Exercise Helps the Brain

People who belong to a gym (and actually use their membership) aren’t only getting more physically fit than us sedentary beings, but their BRAINS are actually reaping benefits from the cardio.

It has long been known that three 30 minute exercise sessions per week are good for your heart, but many recent studies have focused on how that same exercise routine positively affects the brain.

Many of us have experienced mood improvement through exercise. As we get our bodies moving, certain hormones are released like serotonin that adjusts one’s mood.

One study even showed that this (mood lift) lasted for 12 hours! Exercise also seems to not only lessen our current stress level, but also improve how we handle stress.

Exercise also “improves attention, memory, accuracy, and how quickly you process information, all of which helps you make smarter decisions,” says Charles H. Hillman, Ph.D., an associate professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A study in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory demonstrated that people who performed intense exercise learned vocabulary words 20% faster than those who did a low intensive workout.

As parents this information is important on many levels:

• In the age where G.P.A, grades and test scores seem of utmost importance, schools that include Physical Education in our child’s schedule are not taking away from the student’s academic experience, but rather enhancing it.
• In an interview on NPR’s “Your Health”, Dr. Antronette Yancy, Director for the Center to Eliminate Health Disparities in Kids, said that kids “are less likely to be disruptive in terms of their classroom behavior when they’re active. Kids feel better about themselves, have higher self-esteem, less depression, less anxiety – all of those things can impair academic performance and attentiveness.”
• “When Mama’s not happy, nobody’s happy” is true in our house. As parents, we often focus on our children’s needs before our own without realizing that by taking care of ourselves, we are improving the home environment. Find time to exercise too! You will be more productive at work and more patient and wise at home which is good for you and your child.

So, let’s go get our kids (and ourselves) healthier both physically and mentally!