Designing your own experiment

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Designing your own experiment

Now that you know something about human physiology and exercise it is time to think about an experiment. Before you jump or run into an exercise program it is good to know what, exercise scientists call, your level of fitness. This way you can track how you improve over time. This can also be a great experiment to try out on your family and friends.

• First find a bench or step that is about 1-2 feet high. Get a stop watch or a watch with a second hand, a pencil, and piece of paper to write down your results. If you want you can print this journal example to record what your results.
• Take your resting pulse (heart rate) and write it in your journal).
• Now step up and down on the bench for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, immediately sit down and take your pulse rate and write it in your journal.
• You have now measured your baseline fitness level.

Now that you have a starting point that you can measure from, you can now plan your exercise routine and think of what questions you want to answer. For example:

• How long do you think it will take before you see improvements in your resting heart rate?
• How long will it be before you see a change in your recovery heart rate?

Here is a list of things that you can measure with just a watch, or clock with a second hand and a string or cloth tape measure.

• Resting heart rate
• Heart recovery rate (how fast your heart recovers from exercise)
• Weight
• Body size
• BMI (body mass index or body fat)
• Strength
• Endurance