New
New
Year 6

Heart recovery time after exercise

I can investigate the recovery time of my heart after exercise.

New
New
Year 6

Heart recovery time after exercise

I can investigate the recovery time of my heart after exercise.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Your pulse can be felt at the wrist and other places where an artery is close to the skin.
  2. A healthy resting heart rate for adults is between 50 and 90 beats per minute (bpm).
  3. Recovery time is the amount of time it takes your heart to return to its resting rate after being active.
  4. 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.

This lesson provides an opportunity for pupils to practise their maths skills; the data gathered on individual heart rate and recovery times could be used to calculate averages and create a line graph for the whole class.
Teacher tip

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

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Loading...

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of these statements about the heart is correct?
An image in a quiz
Your heart does not pump when you sleep.
Your heart is on the left hand side of your chest.
Correct answer: Your heart pumps blood around your body.
Your heart pushes air around your body.
Q2.
Arteries are blood vessels that …
carry blood towards the heart.
Correct answer: carry blood away from the heart.
carry air away from the heart.
carry air towards the heart.
Q3.
The number of times your heart beats in a minute is called your heart ...
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: rate
Q4.
When you are exercising, your heart rate …
An image in a quiz
decreases.
stays the same.
Correct answer: increases.
Q5.
Laura has been measuring her heart rate when carrying out different activities. Match the heart rate to the activity.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer:63 bpm,sitting at desk and writing

sitting at desk and writing

Correct Answer:100 bpm,walking to school

walking to school

Correct Answer:132 bpm,playing football

playing football

Q6.
What is carried to the muscles in our blood to help them keep working?
air
Correct answer: oxygen
water vapour
carbon dioxide
Q1 Macrovector/Shutterstock

6 Questions

Q1.
How can we improve our heart recovery time?
Correct answer: regular exercise
regular computer games
increasing time spent sitting down
increasing sugary food intake
Q2.
Between 50 – 90 bpm is considered a healthy heart rate for an adult.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: resting
Q3.
What is heart recovery time?
The amount of time it takes to stop breathing heavily after exercise.
The amount of time it takes you to stop sweating after exercise.
Correct answer: The amount of time it takes heart rate to return to resting rate after exercise.
Q4.
At places where an is close to the skin, we can use two fingers to feel our pulse and check our heart rate.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: artery
Q5.
Aisha measured her heart rate, then did some exercise and measured her heart rate again at one-minute intervals. Here are her results. How long was Aisha’s recovery time?
An image in a quiz
one minute
two minutes
Correct answer: three minutes
four minutes
Q6.
Which type of diagram is best for recording changes to heart rate after exercise?
bar chart
Correct answer: line graph
pie chart
Q2 Spreadthesign/Shutterstock Q4 caimacanul/Shutterstock

Additional material

Download additional material
We're sorry, but preview is not currently available. Download to see additional material.