Being physically active can have positive impacts mentally, too

With the mandates about staying at home unless the trip is necessary leaves a person with some spare time. I started to re-read the book, “Spark, the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain,” by John Ratey. The benefits of running, exercise, and being active to the health and physical fitness of a person are mentioned many times in articles and books. The book, “Spark,” takes a look at one benefit that most people do not associate with fitness. It brings out the benefit of actually increasing the mental aspect of exercise and getting smarter. 

The book presents some solid facts and research about how exercise increases brain nerves and makes people smarter. One example of how exercise helped with students in a school setting stands out. The school was in Naperville, Illinois (suburb of Chicago) that took an international test that competes with China, Japan, and Korea, as the schools that usually are at the top of the list. Students in Naperville took first place in the science category and sixth in the math section. It was the only school in the United States to be listed in this test.

The example goes on to one possible factor of why these students did so well on the test. Students had a voluntary “zero hour” class that starts before the first period in school. In the class, the students run a mile, do exercises and play vigorous games during that hour before school officially starts. The teachers of other classes note that the students that participate in the “zero hour” class seem to have better concentration and are more attentive to the material being presented. The result is a better learning of the material and a possible reason for the excellent showing on an international test.

There is other research in journals that demonstrate how exercise can be a factor in learning. One study in California compared two classes taking a math test. One class did a study hour and review just before the test. The other class took part in a physical education class and did vigorous exercise before the test. The results had the exercise class having much higher scores than the class that sat in a classroom and studied before the exam. Exercise seems to be working for students taking tests.

One other study in California looked at the various grades of several thousand students and compared the academic grades and their scores on a physical fitness test. The results showed that the students that scored highest on the physical fitness test also scored highest in grade level with A’s. The scores recorded that the more tests passed in physical fitness tests, the better grades scored on academic tests. The least physically fit students had the lowest scores compared to the more physically fit students.

This reminded me of an article I read years ago from Time Magazine. The article was in the Health and Science section and was titled, “The reason for recess; Children who are more physically active may do better in school.” The article mentioned several studies of how students do better when they get exercise. The problem arises when schools start to emphasize a core group of classes and classes like physical education, music, and drama, are often eliminated or cut back. The study at the time showed that only 18% of high schools meet the requirements of regular physical education classes. Elementary grades seem to do better if they have a recess as well as a scheduled physical education class. It seems when a student gets to high school many are only required to take one year of physical education classes out of the four years in high school. Those students that participated in sports offered by the school seem to do well in their classes also. The problem is that in many schools, especially larger enrollment schools, only a very small percentage of students participate in sports.

One statement from the book, “Spark,” that puts the entire value of exercise and brain activity is, “While learning can be increased, you have to have something to learn, or it won’t work.” When I ran marathons one of the more common statements I heard was, “Anyone who runs a marathon of 26.2 miles has got to be crazy.” It seems that runners putting in those miles on the road were just revving up their smarts and getting ahead in life, whether it is in school or on the job. Another good reason to stay active besides the health and physical fitness benefits attributed to exercise.