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Words to know before you read
- Endurance- the ability to keep doing an
activity for a long period of time. Marathon runners are know
for their endurance.
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- Fitness- measure of health, or how healthy a
person is.
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Designing your own experiment
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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.
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Keep in mind that you should always check with your
parents and / or family doctor to be sure you are healthy enough to
start your exercise program and what exercises would be best for you to
try. |
- 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
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