Cardiopulmonary Responses To Exercise – Heart Rate And Blood Pressure

Aim

The aim of this experiment was to determine how the heart rate and blood pressure changes in response to two different types of exercise. It has been well established from scholarly studies that exercise is beneficial for improving the cardiovascular health (Nystoriak and Bhatnagar 2018). It has also been found that there is an increase in both of the values of blood pressure and heart rate during the exercise (Oh, Hong and Lee 2016). The parameters also returns to the normal range after finishing the activities. This event suggests a presence of a regulatory activity in the body for controlling the heart rate and the blood pressure. The regulation is important for maintaining the oxygen balance inside the body (Romero, Minson and Halliwill 2017). However, this study is based on the assumption that different types of exercise along with different exercising conditions might affect both the heart rate and blood pressure in different ways. This paper will be discussing different effects of static and dynamic exercises on the cardiovascular system along with comparing the results between each other. The effects of static exercises will be considered for determining the comparative importance between the regulatory mechanisms present and the effect of dynamic exercises will be discussed for comparing the cardiovascular response for arm and leg exercises.

The results can be represented in a tabular format and can be explained via graphical representation.

Part A: Static Exercise

Test 1: Exercise without cuff

Table 1:

Interpretation: Heart rate and blood pressure increased with exercise time.

Table 2:

Interpretation: Heart rate and blood pressure decreased with an increase in the resting time.

Test 2: Exercise with cuffs

Table 3:

Interpretation: Both blood pressure and heart rate increased with exercising time.

Table 4:

Interpretation: There was a significant decrease in the heart rate with increased resting time. However, a significant decrease in the blood pressure with increased resting time was absent.

Table 5:

Interpretation: After deflating the cuff the blood pressure decreased significantly with an increase in the resting time. However, there was no significant decrease in the heart rate.

Table 6:

Interpretation: The complexity of the exercises increased as the time of interval (y-axis) decreased. Thus, both heart rate and blood pressure increased with an increase in the complexity of the exercises.

Table 7:

Interpretation: Exercises using heavy weight are more complex than using medium weight and light weight. Thus, both heart rate and blood pressure increased with an increase in the complexity of the exercises.

Part A: Static Exercise

Exercises cause an increase in both the blood pressure and the heart rate, which are restored during the resting period. The central mechanism for the control of heart rate and blood pressure involves the central nervous system or CNS (Raven and Chapleau 2014). There is also another mechanism for controlling the blood pressure and heart rate, which is known as peripheral vascular resistance system (Raven and Chapleau 2014). Both of these mechanisms assist in regulation of the two parameters inside the body. In this experiment, during the static exercises, the peripheral mechanism for vascular resistance was made impaired by using cuff in test 2. The first experiment was used as a control. The experiment found a normal rise in the blood pressure and heart rate with increased exercise time. Those parameters were also measured during the resting time. It was found that after 3 minutes of exercising without cuffs the heart rate was only 75 bpm and the blood pressure was 135/65 mmHg. The increase in the heart rate was only 10 bpm and the same in the blood pressure was 9/5 mmHg. According to the results the increased values almost restored to normal after resting for 3 minutes post exercise. In this experiment, both central and peripheral mechanisms were responsible for the regulation. However, in test 2, the experiment was carried out using cuffs or making the normal functioning of the peripheral system impaired. In this experiment both the blood pressure and heart rate increased at a faster rate. However, the resting time of 3 minutes was unable to restore the values into normal range, suggesting a slower recovery. Additionally, it was found that when the cuffs were deflated or the peripheral system was enabled, there was a faster recovery. Thus from this experiment, it can be decided that peripheral system for blood pressure and heart rate regulation is as important as the central system during static exercise.

The next experiment was based on the dynamic exercises. The results found that with an increase in the complexity of the exercises, the heart rate and blood pressure also increased. However, the increase was higher in case of dynamic arm exercises compared to the leg exercises. The possible reason for this result might be the choice of exercise. The exercise that was chosen as the leg exercises was step-up exercise. However, for the arms, the weight lifting exercise. Since the results of this experiment already suggests that the increase in blood pressure and heart rate is a result of increase in the complexity of the exercises, it can be deduced that the step up exercise was less complex than the weight lifting exercise. This was the possible reason for the different cardiovascular response in case of two different exercises.

Conclusion:

Hence, it can be decided from the above discussion that there are two principle regulatory system present for regulating the blood pressure and heart rate, which are CNS and peripheral vascular resistance. In this experiment the peripheral system was affected, which resulted in poor regulation of the parameters. The experiment suggested that the peripheral system is equally important as CNS for maintaining an appropriate regulation.

The results of this study also found that there is an increased cardiovascular response with an increase in the complexity of the exercises. There was also a significant difference between the cardiovascular responses for the arm exercises and leg exercises. The values for the step up exercises were lower compared to the arm exercises. The possible explanation for the event is the higher complexity of the arm exercises compared to the leg exercises.

References:

Nystoriak, M.A. and Bhatnagar, A., 2018. Cardiovascular effects and benefits of exercise. Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine, 5, p.135.

Oh, D.J., Hong, H.O. and Lee, B.A., 2016. The effects of strenuous exercises on resting heart rate, blood pressure, and maximal oxygen uptake. Journal of exercise rehabilitation, 12(1), p.42.

Raven, P.B. and Chapleau, M.W., 2014. Blood pressure regulation XI: overview and future research directions. European journal of applied physiology, 114(3), pp.579-586.

Romero, S.A., Minson, C.T. and Halliwill, J.R., 2017. The cardiovascular system after exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 122(4), pp.925-932.

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