Exercise Physiology
Exercise Physiology is the study of how your body changes and responds when you move and stay active.
A pot of water on a stove shows how your body shifts when you move. At rest, the water sits cool and still with a few slow bubbles. Turn up the heat and bubbles rise fast, steam pours off, and the pot works harder. Your body does the same — more heat, more fuel burned, and faster breathing when you go from still to active.
Explaining exercise physiology by grade level
Put your hand on your chest and sit still. Feel how your heart beats slow and calm. Now run in place for one minute. Your heart beats much faster to push blood to your legs and arms.
Projects that explore exercise physiology
Your body responds to movement in ways you can measure. One partner exercises for one minute. You then measure the heart rate again to see how it changed.
Exercise physiology studies how your body changes when you move. Your heart speeds up when you climb stairs. Walking up and down stairs for three minutes and recording your heart rate shows how much the body responds to that activity.
Regular exercise changes more than just heart rate. Lung capacity (the total air your lungs can hold) is one way to measure fitness. You can compare volunteers with different fitness levels using a water displacement method to see who holds more air.