Erins CV Lab Report

Erin Canning
BIO 202 CV Lab Report

4/4/15
The Impact of Exercise on Cardiac Output
INTRODUCTION
It is generally known that when an individual exercises their
heart rate will increase. This is due to the fact that exercising requires
in increased amount of ATP to fuel the muscle movements. We receive
ATP via aerobic respiration so there must be plenty of oxygen being
brought to the muscles. In order to do this the heart will pump blood at
a faster rate as oxygen is brought from the lungs to the muscles via
hemoglobin in red blood cells. (Saladin, p. 685) Another important type
of information we know about the amount of blood moving in our
bodies is called stroke volume. Stroke volume is defined as the volume
of blood that is pumped from our left ventricle each time it contracts.
(Saladin, p. 737) When we take the heart rate times the stroke volume
we end up finding the cardiac output. Cardiac output is defined as the
amount of blood ejected from the heart in one minute. (Saladin, p.
740)
It is also known that as a person exercises the heart will have a
larger cardiac output. This is due to the fact that the heart rate
typically increases with more movement. However overtime the heart
muscle undergoes hypertrophy and as the muscle grows the stroke
volume is also able to increase. (Saladin, p. 743) Overall a person
needs the same level of cardiac output so if the stroke volume has
increased the heart rate can slow down. This is the information that I
was interested in examining with the data from our class. In this
experiment we assumed that the stroke volume for each person was
70 ml/ beat. Even though the stroke volume would increase in
exercisers we kept this variable stable and our data would not take
that into consideration.
Based on the knowledge of the components of cardiac output
and impact exercise has in the long run I believe that if the person is a
regular exerciser the lower their resting heart rate would be. If we keep
the stroke volume consistent for each person then the overall cardiac
output would be lower in those who exercised more regularly. This
would be important information to know as it could help people to
understand why certain people might have lower heart rates. It is
important to not jump to the conclusion that there is something wrong
with the heart. For example if this hypothesis is supported it could help
provide an explanation for doctors as to why a patient might have a
lower heart rate and they dont jump to the conclusion that it is a
serious medical condition such as a person being in nodal rhythm.
Nodal rhythm occurs when the AV node has taken over as the
pacemaker of the heart from the SA node and causes the heart rate to
drop to around 40-50 beats per minute. If this hypothesis were correct I
would expect that those students who reported that their exercise was
more frequent would have also reported lower cardiac outputs at rest
in our data spread sheet.
FORMULAS AND ASSUMTIONS
Cardiac Output (ml/min) = stroke volume (ml/beat) X heart rate
(beats/minute)
Stroke volume =70 ml per beat
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Stopwatch
Calculator
Data Collection:
1) We asked each student to report their level of activity on a scale
of 1-5 with 1 representing never and 5 representing daily
2) Next we asked for each student to calculate their resting pulse
by counting their heart beats for 15 seconds and multiplying that
number by 4 to get the number of beats per minute
3) For this experiment we had six students who reported never
exercising and 23 who reported exercising daily. These created
our sample sizes for the data.
Evaluating the Data:
For this experiment the independent variable would be the level of
activity. This is the type of data we placed on the x-axis of the chart.
The dependent was the cardiac output as it was the one I assumed
would change based on what the independent variable was reported to
be. We placed the cardiac output on the y-axis of the chart.
For this experiment we chose to focus on the information reported for
those who either reported never exercising or exercised daily. These
two groups were chosen based on the fact that there would likely be
the largest differences as there was the largest differences in their
behaviors.
DATA AND CALCULATIONS:
Frequency of Exercise
5
5
5
5
Resting Cardiac Output

6253
5110
4270
4200
5
5131
5
4270
5
4760
5
4200
5
4760
5
4620
5
4060
5
3640
5
4410
5
4480
5
4550
5
4200
5
5250
5
4480
5
4200
5
5320
5
3920
Average cardiac output for those who exercise on a daily basis = sum
of all cardiac outputs / # of exercisers
Avg cardiac output of daily exercisers = 104204/23 = 4530.6
Frequency of Exercise
1
1
1
1
1
1
Resting Cardiac Output

3640
4200
5880
4760
3920
5530
Avg cardiac output of those who never exercise = 27930/6 = 4655

Difference between daily exercisers and those who never exercise =
4655-4530.6 = 124.4
Frequency of exercise
1
5
Average
Resting
Cardiac Output
4655
4530.6
Average Cardiac Output

4700
4650
Average Cardiac
Output
4600
4550
4500
4450
Never Exercise
Daily Exerciser
DISCUSSION AND RESULTS

For this set of data the resting cardiac output for those who
exercised daily was slightly lower than that of those who reported
never exercising. However, the difference is not very substantial. In
fact there is less than an three percent difference in the cardiac
outputs. Based on this information we cannot say that the data
gathered in this experiment statistically supports the hypothesis that
those who exercise on a more frequent basis have lower cardiac
outputs than those who do not. Had the average resting cardiac output
of those who exercised daily been lower than those who never
exercised we could say that they data supported our hypothesis.
Although the hypothesis isnt statistically supported by this data
set I believe there are multiple margins of error that could have
impacted the results. One of the biggest factors is that the information
on exercise level was self reported and on a scale of 1-5, therefore
subjective. We tried to limit this variation by choosing the etreme ends
as never or daily are more specifically defined, but we cant be sure
that everyone reported that information completely accurately. Along
the same lines exercise wasnt specifically defined so there could also
be variations in what the students considered to be daily exercise.
The duration and intensity of exercise could be different for each
person. We also dont know the length of time that they have been
following their exercise program. Any of these factors could impact the
cardiac output. For example, if someone had only recently begun daily
exercise his or her muscles may not have undergone hypertrophy that
leads to lower heartrates yet. Beyond the definition of daily exercise,
there are also other variables that werent controlled in this
experiment. We were aware of the variables in the sense that we knew
the students we of different ages, genders, BMIs, and smoking level,
but we didnt account for how these could skew the data in our
calculations. Finally, our sample sizes were not equal. We had a sample
size of 23 for those who exercised on a daily and only 6 for those who
never exercised. To have more accurate results it would be beneficial
to have an equal number of participants in each group. It is also

generally more accurate the larger the sample size. If I were to run this
experiment again I would change the design so that there were more
participants in each group and all participants surved would have
otherwise similar demographic data. It would also be interesting to
examine if the cardiac output would be impacted by the length and
intensity of exercise.
REFERENCES
Saladin, Kenneth S. (2012). Anatomy and Physiology- The Unity of
Form and Function, Sixth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Inc.

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Erin Canning

BIO 202 CV Lab Report

Resting Cardiac Output

Resting Cardiac Output

Avg cardiac output of those who never exercise = 27930/6 = 4655

Average Cardiac Output

DISCUSSION AND RESULTS

to have an equal number of participants in each group. It is also

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