sitting down,
racial pulse was taken twice for 20s (in both wrist), both readings were averaged and then was
multiplied by three (3) which gave the pulse rate in beats per minute.
2. Subject 1 was allowed to participate in 10minutes of mild walking from the 6th form block, around the
devotional area and back to the sixth form block.

3. Subject 2 was allowed to participate in a vigorous jump exercise for ten minutes. Immediately after
exercise blood pressure and pulse readings were taken and also every five minutes up to thirty minutes
after completion of the exercise.
4. Readings of blood pressure and pulse were taken using a digital blood pressure cuff immediately after
exercise activity and five minutes intervals up to thirty minutes after the completion of the exercise.
5. Reading were recorded in two tables; one for each subject, with headings time(minutes),pulse
rate(beats/minute) and blood pressure9 systolic and diastolic readings), starting with time 0 minutes
6. .A graph was them plotted to show how pulse changes with time, using one pair of axes.
Part A-PULSE RATE
Subject
1
2

Radial Pulse Rate

28
24

Beats per minute

84
72

TABLE 15.1: SHOWING RESULTS OF PULSE RATE OBTAIN FROM SUBJECT

Part B-Heart rate

Heart Rate while:
Lying down
Standing
After 60 seconds exercise
After 60 seconds of rest after

Subject 1

Subject 2

90
105
111
102

60
84
86
76

exercise
TOTALS
408
306
Heart performance rate
423
330
TABLE 15.2: SHOWING RESULTS OF HEART RATE OBTAIN FROM SUBJECTS

Subject 1:

Subject 2:

1. Sitting Pulse Rate: 96

1. Sitting Pulse Rate:69
2. Standing Pulse Rate: 105
2. Standing Pulse Rate: 76
3.
Part C: Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Subject 1
Pulse Rate before Exercise: 75
Blood Pressure before exercise: 120/70
Time (min)

Pulse ( beats)

Blood pressure
Systolic Reading
Diastolic Readings

0 (immediately after

89

125

93

exercise)
5 Time (min)
85
105
74Time (min)
Pulse
Blood Pressure
10
82
103
68
15
81
103
70
(beats)
20
81
86
58
Systolic
Reading
Diastolic
Reading
25
77
96
73 81
0 (immediately after exercise)
114
129
30
76
101
58
5
89
111
60
10
84
106
71
15
82
110
73
20
76
115
76
25
72
112
71
30
67
108
68
TABLE 15.3: SHOWING RESULTS OBTAIN BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART RATE FOR SUBJECT 1

Part C: Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Subject 2

Pulse Rate before Exercise: 65
Blood Pressure before exercise: 110/70

TABLE 15.4: SHOWING RESULTS OBTAIN BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART RATE FOR SUBJECT 2
Discussion:
Heart rate is an indicator of metabolic needs of the muscles during exercise. Heart rate is easy to measure and
changes directly with the metabolic requirements of the muscle. In Part A, the pulse rate was tested. It was the
typical resting heart rate since it was taken while sitting quietly after a period of inactivity. This pulse reading
indicates the cardiovascular fitness. Pulse reading is very important as it tells the condition the heart is in as it
reflexes the heart pumping speed. Subject 1 has a cardiovascular fitness of 84 beats per minute while subject 2
has a cardiovascular fitness of 72 beats per minute. The heart performance score of an individual is very
important as it tells how healthy an individual is and also how strong the heart is. Regular aerobic exercise
training leads to both a bigger and stronger heart. As an individual perform regular aerobic exercise over months
and years, the chambers of your heart can expand better, allowing them to fill with more blood. The walls of

your heart become slightly thicker, making your heart a more powerful pump. Your heart also becomes more
efficient at pumping blood. Therefore, each time your heart contracts, more blood are pumped to your muscles.
At any given exercise intensity level the heart can supply the required oxygen at a slower heart rate. Subject 2
has a lower heart performance rate than subject one and to key in the theory subject 2 has a rating of good and
subject 1 has a rating of poor. In part B when looking at heart rate: After 60 seconds of exercise subject one had
a greater increase in heart rate than subject 2; subject 1 moved from 105beats per minute to111 beats per minute
and subject 2 moved from 84beats per minute to 86 beats per minute. This can be accounted by the fact that
subject does regularly exercises thus the heart is stronger and more efficient. An efficient heart is more able to
pump greater amounts of blood with less effort. As a result, the heart does not need to beat as quickly to deliver
blood to the body thus a smaller pulse rate. Since the heart is pumping slower, it is also placing less stress and
pressure on the arteries thus a smaller blood pressure. Regular exercise gives a decrease in resting pulse and
blood pressure. In Part C when look at heart rate and blood pressure: There was an increase in pulse rate before
exercise for both subjects, that is subject 1 moved from 72beats per minute to 75 beats per minute and subject 2
moved from 63 beats per minute to 65 beats per minute. The increase in heart rate can be accounted for by the
fact that the brain sends impulses to muscles along the sympathetic nerves to the heart resulting in an increase in
heart rate before exercise; volumes of blood due to exercise returns to the heart thus preparing the heart to cope
with the increase blood coming to it. Heart rates for each subject increase drastically after exercise because the
muscles consume more energy and produce more waste products during exercise. To make additional energy the
muscles require oxygen pumped from your heart. The amount of oxygen needed and the amount supplied are
tightly controlled by your brain, which senses the concentration of waste products in the blood. The harder the
muscles work, the more waste products are produced, and the more the brain increases heart rate. The blood
pressure also increases for as the rate of blood flow inside the arteries increases, the internal pressure also
increases. As a result, the blood pressure also rises during exercise. Subject1 did a mild walking and blood
pressure and heart rate increase to a noticeable extent from 75 beats per minute to 77 beats per minute and
120/70 mmHg to 125/93 mmHg. While subject 2 who did a vigorous jump rope exercise blood pressure and
heart rate increase to a significant extent from 65 beats per minute to 114 beats per minute and 110/70 mmHg to

129/81 mmHg. This is because in vigorous exercise the muscles require more energy therefore more oxygen is
needed and as a result the heart rate increases greatly, in the mild exercise such as walking the muscles do not
need that great amount of energy therefore pulse rate does not increases as excessively. Both subjects heart rate
and pulse rate decrease gradually after exercise this is because after exercise the muscles demand less oxygen
but the brain continues to supply extra oxygen to help with the recovery process. Some aspects of recovery, like
lactic acid removal, happen within minutes, but others, such as repair of muscle proteins, can take hours to
complete. This process makes the heart rate remain high for minutes or even hours after exercise, supplying
extra oxygen to help with recovery. Posture affects heart rate, a standing position will produce the highest heart
rate while a lying position will produce the smallest thus results attain in this study was expected when subject 1
had a heart rate of 90 beats per minutes when lying down, 96 beats per minute when sitting down and 105 beats
per minute when standing up while subject 2 had 60 beats per minute when lying down, 69 beats per minute
when sitting down and 76 beats per minute when standing up. The effect of posture on heart rate is based on
gravity; gravity thus affects heart rate as it makes lying down heart rate lower than standing up heart rate
because while lying down it is easier for the heart to pump blood through the body as gravity does not flow
against blood flow above the heart that is the effect of gravity is reduced, allowing more blood to flow back to
the heart through the veins. Because more blood returns to the heart, the heart is able to pump more blood per
minute which means that less beats per minute are required to fulfill the bodys request for blood and oxygen.
As the graph depicts this truly as subject 2 heart rate gradually decreases from 114 beats per minute to 67 beats
per minute, subject 2 took approximately 30 minutes to return to normal since the reading standing pulse Rate
before exercise was 65 beats per minute while subject 1 shown in graph heart rate decrease from 89beats per
minute to 76 beats per minute slowly over the 30 minutes.
Precautions:
1. Take repeated readings and average them for the final reading.
2.
Limitations:

1. Heart rate is affected by many other factors such as dehydration and in the study only posture and
exercise is being observe therefore the extent of the effect of other factors are not know.
2. Subject performance after exercise depend on health status

Source of Errors:
1. Parallax error with the use of the sphygmomanometer.
2. Systematic error in experimenters reaction time to stop watch at 20 seconds.

Conclusion: Heart rate and blood pressure are affected by posture and the activity the body is preforming. Heart
rate and blood pressure are at the lowest when the body is lying down and at the highest when the body is
standing up. Heart rate and blood pressure of a body will increase during exercise but the extend of increase
depends on the type of exercise; a bodys Heart rate and blood pressure will increase more during vigorous
exercise than in mild exercise this is because the body needs more energy during vigorous exercise than in mild
exercise therefore more oxygen is needed and blood is pump faster. References for Lab #15

1. Fosbery,R.,Laplace,S.,&McPherson,L.(2012)CAPE Biologhy:A Caribbean

Examination Council Study Guide, Unit 2.United Kingdom.Nelson Thornes Ltd
2. BBC-GCSE Bitesize.(2011).heart rate and body position.Retrieved from
http://www.livestrong.com/article/268891-heart-rate-body-positions/
3. Cooper, E.L.1997.Biotechnology Information: The cardiovascular system and exercise. The New York
times