The Effect of Sitting Position on the Heart Rate Recovery of Cross Country Runners
The objective of this experiment was to determine which sitting position—slouching with the forearms on the thighs, upright with the back straight, or upright with the hands on head—most benefits the heart rate recovery, or HRR, of cross country runners. A fast HRR is highly beneficial to athletes in sports that have multiple events that happen close to each other in time such as track or swimming. An athlete with a HRR that is higher than their competitors is less fatigued during the later events in a competition. To find the best position, male cross country teams and their members volunteered to run an eight-hundred-meter distance three times wearing a heart rate monitor. Directly after each eight-hundred-meter run, the participant’s heart rate, HR, would be recorded, then he would sit in one of the positions for a minute. After that minute his HR would be recorded again, and would have five additional minutes of recovery time before another run. HRR was found by calculating the difference between the two recorded heart rates.
It was hypothesized that the hands on head position would have the highest HRR since it is the suggested position for athletes. However, after a series of two-sample t tests and confidence intervals were performed on the data collected, the data showed that the position that had the highest HRR was the slouching position, the position with the lowest HRR was the hands on head position, and the straight position was between those two. This is due to the slouching position increasing the diaphragm's zone of apposition and decreasing the effect that gravity has on the body.
Research Conducted By:
Emily Eskuri
Fraser High School
Celeste Rupert
Warren Mott High School
Warren Consolidated Schools