Heart Rate

The purpose of this lab was to find my and my fellow classmates resting heart rate and record it. There were seven people in the class and we all participated in this study. There are four places to check heart rate and they are in your wrist, the inside of your elbow, the side of your neck, or the top of your foot. Everyone used the wrist or their radial artery. We used our middle and index fingers to gently feel for the radial artery in each others pulse. I then counted the pulse for 10 seconds and took that number and multiplied it by 6 to get the total resting heart rate of 1 minute. The purpose of this exercise was to figure out what our resting heart rate and to determine which category our heart rate fell in: Bradycardia or slow heart rate <60 BPM; Normal heart rate 60 to 100 BPM; Tachycardia or fast heart rate. >100 BPM

Causes and Symptoms of High or Low R.H.R. Bradycardia: <60 BPM-
- People who’ve had a heart attack or heart disease
People with metabolic problems
Problems with SA node
Symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting,
In Extreme Cases: Cardiac arrest.
Tachycardia: >100 BPM-
People who are physically fatigued
People who drink large amounts of coffee
People who drink alcohol heavily
People who smoke heavily
Symptoms such as dizziness, lightheadedness, rapid heartbeat or palpitations, angina, shortness of breath
In Extreme Cases: Unconsciousness and cardiac arr

The importance of knowing your resting heart rate:
Resting heart rate is a good tool to measure your fitness level and cardiovascular health. The more you exercise the lower your resting heart rate will be. The lower your resting heart rate is, the less hard work your heart has to do. Your heart is a muscle and the more you work it the stronger it will get. A stronger heart means that more blood will be used with each beat, and the same amount of work can be done with fewer beats. If your heart needs more beats to do the same amount of work, overtime