Comments on: What effect does regular exercise, smoking and caffeine have on pulse rate?

By: oki doki

oki doki — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:07:59 +0000

all these three can transiently elevate your pulse rate ; your pulse rate is the product of your heart beat and the blood volume it pumps out, so regular exercise is the only positive thing among the three that has been clinically studied and age-old defined best way for staying healthy !
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By: char v

char v — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:54:59 +0000

All three raise it, exercise over time helps to lower it in the end.
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By: tomes12

tomes12 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:12:59 +0000

Regular exercise decreases ‘normal’ pulse rate at rest. Normal means in a steady, rested and calm position/situation. Low pulse rate (anywhere in the region between 40 to 50 bpm -beat per minute) is actually an indication of an ‘athletes’ heart. Strong, steady, healthy, fat free heart which has a bigger than average blood volume, so pumps more blood in less strokes, in one word -heart anyone would want.
Average healthy person should have anywhere between 60 to 70, which is again very good.
Smoking makes the lungs capacity very very low, which means that the body’s capability of using oxygen is very decreased, which in turn makes the heart work more to provide the necessary ‘oxydised’ blood (anything more than 75 or 80 bpm is not a very good sign)
So, smoking increases normal pulse rate, which is as you might guess -bad.
Caffeine has similar effects in terms of increasing heart rate, but doesn’t have as much negative effect as smoking.
So, regular exercise decreases normal pulse rate at rest -GOOD.
Smoking and caffeine increase it -BAD.

It’s also worth mentioning that when analyzing heart rate one should also consider blood pressure, but that’s another subject.
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professional athlete and coach (track and field)

By: Violet Pearl

Violet Pearl — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:33:59 +0000

All three will raise your heart rate.
Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, causing increased heart rate and alertness.
Within one minute of starting to smoke, the heart rate begins to rise: it may increase by as much as 30 percent during the first 10 minutes of smoking.
Exercise raises it as well, but generally that’s considered healthy- for the most part.
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By: Ro'

Ro' — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:05:59 +0000

exercise LOWERS pulse rate
cigs make the heart beat faster
caffeine make the heart beat faster

but then the half life of nicotine (cigs) and caffeine is very short, so the heartbeat doesn’t get high for very long
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