4.5: Pump Up My Heart

Talking About Our Goals

Let's start by checking in on our SMART goals — the specific, measurable goals we've set for ourselves.

• How is your current SMART goal going?
• What are some ways you could do even better at reaching your goal? (These are your "grows.")
• What are some things you're already doing well? (These are your "glows.")

Think about today's lesson: which wellness guideline connects to it? These guidelines remind us to move more often and sit less. Who has a SMART goal tied to this idea?

Warm-Up Activities

Here are a few ways to kick things off — pick one that fits your group:

1. Guideline Popcorn — As a group, quickly call out all 8 wellness guidelines, one after another, "popcorn style."
2. Guideline Charades — Split into small groups. Each group gets a guideline and must act it out silently while everyone else guesses.
3. Two Truths and One Lie — Try to guess which statement is false:
4. Truth: The average heart is about the size of your palm.
5. Truth: The heart is a muscle, and it makes a "lub-dub" sound.
6. Lie: The only way to find your pulse is with a tool that lets you listen to your heart.
7. (There are actually other simple ways to find your pulse — we'll learn them today!)
8. Discussion or Journal Questions:
9. Have you ever heard the word "aerobic" used to describe exercise? What do you think it means?
10. What exercises do you do that make your heart work harder? How often do you do them?
11. Do you think it's important to do exercises that strengthen your heart? Why or why not?

What You'll Learn Today

You'll explore what aerobic exercise is and why it matters for keeping your heart healthy.

Key Vocabulary

• Exercise: Movement of the body that uses energy and is planned, structured, and repeated on purpose.
• Physical Activity: Any movement made by your muscles that uses energy.
• Fitness: Being able to do your daily tasks with energy, without getting tired too quickly.
• Heart: A muscle about the size of your palm, located at the center of your cardiovascular system. Its job is to pump blood through your body.
• Cardiovascular (Circulatory) System: The system in your body that moves blood (and a fluid called lymph) around. It includes your heart, blood vessels, and blood.
• Circulate: To travel along a path that eventually returns to where it started.
• Aerobic: A type of exercise where your body's large muscles move in a steady rhythm for a long stretch of time.
• Cardiorespiratory Fitness (Endurance): How well your heart and lungs can supply oxygen to your body during long periods of activity.
• Intensity: How much effort or force an activity requires.
• Heart Rate (Pulse Rate): The number of times your heart beats in one minute.
• Resting Heart Rate: Your heart rate when you're calm and not exercising — usually between 60 and 100 beats per minute for most people.
• Maximum Heart Rate: The highest number of beats per minute your heart can reach, based on your age.
• Target Heart Rate Range: The heart rate zone you should aim for during exercise to get the most benefit.

Do Now: Would You Rather

Split into two groups and stand on opposite sides of the room. For each question below, choose your answer by walking to the side of the room that matches your choice:

• Play basketball or soccer?
• Go jogging or go swimming?
• Exercise with a friend or exercise alone?
• Exercise indoors or outdoors?
• Go running or lift weights?
• Exercise with music or without it?
• Exercise in the morning, afternoon, or at night?
• Use exercise equipment (like weights or a treadmill) or skip the equipment entirely?

Why did we play this game? It helped us notice what kinds of physical activities we enjoy and how we like to exercise.

Remember: exercise is movement that uses energy and is planned, structured, and repeated on purpose. It can be fun, and it can happen almost anywhere — as this game just showed, many different activities count as exercise.

Physical activity, more broadly, is any movement your muscles make that requires energy. Being physically active is a big part of overall fitness — the ability to handle your daily tasks with energy, without wearing out.

Good to Know: My Heart in Action

Your cardiovascular (circulatory) system is responsible for moving blood (and lymph) throughout your body. It includes your heart, blood vessels, and blood. The word "circulate" means to travel a path that loops back to where it began — which is exactly what blood does.

The pump that keeps your blood circulating is your heart — a palm-sized muscle at the center of this whole system. The name makes sense once you break it down: cardio means heart, and vascular means blood vessels.

As blood circulates through your vessels, it carries important nutrients to every part of your body. For example, it carries oxygen from your lungs to your tissues — including your muscles — so they have the fuel they need to work.

There are two types of blood vessels:

• Veins carry blood toward your heart to pick up more oxygen.
• Arteries carry blood away from your heart, delivering fresh oxygen to the rest of your body.

Here's a trick to remember it: "arteries" starts with A, just like it moves AWAY from the heart.

Your heart works just like any other muscle in your body — say, your bicep. If you exercise your bicep regularly, it grows bigger and stronger, letting you lift heavier weights. In the same way, exercise strengthens your cardiovascular system.

The exercises that are especially good for strengthening your heart are called aerobic exercises — activities where your large muscles move in a steady rhythm for a sustained period of time. This is closely related to cardiorespiratory endurance.

Examples of aerobic exercise include:
Brisk walking, running, hiking, skateboarding, rollerblading, bicycle riding, swimming, martial arts, sports (like football, soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, and tennis), house and yard work, and dancing.

Cardiorespiratory fitness (endurance) is how well your heart and lungs can supply oxygen to your body during sustained activity. To build this kind of fitness, experts recommend exercising at a moderate to vigorous intensity — roughly 50–85% of your estimated maximum heart rate. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the hardest you could possibly work), this means working at about a 5 to 8.

Intensity refers to how much effort — force, weight, or overall effort — an activity requires.

Just like working out your bicep makes it stronger, working out your heart makes it stronger too — helping it keep circulating blood and pumping efficiently for your whole life. If your heart isn't strong, it can become sick (called heart disease) or even stop working properly (heart failure).

Optional: Watch a short video about the heart for more detail.

Hands-On Activity: The Squeezing Heart

Setup: Before the activity, drill a small hole in a tennis ball.

Instructions:

1. Dunk the tennis ball (with the hole) into a bucket of water until it fills up.
2. Holding the ball with the hole facing upward, squeeze it with your fist.
3. Each squeeze pushes water out of the hole — just like your heart squeezing pushes blood out into your body.
4. When you relax your fist, the ball fills back up with water — just like your heart refilling with blood from your lungs before its next pump.

Real World Relevance: Check Your Pulse

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

Instructions:

1. Pair up, and each pair gets an empty paper towel tube to use as a homemade "stethoscope."
2. One partner holds one end of the tube against their chest, over their heart. The other partner places their ear on the other end of the tube.
3. Switch roles so both partners get a turn.
4. You may need to move the tube around a little to find the right spot. Share what you hear with the group.

The "lub-dub" sound you hear is your heart pushing blood out, then filling back up again.

Optional: Watch a short video to learn more about why the heart makes the "lub-dub" sound.

Why Your Heart Rate Changes

When you're resting, your heart doesn't have to work very hard to deliver oxygen-carrying blood to your muscles and tissues. But when you exercise, your heart has to work much harder — and one way it does this is by beating faster, so blood can travel from place to place more quickly.

Since exercise means your body needs more blood and oxygen, your heart rate speeds up. That's why a faster heart rate is one clear sign that you're exercising. Other signs include breathing faster and changes in your skin, like turning pink or becoming sweaty.

Your heart rate (or pulse rate) is simply the number of times your heart beats in one minute. This number can change depending on things like your weight, age, activity level, and stress level.

Practice: Finding Your Pulse

Now it's your turn to find and count your own heart rate!

You can check your pulse at your neck, wrist, or chest — but the wrist is usually easiest. Here's how:

1. Find the artery on your wrist, in line with your thumb.
2. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers gently over that spot and press lightly.
3. Avoid using your thumb — it actually has a faint pulse of its own, which can be confusing!

Your teacher will demonstrate how to find your pulse at the wrist, and can help if you're having trouble locating it.