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LAB
How Does Fatigue Affect Muscle Performance?

Problem
A condition known as muscle fatigue occurs when certain waste products of
muscle activity (lactic acid) build up in the cells. Until these waste chemicals
are removed, the fatigue will continue.

Do the Following Activity:

Hold a spring-type clothespin between your thumb and index finger. Pinch the
ends together completely (until the two ends touch) and release them. Do this
as rapidly as possible for one minute. Record the number of times you could
squeeze the clothespin:

Hypothesis: If I a squeeze a clothespin for a minute I predict I will make it to

100 because my fingers aren't that strong.

In this experiment, I predict that I will be able to squeeze the clothespin ____
times in one minute. I made this prediction because ___

Dependent Variable: Will be measuring how much we can squeeze the

clothespin.

Independent Variable: Gender boys vs. girls results.

Data/Results:
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Trial # # of Squeezes in 1 minute

1 90
2 114
3 126
4 138
Average 140

Conclusion: (Analyze your data and summarize your findings. Sate how the
results relate to the hypothesis.)

In this experiment we analyzed how many times we could squeeze a clothespin

down and up. My hypothesis was about If I a squeeze a clothespin for a minute
I predict I will make it to 100 because my fingers aren't that strong. I was
able to get more than 100 but I was going fast. So hypothesis was wrong and
right I made it to 100 and got more than 100. The girls won this one because
the girls have stronger muscles in fingers and they got more squeezes.

Reflection Questions:

1. Could you do as many in a minute the fourth time as you could do the
first time? Provide a biological explanation for these results.
Yes. Because the first time I was counting slow and the second time I was
Pushing faster.
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2. What does an increased pulse rate indicate about the heart rate and flow
of blood in someones body?
It increases as the pulse rate works out and exercise.
It decreases as the pulse rate relaxes and does nothing.

3. If you want to increase your clothespin-squeezing rate, would you

suggest exercising or resting before you did it? Explain why you think
your choice is correct. Resting because you dont use your fingers so
they relax and they can work out later when you try it.

4. What do you think would happen to the number of squeezes if you were
asked to do a 5th trial for clothespin squeezing? I would go to 200
because I would go way faster than before because I would look at my
scores and try to do better.

5. What effect did muscle fatigue have on the action of your hand muscles?
It had made my hands sore but also stronger and faster in the hand
Muscles and the finger muscles.