Design

Activities that speed up heart rate

Question
What activity speeds up the heart rate the most push-ups, burpees or running
in place?

Hypothesis
If we performed an experiment in which we did 3 exercises push-ups,
burpees, and running in place for 30 seconds each, then push-ups would be
lowest heart rate because they require least amount of oxygen running
through your body, and running would have the highest heart rate because it
makes you breathe harder than the other two, meaning it requires more
oxygen.

Variables
Independent
variable

What exercise we are doing

Dependent
variable

The heart rate after the exercise

Controlled
variables

30 sec of exercise, How long the breaks are, exercises both

people are doing in the time, environment the exercises are
being performed in, the people used

Materials
1. Samsung galaxy Stopwatch (for timing exercises)
timing) 3. Pencil and paper

2. IPhone (for break

PROCEDURE

Gather materials

Measure sitting heart rate through pulse touch

Do 30 seconds of push-ups

Measure heart rate when he/she finishes the exercise

Allow subject to rest for 3 minutes

Check BPM; if in |15| range of original than proceed, if not allow another minute
of rest and repeat this step.

Do 30 seconds of burpees

Repeat steps 4-6

Do 30 seconds of running in place

Repeat steps 4-6

Repeat 2-10 X2

Raw Data Table

heart rate)

(+/-3) (bpm = metric units for

Experiment

Push-Ups

Burpees

Running in Place

Sitting

First Peter
Second Peter
First Zach
Second Zach

~90bpm
~126bpm
~144bpm
~162bpm

~180bpm
~180bpm
~180bpm
~186bpm

~186bpm
~180bpm
~186bpm
~204bpm

~60bpm
~60bpm
~88bpm
~88bpm

Qualitative data Table

TEST

push-ups

burpees

running in
place
sweaty, smelly

Peter 1st

nothing

tired, sweating

Peter 2nd

sweat and
shaking

sweating,
smelling

tired, sweaty

Zach 1st

sweat, shaking
and pleading

shaking,
thirsty, sweaty

Tired, shaking

Zach 2nd

shaking, sweat
and pleading

sweaty,
shaking and
thirsty

thirsty, tired

sitting
sitting,
breathing
heavily
sitting,
breathing
heavily
sitting,
breathing
heavily
sitting,
breathing
heavily

Processing & Presentation

Heart Rate
Data Table

Individual
Averages
Push-Ups

Burpees

First Peter
Second Peter
Average Peter
Percent of
Change

90
126
108
80%

First Zach
Second Zach
Average Zach
Percent of
change

144
162
153
74%

Experiment

Experiment

Sitting

180
180
180
200%

Running in
Place
186
180
183
205%

180
186
183
108%

186
204
195
122%

88
88
88
0%

Pushups

Burpees

60
60
60
0%

Running in
place

Sitting

First Peter
Second Peter
First Zach
Second Zach
Average
Percentage

90
126
144
162
131
77%

180
180
180
186
182
146%

186
180
186
204
189
155%

60
60
88
88
74
0%

Conclusion:
Our results showed that our hypothesis was correct. Running in
place affected heart rate more than pushups or burpees. Running in
place had an average of 189 beats per minute while burpees only had
182 and push-ups only had 131. The graphs of Heart Rate vs Activities
show this clearly with both the individual averages and the combined
averages. This shows that the exercise that causes the most
movement of the body increases the heart rate the most. This study
would be very helpful to answer questions regarding exercise for health
and weight loss. If you want to maximize weight loss you would
perform the activities that have the most body movement and heart
rate increase. Among these activities, running in place would be the
best one.
Some limitations included the number of people tested. These
two subjects could have had abnormal heart rates so it would be good
to try more people to average it out. Another limitation was the age of
the subjects. Hearts of younger people are different from those of
older people. Another limitation was gender as we only used males.
The testing of women could tell is if there is a difference between male
and female responses. Another limitation was weight. Heavier or
lighter people may respond differently. The results could be different
depending on these characteristics.
Some things that worked well were that the results were easy to
determine. There was a clear difference between activities. Another
thing that worked well was the efficiency of the project. We were able
to get a substantial amount of results in a short period of time.
Some things that didnt work well were the amount of

experiments done. It would have been better to have done more trials
to get more conclusive data. Another thing we could improve was the
variety of exercises performed. We could have done more activities to
see which activity would be the best. We also had a problem in which
one person did far more activity and it might have been different if we
kept how many push-ups or burpees we did as a constant. The design
of our experiment was well thought out but it could be improved with
the above suggestions.