Effects Of Body Position On Heart Rate

The Effects of Body Position On Heart Rate

Introduction:
Your heart rate (HR), is the number of times that your heart pulses in a minute. Resting heart rate varies from person to person. Several factors can influence a subject’s heart rate including activity level, body position and other factors such as air temperature, or medication use. [1] Resting heart rate can be affected by body position, due to gravity having varying affects on the heart in different positions. Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand how body position influences HR. It was hypothesized that a subject would have a lower heart rate when standing, than when in a supine or sitting position.

Methods:
This experiment made use of a single male subject who was 20 years old, with a height of 190.5 cm and weight of 104 kg. The study consisted of obtaining heart rates after the following conditions 1) after one minute in the supine position, 2) immediately after moving to a sitting position, 3) one minute after moving into a sitting position, 4) immediately after moving to a standing position, 3) one m...