In an era of constant entertainment, instant information and the never-ending search for the ‘quick fix’, finding 30 minutes a day to exercise seems impossible. But before you trade in your treadmill for the ‘Miracle Ab Worker 2000’, consider this; not only will exercise give you a better body; but better brains too.
Fresh research from the University of Cambridge found exercisers learned faster, remembered more and thought more clearly. So why do we let our children sit around eating pop tarts, playing video games and then expect straight A’s?
Cambridge scientists, found mice that exercise grew new cells in the brain linked to memory. The authors of the study believe the new brain cells were behind the improvement in cognitive performance. But not only have Cambridge researchers been looking into the metal benefits of exercise, for years a wealth of research has worked to prove the simple cliché, ’healthy body, healthy mind.’
But still today Irish schools hold one of the biggest misconceptions; that sacrificing physical education for classroom time will improve academic performance. When speaking to five different secondary schools around the nation, the average amount of compulsory time for physical education was two hours a week; barely enough to break a sweat.
However, Alexandra College, an all girls’ fee paying school, has allocated 4 hours each week and I was told most of the girls participate in extracurricular sports as well. So it was no surprise when The Sunday Times placed the school 9th in Ireland in 2009. This placing was based on the results of students’ admission to major universities.
Harry Brooke, 17, is one of Ireland’s brightest youth both on and off the pitch. Currently Harry is studying and boarding at St. Columbus College and has been busy preparing for his leaving cert. The young all-star, who plays rugby, hockey, tennis and trains three times a week in the gym, has also been prognosticated at 575 on his leaving cert.
Harry’s mother, Amanda Brooke, says, “sports have helped Harry with all the essential aspects of his life; his self esteem, organization and social interaction which have then in turn allowed him to perform strongly academically.”
Amanda also tells me that Harry’s hand-eye coordination is far more advanced than his brothers’ and sisters’ saying, “this may be a result of Harry playing tennis at such a young age.” Amanda believes that developments like coordination are not exclusive of other practical developments.
“Picking the right sports for your children is essential,” Amanda suggests. “Harry is the youngest of his class and still has not filled out like his other classmates, so he has found rugby more challenging in recent years. Whereas he excels at tennis and is very suited for it.”
She says that this is very important for the child’s self esteem and if they feel like they can achieve something on the pitch they are more likely to do the same off the pitch as well.
Not only is sport improving Harry’s academics but also his social interaction skills. His father, Christopher Brooke, told me how playing sports was the only thing that helped Harry integrate with 600 of his fellow students when the family moved to India in 2009.
Harry says, “I have really found that sports have helped me with discipline and how to allot my time. In sports you are always training for a big event, this is exactly the same, training for the leaving cert.”
After the leaving cert Harry plans to study business either in Durham or Bristol, both in the top 10 UK universities.
He tells me about the other students in his class saying, “one guy has been scouted by Leinster Rugby team and has been prognosticated at 600 points, while another girl who plays not sport at all has also been prognosticated at 600. There will always be extremes but generally the kids who do sports are higher achievers.”
Peter Jackson is the Head of Science at St. Columbus College and teaches Harry, whom he calls an “incredibly bright young man”, biology and chemistry. In his 36 years of teaching he has been able to observe the effect that sports can have on education. He says, “sports do not make kids more intellectual but teaches them self discipline which carries over to the class room.”
Peter’s son took up karate and his grades instantly rose. “The Karate did not make him smarter but taught him self discipline and commitment, which I see happen with my students time and time again.”
“Over the years I have noticed a greater commitment in the pupils that play sport, with or without the natural ability the commitment is what leads them to succeed academically.”
To-date five controlled experiments, in America, Canada and Australia, have evaluated the effects of allocating more time to physical education in the classroom. The five studies all showed that the students maintained or improved on their academic performance while similar researched showed that the children were more focused and on-task in the class.
243 students took part in a project that looked at the importance of mini activity breaks. The projected showed that a 10 minute activity break lead to a significant 8% improvement in on-task behaviour. While the children who had struggled to concentrate had a whopping 20% improvement in behaviour.
So how exactly does exercise boost the brain?
Most people work towards leading stress free lives, but creating a mild stress on your body can be a good thing, Fernando Gomez-Pinilla of UCLA, told Life Science Magazine.
This mild stress includes any cardio activity that encourages your body to protect its most precious organ: the brain. Neurons in the brain become more vulnerable than cells in any other organ when exercise is involved; this is why Fernando Gomez-Pinilla says, “all the physiology of the body is designed to protect the brain.”
But not only does exercise protect the brain it also improves it. Even when you are sitting or lying down, your brain is updating your body with messages. Right leg bent- left leg straight. So naturally the more you move the more your brain starts talking to you body until your brain starts releasing growth factors, which make the neurons in the brain stronger, healthier and more able to learn.
Subsequently these growth factors can lead to a better academic performance.
However, not all research has shown positive affects to playing sport. Australian family therapist Biddulph calls sports a “double edged sword”, in his book ‘Raising boys’. Biddulph says, while sports can be enormously beneficial it can also encourage negative traits if sportsmanship is eclipsed by an obsession with winning.
Nevertheless young sportsmen and woman continue to dominate academically. It is no coincidence that the finest sports stars are also today’s brightest brains.
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