Cardiovascular Fitness Lab

Differences in Cardiovascular Fitness that Effect Nonsmokers and Smokers
Kayla Forbes
2-15-12
Bio Lab 140/77
Hilde Stawski

Abstract: The goal of this experiment was to find out how smoking affected nonsmokers, light smokers, and heavy smokers heart rate during cardiovascular endurance. The participants will record their pulse rate before and after every minute for six minutes after the step test. As predicted, the heavy smokers had an increase in pulse rate that was twice as high as the light smokers and nonsmokers who had similar increases in their pulse rate after exercise. The independent variable is how much the subject smokes which is either non, light, or heavy smokers. The dependent variable is pulse rate; it changes depending
These experimental groups consisted of nonsmokers, light smokers, and heavy smokers. The task they were given was to find out how smoking affected their heart rate during cardiovascular endurance. We predicted that smokers would have a higher resting heart rate than nonsmokers, their heart would increase immediately after exercising than the nonsmokers, and it would take longer to return to their starting heart rate after exercising than the nonsmokers did. The participants will record their heart rate before the experiment and every thirty seconds after the experiment until they reach their starting heart rate. The cardiovascular fitness of heavy smokers would be more different than the cardiovascular fitness of light
The three groups consisted of nonsmokers that have never smoked, light smokers that smoked less than ten per week, and heavy smokers that smoked more than ten per day. In order to do this experiment the participants had to measure their pulse for thirty seconds and multiple their result by two and record the number as their resting pulse rate. Each person in the three experimental groups stepped up and down on a step for three minutes at a constant pace. After the step up test, the participants recorded their pulse after thirty seconds for six minutes until their heart rate went back to the original starting point.
Results:
The table indicates the total averages of the non-smokers, light smokers, and the heavy smokers. To calculate the averages, we added all the beats per minute and divided by six to get the averages. The graph illustrates how the beats per minute changed during the six minutes.

Table: Averages | Non-Smokers | Light Smokers | Heavy Smokers | Resting | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 min | 60 bpm | 60 bpm | 60 bpm | 1 min | 80 bpm | 80 bpm | 101 bpm | 2 min | 60 bpm | 78 bpm | 98 bpm | 3 min | 61 bpm | 67 bpm | 90 bpm | 4 min | 61 bpm | 60 bpm | 86 bpm | 5 min | 60 bpm | 60 bpm | 82 bpm | 6 min | 61 bpm | 60 bpm | 77 bpm