Effect of Exercise on Cardiopulmonary Function By Soraya Pashaei Marandi BIOL 112 514 Abstract The experiment that was performed tested how exercise effected cardiopulmonary function It also distinguished the difference in cardiopulmonary functions between females and males Each subject in the experiment experienced an increased respiratory rate mean arterial pressure and pulse rate after exercising The respiratory rates between females and males were similar however the mean arterial pressure and pulse rates were considerably different For the most part it can be said that there is an overall difference in the cardiopulmonary function between males and females Introduction Cardiopulmonary function is determined by many factors Each of these factors is measured through various test In this experiment the respiratory rate mean arterial pressure and pulse rate were tested Respiratory rate is a measurement of breaths per minute taken by a person As more oxygen is needed to breathe the more breaths a person takes The mean arterial pressure is also known as the mean blood pressure and is calculated with the systolic pressure and diastolic pressure To calculate this number the diastolic pressure is added to a third of the difference between the systolic and diastolic pressure Harris Haller The mean arterial pressure is a representation of the average blood pressure over an entire cardiac cycle for a specific person Boundless Someone s heart rate is measure by their pulse rate This rate is a representation of the number of times a person s heart contracts over a period of a minute All About Heart Rate When someone exercises their cardiopulmonary function is affected This is due to what occurs within the autonomic nervous system ANS The ANS is responsible for directing oxygen rich blood throughout the body Harris Haller When exercise is conducted the ANS responds and redirects the blood flow to the muscles that are taking part in the exercise For this experiment the main purpose was to observe and collect data on how cardiopulmonary function was affected by exercise and the difference of function between genders in response to exercise Two null hypothesis were made H1 0 Exercise will affect a person s respiratory rate mean arterial pressure and pulse rate H2 0 Cardiopulmonary function will not vary between females and males Methods To start of the experiment the subject s resting respiratory rate mean arterial pressure and pulse rate were measure and recorded Next the subject s performed two minutes of exercises After the exercising was completed the respiratory rate mean arterial pressure and pulse rate were all measure as time zero Then for the next four minutes in one minute intervals each of the test were measured again All of the data collected by the individual subject s was then compiled on a spreadsheet with all of the classes data The averages were then calculated for each of the test Results Following the two minutes of exercise respiratory rates across all subjects both male and female increased The average respiratory rate for females was 26 while for males it was 25 The average of the net change from their resting rate to time zero was pretty similar between genders The females had an average net change of 11 The males average net change was 9 The difference in respiratory rates between the males was minimal with only being off by one breath for the net change However for the females it varied extremely One female had a net change of 19 while the other had a net change of three The mean arterial pressure decreased in both genders after the two minutes of exercising This test showed a clear distinction between females and males The average resting mean arterial pressure for females was 73 5 while the mean arterial pressure for males was 100 3 The averages for the net change were simnifically different Females had a net change of 15 85 while for males it was 8 7 This difference was caused by one of the females having an extremely high negative net change in mean arterial pressure The pulse rate was the test that showed the most significant increase after exercising for two minutes With an increased pulse rate comes and increased heart rate The resting pulse rate between females and males varied with females having 80 5 and males having 93 However with exercise the pulse rates were relatively the same at time zero Males were at a rate of 126 while females had a rate of 124 5 Since the resting rates were the numbers that were distinguishably different that is what made the net change between the genders different Within the males the pulse rate were almost identical but females varied extremely Discussion Before the experiment was conducted there were two null hypothesis that were proposed After conducting the experiment it is shown that one of the hypothesis that was made was correct while the other was incorrect From the experiment it was gathered that exercise did have an affect on the respiratory rate mean arterial pressure and pulse rate Although there was a contradiction the the other hypothesis because there was a difference in cardiopulmonary function between genders For both respiratory rate and pulse rate there was in increase in cardiopulmonary function after performing two minutes of exercise The mean arterial pressure is the only test that the measurement values decreased The net changes showed these increases and decreases throughout the test subjects All of the values are represented in Table 1 From this table it can be gathered that for the most part all of the subjects returned to their resting test values after the four minute period for each test Not every test that was taken showed a difference between males and females The respiratory rate was one that seemed to be pretty consistent between both genders at the resting and time zero rate On the other hand there was an evident difference in the values for the mean arterial pressure and the pulse rate The males had a higher average mean arterial pressure than females As for the pulse rate the females had the higher average According to this data that was collected there is a difference in cardiopulmonary function between genders after exercise During this experiment there were many chances for possible errors Not every subject performed the same exercise This could have led to the subjects not experiencing the same level of activity which would lead to skewed results for cardiopulmonary function Another