Add another issue to the growing obesity problem especially among school children. Not only are they getting bigger and opening themselves up for a whole host of ailments including heart disease, but now your kid may not being do as well in school because of it. Or at least so says James Pivarnik, president-elect of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Pivarnik, who is also a professor of kinesiology at Michigan State University in Lansing reports that “middle-school students who performed best on fitness tests — which gauged aerobic capacity, strength, endurance, flexibility and body composition — performed better academically as well.”
According to the study, the students that are the most fit, also scored 30 percent higher on standardized tests. The idea is that exercise may boost academic performance.
(If only my parents had realized this when I was growing up. I was never allowed to go outside until my homework was finished. A terrible punishment for a Tom-boy like myself).
Are your kids active enough? Will information on the alleged brain-boosting ability of exercise move you to get your kids moving?
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I'm not sure what you mean about policy makers taking notice. When I was a kid in elementary school, then President John F. Kennedy, whose family also started the Special Olympics, pushed the President's Council on Fitness to the forefront of public attention and engagement. Although established by President Eisenhower in 1956, I think most people associate the Council with Kennedy and may also have participated in school programs toward winning the President's Physical Fitness Award.
If you scroll down through this article on the President's Council, you'll see an ad that cautions against obesity, that being a concern even then! Furthermore, the Council stated:
I think people have simply become more sedentary. Policy makers don't need to be telling people to get off their butts. Parents need to be teaching their children to.
Just my dos centavos.
August 21, 2008 - 8:04pmThis Comment
You're absolutely correct in saying that parents need to teach their children to "get off their butts." But the policy makers who are insisting on more standardized testing in the schools, which in turn results in more seatwork and the elimination of physical education and even recess, MUST get wise to the importance of physical activity. Not just for the body but for the brain! Eliminating PE and recess from the schools is contrary to what all the science says.
August 22, 2008 - 6:31amThis Comment
Why we ever accepted the notion that the mind and body have nothing to do with one another is beyond me! As a children's physical activity specialist, I feel strongly that the body matters, too. But considering how superior we consider the brain to be, it's a relief that all the evidence is pointing toward "the brain-boosting ability of exercise" -- because maybe now parents will make sure their children are active enough!
Dr. Pivarnik's study isn't the only one to show that physical activity stimulates the brain and promotes optimal learning. There's lots of research out there -- if only the policy makers would take notice!
Thanks for bringing this study to the attention of your readers!
August 21, 2008 - 5:28amThis Comment