If you have ever worked in a garden, you have certainly seen the impact a little fertilizer can have on plants. They can go from droopy to perky, from thin to luscious in a short period of time. Believe it or not, the brain has a fertilizer, too.
On a basic biology level, the brain needs oxygen to function properly. Aerobic movement means we are pumping more oxygenated blood through the body, and this means there will be more blood flow and oxygen into the brain, thereby enhancing the brain’s abilities. Even something as simple as standing after sitting for an extended period can raise the heart rate by 5-8% in just seconds, and increase blood flow to the brain, which is one of the reasons smartwatches signal for us to stand.
MRIs have shown that children who are more aerobically fit have more compact fibrous white matter in their brains than children who are less aerobically fit. It is the white matter that plays a key role in attention and memory, and the more fibrous and compact, the better both memory and attention will be. (Chaddock, et al, 2014) White matter is also directly associated with more efficient brain activity because it makes up the nerve axons that carry signals around the brain. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014).
A Finnish study of twin boys in their 30s found that the twin who exercised regularly had more gray brain matter. (Gough, 2015). Gray matter is responsible for muscle and self-control (think disciplinary issues), but it is also responsible for seeing, hearing, sensory perception, memory, speech, and decision-making. In essence, executive brain function.
What does this look like in practice? Naperville High School Coach and PE teacher, Paul Zientarski, grew tired of seeing the same children finding excuses to sit out in his PE classes while his athletes participated and continued to improve their skills. In 2003, he changed his PE program to a fitness-based program where kids were given heart rate monitors and 45 minutes a day on the school track. They competed only against themselves by downloading the data from the heart rate monitor and tracking it. The result of this programming change produced a population of high schoolers of whom only 3% were overweight, v. the national average, which, at the time, was 33% overweight. Not one Naperville, IL high schooler was obese. More importantly, this high school participated in the international math and science exam (TIMSS) as its own country. To understand how this test works, the U.S. generally scores in the low to mid-teens. Naperville High scored #1 in science and #6 in math. They had not changed their curriculum, they had only changed their PE by instituting a fitness-based, aerobic-centered program. They had witnessed firsthand how exercise builds brain cells, not new learning. (Zientarski, 2015)
The Naperville teachers realized there was more success in the classroom after Zientarski implemented aerobic-based PE, so they created a new program, Learning Readiness PE (LRPE), with a similar fitness-based, aerobic-centered design, and placed it in the class period just before language arts. Students struggling in language arts were placed in the new LRPE class and saw a 52%-56% improvement in language arts skills in the first semester compared to their peers who were not enrolled in LRPE. The next semester, a math component was added, with a 93% improvement. As other schools began to pick up and implement LRPE, they too saw greatly improved test scores. But it wasn’t long before Administrators began to see another benefit of LRPE: behavior referrals and challenges were dropping.
This brought about a whole new wave of LRPE schools, but these were not schools looking for improved test scores; rather, they were in the midst of behavior crises and needed a solution. A Charleston, SC, school with the worst behavior record in the locality implemented LRPE and, in just four months, saw an 83% drop in behavior referrals. A school in North Ontario, Canada, also picked it up and placed their 25 most difficult boys in the program. They, too, saw amazing results: the semester before LRPE, those boys had 95 days of suspension. The semester after, just 5 days. In each of these cases, the school did not change anything else; they only implemented a fitness-based, aerobic program where BDNF was released, executive brain function was ignited, and behavior improved dramatically. (Ratey, 2013).
The bottom line is that studies have proven aerobic movement turns on the attention system, motivation system, and memory system.
Aerobic movement improves behavior and self-control, and helps with concentration and attention. It is a miracle pill for learning.
Keep in mind that younger children do get aerobic, but their bodies are not equipped for sustained movement. Young children are the ultimate interval trainers, and their bodies know when to take a break. If you have a preschooler who is going full out and takes a break, know that his body is giving him a rest, and given the chance, he will be right back at it afterwards.
Chaddock, et Al. Aerobic fitness is associated with greater white matter integrity in children. 8/18/14. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, volume 8 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00584/full
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Physically fit kids have beefier brain white matter than their less-fit peers.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 August 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140819083429.htm>
Gough, Myles. Identical Twin Study Shows Regular Exercise Boosts Grey Matter. 3/5/15. ScienceAlert.com. https://www.sciencealert.com/identical-twin-study-shows-regular-exercise-boosts-grey-matter
Ratey, John “Run, Jump, Learn! How Exercise Can Transform Our Schools.” 2013 Tedx Talk. youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBSVZdTQmDs
Zientarski, P. Want Smarter Healthier Kids? Try Physical Education. 5/26/15. TedxTalk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V81cO8xyMaI
