Are questions based on Human Exercise Physiology on topic here, and if so, is expanding knowledge on exercise physiology a sufficient practical reason for asking, or not?
1 Answer
I'm biased, because I want them to be on-topic, so I'd obviously say yes.
However, that doesn't mean that anything goes as long as its about exercise physiology. I'd say your example from chat: "Does heart rate increase while running?" is not a real question.
- This is an example of the XY-problem, you ask whether the heart rate increases, because you have assumptions about what this implies. For example, your doctor told you, you needed to avoid workouts that increase your heart rate too much and therefore want to know if running would do so. So instead of telling us about your condition, so we could recommend exercises that would be safe to perform, you try to deduce it yourself. An even more constructive approach would ask how to determine if a workout is safe.
- It doesn't show any research effort, if you simply felt your own pulse when sitting still and compared that when you went jogging and then stopped to count, you'd see there'd be a clear increase in your heart rate. Put more bluntly, I'd expect anyone to know whether this is important to already know this is a fact.
- I can answer the question by simply saying "Yes" and be done with it. Even asking "Why does your heart rate increase" wouldn't be much of an improvement, because its answered by even the most basic understanding of the human body. Given that the heart is the engine of the body, its only logical it'll have to work harder if you want the body to.
- The FAQ states "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." Only knowing that your heart rate increases is not a problem. If it wasn't increasing, now that would be a problem (albeit requiring medical attention).
- The topic about how the heart works is so diverse there are whole books written about it. Without making the question more specific I'd have to quote whole chapters of the book to explain phenomena that I'd use to explain the increase. If I left out the explanations, then I'd be assuming you already knew what they were. But if that were so, you wouldn't have had to ask such a basic question.
A more interesting questions would ask How long your heart rate increase is prolonged after exercise? which seems to be addressed here. I'm also not saying there are no interesting questions about heart rates. If you search our site, you'll find plenty of practical questions related to heart rate, which require some physiological explanation.
- Finding a personal maximum heart rate
- What heart rate can a beginner runner expect?
- Max Heart Rate for HIIT with weights
- Heart Rate (bpm) vs Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) ?
So what am I trying to say?
Yes, you can and should ask questions about exercise physiology, but they should relate to actual problems you face like improving your performance, picking a training program or trying to prevent injuries.
If you simply want to indulge your curiosity, I'd advice to pick up a book about it.
