Today in my anatomy and phyisiology lab, we were doing EKGs, and I must confess they are quite fun. I felt all cool hooking up my friends to the machine! So we could do just our normal EKG or our teacher encouraged us to try something called the
diving reflex. The way this works is really interesting. Mammals have receptors in their faces that when they enter cold water, their hearts will slow down, so that while they are swimming they can conserve energy. So he gave us the oppurtunity to try it out. I didn't want to at first(I had makeup on) but then he convinced me because he wanted to set a record with how low we could get our heart rates. (normal heart rate: 70-90 beats per minute, I'm not sure if that is common knowledge or not, I'm not trying to insult anyones intellegence here) So I did it. The process is this: ride a stationary bike and get your heart rate above 110, then you step off the bike and wait about ten seconds before immersing your mouth and nose in the ice water for thirty seconds. I almost died. I had just been working out, and my muscles started to revolt. I was shaking so bad! It was the weirdest feeling! I've never felt anything like it! Thirty seconds is a long time after you just worked out, but I was too stubborn to stop. When I was done, we calculated it out and my heart rate had dropped to 22 beats per minute. Yes, I was almost dead, but not to worry, I am alive and well now and I set a new record! So my teacher was happy to have something to brag about.
This is my normal resting EKG, the red lines represent a second
this is my workout EKG
this is my EKG at 22 beats per minute, pretty snazzy huh?
*I think all this physiology stuff is really interesting, so sorry if you were completely bored by this blog!
Today in my anatomy and phyisiology lab, we were doing EKGs, and I must confess they are quite fun. I felt all cool hooking up my friends to the machine! So we could do just our normal EKG or our teacher encouraged us to try something called the diving reflex. The way this works is really interesting. Mammals have receptors in their faces that when they enter cold water, their hearts will slow down, so that while they are swimming they can conserve energy. So he gave us the oppurtunity to try it out. I didn't want to at first(I had makeup on) but then he convinced me because he wanted to set a record with how low we could get our heart rates. (normal heart rate: 70-90 beats per minute, I'm not sure if that is common knowledge or not, I'm not trying to insult anyones intellegence here) So I did it. The process is this: ride a stationary bike and get your heart rate above 110, then you step off the bike and wait about ten seconds before immersing your mouth and nose in the ice water for thirty seconds. I almost died. I had just been working out, and my muscles started to revolt. I was shaking so bad! It was the weirdest feeling! I've never felt anything like it! Thirty seconds is a long time after you just worked out, but I was too stubborn to stop. When I was done, we calculated it out and my heart rate had dropped to 22 beats per minute. Yes, I was almost dead, but not to worry, I am alive and well now and I set a new record! So my teacher was happy to have something to brag about. 
2 comments:
22BPM?????? Thats crazy! I'm very glad that you didn't die that would be a bad thing! I would miss you terribly!
Whoa! How the heck do you get away with taking so many cool classes! I had to go none stop boring classes and I barely got done in 4 years! THAT'S SO NEAT!
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