Pump Up My Heart

Talking About Our Goals

Let's talk about our SMART goals. A SMART goal is a goal that is clear and easy to check on.

How is your goal going? What is one thing you could do better? What is one thing you are already doing well?

What Are We Learning Today?

Today's guideline is: move your body more, and sit still less.

Do you have a goal that matches this guideline? Think about it!

A Fun Game: Two Truths and a Lie

Here are three sentences. Two are true. One is a lie.

1. Your heart is about the size of your palm. (True!)
2. Your heart is a muscle, and it makes a "lub dub" sound. (True!)
3. The only way to find your pulse is with a special tool that listens to your heart. (This is the lie! There are other ways to find your pulse, and you will learn one today.)

Questions to Think About

• Have you ever heard the word aerobic? What do you think it means?
• What exercises make your heart work hard? How often do you do them?
• Do you think it's important to do exercises that make your heart strong? Why or why not?

Words to Know

• Exercise: Moving your body on purpose, in a planned way, again and again.
• Physical activity: Any movement your muscles make that uses energy.
• Fitness: Being able to do your daily jobs with energy, without getting too tired.
• Heart: A muscle about the size of your palm. It sits in the middle of your chest and pumps blood all through your body.
• Cardiovascular system (also called the circulatory system): The system in your body that moves blood around. It includes your heart, your blood, and your blood vessels (the tubes blood travels through).
• Circulate: To travel in a path that comes back to where it started.
• Aerobic: Exercise where your big muscles move in a steady rhythm for a long time.
• Cardiorespiratory fitness (also called endurance): How well your heart and lungs can send oxygen to your body while you are being active for a while.
• Intensity: How hard you are working during an exercise.
• Heart rate (also called pulse rate): How many times your heart beats in one minute.
• Resting heart rate: How fast your heart beats when you are not exercising. For most people, this is between 60 and 100 beats each minute.
• Maximum heart rate: The fastest your heart can safely beat, based on your age.
• Target heart rate range: The speed you want your heart beating at during exercise, so you get the most benefit.

Do Now: Would You Rather

Split into two groups. Stand on one side of the room for the first choice, or the other side for the second choice. Here are some questions:

• Would you rather play basketball or soccer?
• Would you rather go jogging or go swimming?
• Would you rather exercise with a friend or exercise alone?
• Would you rather exercise indoors or outdoors?
• Would you rather go running or lift weights?
• Would you rather exercise with music or without music?
• Would you rather exercise in the morning, afternoon, or night?
• Would you rather use exercise equipment, like weights or a treadmill, or not use any equipment?

This game helps you notice what kinds of physical activity you like best!

Exercise is moving your body on purpose, in a planned way. It can be fun, and you can do it almost anywhere. Physical activity is any movement your muscles make that uses energy. Physical activity helps build fitness — the ability to do things with energy and without getting too tired.

My Heart in Action

Your cardiovascular system, also called your circulatory system, moves blood around your whole body. It is made up of your heart, your blood, and your blood vessels. To circulate means to travel in a path and come back to where it started.

Your heart is the pump that makes your blood circulate. It is a muscle about the size of your palm, sitting right in the middle of your chest.

The word "cardiovascular" makes sense once you break it apart: "cardio" means heart, and "vascular" means blood vessels.

Your blood carries important things to your whole body, like oxygen. Oxygen travels from your lungs to your muscles and other body parts so they can work.

There are two kinds of blood vessels. Veins carry blood back toward your heart to pick up more oxygen. Arteries carry blood away from your heart, bringing oxygen to the rest of your body. Here's a trick: "arteries" starts with an A, just like "away."

Your heart is a muscle, just like your bicep (the muscle in your upper arm). If you exercise your bicep, it gets bigger and stronger, and you can lift heavier things. In the same way, exercise makes your heart stronger too!

Exercises that are especially good for your heart are called aerobic exercises. These are exercises where your big muscles move in a steady rhythm for a long time. Here are some examples:

• Brisk walking
• Running
• Hiking
• Skateboarding
• Rollerblading
• Bicycle riding
• Swimming
• Martial arts
• Sports like football, soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, and tennis
• House and yard work
• Dancing

Cardiorespiratory fitness (or endurance) means your heart and lungs are good at sending oxygen through your body while you stay active. To help build this kind of fitness, doctors say you should work at a medium-to-hard level — about 5 to 8 out of 10, with 10 being as hard as possible. This is called intensity — how hard you are working.

Just like your bicep, your heart needs exercise to stay strong. A strong heart can keep pumping blood well for your whole life. If your heart is weak, it can get sick, which is called heart disease, or it could even stop working properly.

A Heart Model

Here's a way to see how your heart works: Take a tennis ball with a small hole in it and dunk it in a bucket of water until it's full. Squeeze the ball with your fist, hole facing up. Each squeeze pushes water out — just like your heart pushes blood out each time it squeezes! When you let go, the ball fills back up with water, just like your heart fills back up with blood from your lungs.

Check Your Pulse

Have you ever heard your own heartbeat? Let's find out what it sounds like!

Grab a partner and an empty paper towel tube — this will be your "stethoscope" (a tool doctors use to listen to your heart). Put one end of the tube against your partner's heart, and place your ear on the other end. Then switch places and try it yourself.

You should hear a "lub-dub" sound. That sound is your heart pushing blood out, then filling back up again.

When you are resting, your heart doesn't need to work very hard. But when you exercise, your heart works harder and beats faster, so it can move oxygen to your muscles more quickly. That's why your heart rate goes up when you exercise! Other signs you are exercising are breathing faster, and your skin turning pink or sweaty.

Your heart rate, or pulse rate, is how many times your heart beats in one minute. It can change depending on your weight, your age, how active you are, and how stressed you feel.

How to Find Your Pulse

You can feel your pulse at your neck, wrist, or chest — but the wrist is the easiest place to try. Find the artery on your wrist, in line with your thumb. Place your pointer and middle fingers gently on it — don't use your thumb, because it has its own faint pulse that can trick you!

Try taking your own pulse now. Count how many beats you feel!