Heart recovery time after exercise
I can investigate the recovery time of my heart after exercise.
Heart recovery time after exercise
I can investigate the recovery time of my heart after exercise.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Your pulse can be felt at the wrist and other places where an artery is close to the skin.
- A healthy resting heart rate for adults is between 50 and 90 beats per minute (bpm).
- Recovery time is the amount of time it takes your heart to return to its resting rate after being active.
- Regular exercise can improve recovery time and overall heart health.
Keywords
Exercise - Exercise means using a lot of effort to move our bodies so that they stay fit and healthy.
Heart rate - Heart rate is the number of times a heart beats each minute.
Pulse - Each time your heart beats it can be felt as a pulse in the arteries.
Arteries - Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart.
Recovery time - Recovery time is the amount of time it takes your heart to return to its resting rate after being active.
Common misconception
Pupils may have a very narrow definition of exercise, limiting it to activities such as running or weightlifting and not including more ‘fun’ types of exercise such as dancing or trampolining.
Explain that any physical activity where we intentionally use a lot of effort to move our bodies is exercise, backing this up with all the examples in the slide deck.
To help you plan your year 6 science lesson on: Heart recovery time after exercise, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 6 science lesson on: Heart recovery time after exercise, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 science lessons from the Keeping healthy unit, dive into the full secondary science curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Stopwatches, clipboards. Pulse oximeters could also be provided if available but are not required.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
- Risk assessment required - physical activity
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Starter quiz
6 Questions




sitting at desk and writing
walking to school
playing football
Exit quiz
6 Questions





