Key term
Eduqas A-Level Physical Education A550QS
Health, Fitness and an Active Lifestyle
Short-Term Responses to Exercise
Long-Term Adaptations to Exercise
Fitness Testing and Components of Fitness
Training Methods, Principles and Periodisation
Topic overviewSpecificity, progressive overload, reversibility, variance and FITTContinuous, fartlek, interval and high intensity trainingWeight, plyometric, circuit and flexibility trainingAltitude training and training in hot and cold climatesTraining zones, heart rate monitoring and periodisation
Energy Systems
Fatigue and Recovery
Diet, Nutrition and Supplements
Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation
Joints and the Musculo-Skeletal System
Planes, Axes and Movement Patterns
Biomechanical Principles and Levers
Linear and Angular Motion
Projectile Motion and Fluid Mechanics
Performance Analysis
Technology in Sport
Personality
Attitudes
Goal Setting
Stress, Arousal and Anxiety
Motivation
Aggression
Social Facilitation
Group Dynamics and Leadership
Attribution Theory
Self-Efficacy and Confidence
Skill, Ability and Skill Classification
Learning Curves, Theories and Stages
Transfer, Practice and Guidance
Information Processing, Memory and Feedback
Sport, Culture and Society
The Emergence of Modern Sport
Ethics, Deviance and Doping
Social Differentiation in Sport
Sport and the Mass Media
Commercialisation and Globalisation
Short-Term Responses to Exercise
- 5 subtopics
- 15 things to know
- Components 1 and 2
What Short-Term Responses to Exercise covers
Short-Term Responses to Exercise is examined in both papers, since Component 1 and Component 2 can each examine any of the content. It covers the heart as a dual-action pump and the cardiac cycle, stroke volume, heart rate and cardiac output during exercise, nervous and hormonal control of heart rate, blood vessels, blood pressure and the vascular shunt and ventilation, gas exchange and neuromuscular responses.
Where it is assessed
Components 1 and 2
Either 2 hour written paper, each worth 35% of the A level, can examine this.
Check the Eduqas specification ↗The 5 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- The heart as a dual-action pump and the cardiac cycleThe heart as a dual-action pump, pulmonary and systemic circulation, the thicker left ventricle, the path of blood and the valves, myogenic muscle and the spread of the impulse, the atrioventricular node, and the cardiac cycle at rest and in exercise.Open →
- Stroke volume, heart rate and cardiac output during exerciseStroke volume, heart rate and cardiac output with worked calculations, venous return and the Frank-Starling mechanism, heart rate in sub-maximal and maximal exercise and recovery, maximum heart rate, and trained and untrained performers.Open →
- Nervous and hormonal control of heart rateThe cardiac control centre and the autonomic nervous system, sympathetic and parasympathetic stimulation, chemoreceptors, proprioceptors, baroreceptors and thermoreceptors, adrenaline, the sprinter on the blocks and recovery.Open →
- Blood vessels, blood pressure and the vascular shuntArteries, capillaries, veins and arterioles, systolic and diastolic blood pressure in a steady run and a heavy squat, the vascular shunt and its control, vasodilation and vasoconstriction, and the skeletal muscle and respiratory pumps.Open →
- Ventilation, gas exchange and neuromuscular responsesTidal volume, breathing frequency and minute ventilation with a worked example, the respiratory control centre and its receptors, the breathing muscles, oxygen diffusion and the oxyhaemoglobin curve, nerve transmission, steady state and oxygen uptake.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Describe how the electrical impulse spreads through the heart.
Process
Describe the sequence of events that raises heart rate at the start of a 400 m race.
Key term
Define stroke volume.
Key term
Describe the structure of an artery and explain how it suits its function.
Key term
How do tidal volume and breathing frequency change from rest to intense exercise?
Key term
Define heart rate and give a typical resting value.
Key term
Where is the cardiac control centre, and what does it do?
Key term
How is a capillary suited to gas exchange?
Key term
What is minute ventilation, and how is it calculated?
Key term
Why is the heart described as a dual-action pump?
Key term
What is cardiac output, and how is it calculated?
Key term
What is the autonomic nervous system?
Key term
Describe the structure of a vein.
Numbers
Calculate the minute ventilation of a runner whose tidal volume is 2.5 litres at 40 breaths per minute.
Take Short-Term Responses to Exercise further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Systemic circulation vs Pulmonary circulation
Systemic circulation: the route carrying oxygenated blood from the left ventricle to the body. Pulmonary circulation: the route carrying deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs.
Sympathetic nervous system vs Parasympathetic nervous system
Sympathetic nervous system: the branch that speeds the heart through the accelerator nerve. Parasympathetic nervous system: the branch that slows the heart through the vagus nerve.
Vasodilation vs Vasoconstriction
Vasodilation: widening of arterioles to increase blood flow. Vasoconstriction: narrowing of arterioles to reduce blood flow.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Why is the heart described as a dual-action pump?
Model answer
The right side of the heart pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs. The left side pumps oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
- 2
Describe the pulmonary circulation.
Model answer
The pulmonary circulation carries deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs through the pulmonary artery. Oxygenated blood returns to the left atrium through the pulmonary veins.
- 3
Describe the systemic circulation.
Model answer
The systemic circulation carries oxygenated blood from the left ventricle through the aorta to the body's tissues. Deoxygenated blood returns to the right atrium through the venae cavae.
- 4
Why is the wall of the left ventricle thicker than that of the right ventricle?
Model answer
The left ventricle must pump blood around the whole body against high resistance. The right ventricle pumps blood only to the nearby lungs.
- 5
Trace the path of blood through the heart from the venae cavae to the aorta.
Model answer
Blood flows from the venae cavae into the right atrium and then the right ventricle. The pulmonary artery carries the blood to the lungs. Blood returns in the pulmonary veins to the left atrium and left ventricle. The aorta then carries the blood to the body.
- 6
What is the role of the valves in the heart?
Model answer
Valves prevent blood flowing backwards through the heart. The tricuspid and bicuspid valves lie between the atria and ventricles, and semilunar valves guard the exits to the arteries.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Short-Term Responses to Exercise revision questions
- What does Short-Term Responses to Exercise cover in Eduqas A-Level Physical Education?
- 5 subtopics: the heart as a dual-action pump and the cardiac cycle, stroke volume, heart rate and cardiac output during exercise, nervous and hormonal control of heart rate, blood vessels, blood pressure and the vascular shunt and ventilation, gas exchange and neuromuscular responses. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Short-Term Responses to Exercise organised?
- By the Eduqas A550QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Short-Term Responses to Exercise, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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