The World Health Organisation has defined health as ‘a state of complete

physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity. Exercise has many benefits including increasing heart rate, cardiac
output, breathing rate and tidal volume. It also has long term effects on the
body including major changes to the muscles, circulatory system and gaseous
exchange systems. When your heart beats, it pumps blood round your body to Commented [lm1]: Benefits of exercise

give it the energy and oxygen it needs. As the blood moves, it pushes against
the sides of the blood vessels. The strength of this pushing is your blood
pressure. If your blood pressure is too high, it puts extra strain on your arteries
(and your heart) and this may lead to heart attacks and strokes. Blood pressure
is measured in ‘millimetres of mercury’ (mmHg) and is written as two numbers.
For example, if your reading is 120/80mmHg, your blood pressure is ‘120 over
80’. very blood pressure reading consists of two numbers or levels. They are
shown as one number on top of the other. The first number is your systolic
blood pressure. It is the highest level your blood pressure reaches when your
heart beats. The second number is your diastolic blood pressure. It is the lowest
level your blood pressure reaches as your heart relaxes between beats. Both
the systolic and diastolic pressures are important. If the readings are too high,
hypertension may be present. If the blood pressure readings are too low, there
may be insufficient blood flow to critical organs, such as the brain. The systolic
and diastolic pressure was found to be 123/84. The average blood pressure is
120/80. The persons blood pressure of 123/84 was in the range for a normal
healthy person.
Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time, usually per minute. The
heart rate is based on the number of contractions of the ventricles (the lower
chambers of the heart). The heart rate may be too fast (tachycardia) or too slow
(bradycardia). The pulse is a bulge of an artery from waves of blood that course
through the blood vessels each time the heart beats. The normal resting adult
human heart rate ranges from 60–100 bpm. During sleep a slow heartbeat with
rates around 40–50 BPM is common and is considered normal. When the heart
is not beating in a regular pattern, this is referred to as an arrhythmia. These
abnormalities of heart rate sometimes indicate disease. The advantages of
increased heart rate during exercise are: burning Fat (Raising your heart rate to
just 50 percent of your maximum results in 85 percent of the calories you burn
coming from fat), weight Loss (The higher your heart rate, the more calories you
burn. The more calories you burn above the total you get from what you eat
each day, the more weight you will lose or keep off.), improved Stamina (Each
time you exercise, you improve V02 Max, a measurement of your maximum
aerobic capacity. Once you reach V02 Max, you can continue to increase your
exercise intensity without increasing your need for oxygen.) Exercise also
promotes muscle growth and results in strong, dense bone and higher energy
level.
The Harvard step test is a type of cardiac stress test for detecting and
diagnosing cardiovascular disease. It also is a good measurement of fitness and
a person's ability to recover after a strenuous exercise by checking the recovery
rate. Resting pulse rate was found to be 90 beats per minute. Standing pulse
rate was found to be 102 beats per minute. Pulse rate immediately after
exercising was found to be 120 beats per minute. Using the point system and
the Harvard step Test the level of fitness was determined to be fair. This could
be due to lack of athleticism or being overweight. This can be improved by
doing aerobic exercises to improve cardiovascular health.
An improvement to the experiment would be tell the participants to not eat
before as this would affect blood pressure, take more readings to find a more
accurate average, the experiment can be carried out over days and at the same
time each day and an average found.