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?