# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mayo Clinic Minute: Exercise and your brain

# data[].attributes.body
Busy is just an excuse =)

# data[].attributes.body
15 minute video on why excercise is underrated what effect it may have on your brain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
WHY Exercise is so Underrated (Brain Power & Movement Link)

# data[].attributes.headline
TED talk from a neuroscientist about the brain and excercise

# data[].attributes.subject
TED talk from a neuroscientist about the brain and excercise

# data[].attributes.body
Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki talks about excercise and the brain with science and personal stories mixed in.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wendy Suzuki: The brain-changing benefits of exercise | TED

# data[].attributes.headline
3 Practical suggestions for you and your family.

# data[].attributes.subject
3 Practical suggestions for you and your family.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fitness and exercise play an important role in the development and education of children. Not only does regular exercise encourage kids to get off of the couch to interact with the world around them, it also helps improve their concentration and attention both inside the classroom as well as when learning at home. Does your child get enough daily physical activity?

Improving The Mind With Regular Exercise

When students exercise their bodies they are also exercising their minds. Keeping active on a regular basis can help sharpen a student's focus and memory, helping him/her become more attentive in the classroom and improving recall of what he/she has been taught. Making sure your student is regularly active helps lay the groundwork for effective learning by giving him or her the energy and focus he or she needs to do well in school.

Help your child become more active by working these tips into his/her daily routine:

Schedule homework breaks

It's easy for students to get frustrated or distracted when they are sitting doing school work for long periods of time. Try scheduling short homework breaks so your student can get up to stretch and clear his/her mind before getting back to work. Even a 5 minute walk around the house can help your child work off some of that energy so he/she is focused and ready to tackle the rest of his/her homework.

Plan a weekly family activity night

Choose a night during the week when the entire family spends time together doing something active. Taking a walk around the block, riding your bikes, or playing at the park are all fun activities that will help keep your family active while also having fun. Take turns planning the activity each week so everyone gets a chance to choose something they want to do.

Enrol your child in an after school club or activity

Organized sports like hockey or soccer are a great way for children to get the exercise they need while learning other skills like cooperation and communication. Your child can also get active by joining other activities or clubs that are organized by his/her school, like a nature club or after school sports team. He/she will be excited to be participating in an activity he/she finds fun and interesting, so getting that important exercise is something he/she will look forward to.

Physical activity is just one of the building blocks of achieving success at school. If your child needs help reaching his or her potential, Oxford Learning has a number of programs that can help teach essential learning skills including study techniques, organization, and listening skills. Contact us today to find a solution that fits your child's needs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Role of Fitness and Exercise In Education | Oxford Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fitness and exercise play an important role in the development and education of children. Not only does regular exercise encourage kids to get off of the couch to interact with the world around them, it also helps improve their concentration and attention both inside the classroom as well as when learning at home.

# data[].attributes.body
What parts of your brain does excercies help?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
he brain is often described as being "like a muscle". It's a comparison that props up the brain training industry and keeps school children hunched over desks. We judge literacy and numeracy exercises as more beneficial for your brain than running, playing and learning on the move.

But the brain-as-muscle analogy doesn't quite work. To build up your biceps you can't avoid flexing them. When it comes to your brain, an oblique approach can be surprisingly effective. In particular, working your body's muscles can actually benefit your grey matter.

Scientists are showing that the runner's high and the yogi's tranquility have profound effects on your brain. Moreover, specific physical activities can markedly alter its structure in precise ways.

A wave of studies exploring the unexpected links between mental and bodily fitness is emerging from labs. This research might give you the impetus to get more active. It can also help you choose the best ways to prepare physically for mental challenges such as exams, interviews and creative projects.

Boost your memory

The part of the brain that responds strongly to aerobic exercise is the hippocampus. Well-controlled experiments in children, adults and the elderly show that this brain structure grows as people get fitter. Since the hippocampus is at the core of the brain's learning and memory systems, this finding partly explains the memory-boosting effects of improved cardiovascular fitness.

As well as slowly improving your memory hardware, exercise can have a more immediate impact on memory formation. German researchers showed that walking or cycling during, but not before, learning helped new foreign language vocabulary to stick. So exercise while you revise. Don't push it too hard, though: vigorous workouts can raise your stress levels, which can scupper your memory circuits.

Improve your concentration

Besides making memories stickier, exercise can help you focus and stay on task. The best scientific evidence comes from testing school children, but the same most likely applies to us all. Interspersing lessons with 20-minute bouts of aerobics-style exercise improved the attention spans of Dutch school pupils. Meanwhile, a large randomised controlled trial in the US looked at the effects of daily after-school sports classes over a school year. The children, of course, got fitter. Less predictably, their executive control improved. They became more adept at ignoring distractions, multitasking, and holding and manipulating information in their minds.

And if that all sounds like hard work, you may not have to get out of breath to reap the attention-honing effects of exercise. Just 10 minutes of playful coordination skills, like bouncing two balls at the same time, improved the attention of a large group of German teenagers.

Improve your mental health

Love it or hate it, bouts of physical activity can have potent effects on your mood. The runner's high - that feeling of elation that follows intense exercise - is real. Even mice get it. It may not be due to an "endorphin rush", though. Levels of the body's homemade opiate do rise in the bloodstream, but it's not clear how much endorphin actually gets into the brain. Instead, recent evidence points to a pleasurable and pain-killing firing of the endocannabinoid system: the psychoactive receptor of cannabis.

What about yoga? Does it really help with stress? When anxiety levels rise, you tense up, your heart races and your attention narrows to a slit. This shift to "fight or flight" mode is automatic, but that doesn't mean it's wholly out of your control. Yoga teaches the deliberate command of movement and breathing, with the aim of turning on the body's "relaxation response". Science increasingly backs this claim. For example, a 2010 study put participants through eight weeks of daily yoga and meditation practice. In parallel with self-reported stress-reduction, brain scans showed shrinkage of part of their amygdala, a deep-brain structure strongly implicated in processing stress, fear and anxiety.

Exercise is also emerging as a promising way to overcome depression. A 2013 meta-analysis cautiously reported that exercise - both aerobic and resistance - was "moderately effective" in treating depressive symptoms. Strikingly, exercise seemed as effective as antidepressant drugs and psychological treatments. The study's authors identified it as an area crying out for more rigorous investigation.

Enhance your creativity

Thoreau, Nietzsche and many other creative types have claimed that walking gives wings to the imagination. Last year, psychologists gave this empirical support. Walking, either on a treadmill or around Stanford's leafy campus, bolstered divergent thinking: the free-roaming, idea-generating component of creative thought. It didn't help convergent thinking, though. So if you're struggling to home in on a single solution, an idle stroll may not be what you need.

Slowing cognitive decline

The evidence that staying physically fit keeps your brain healthy into old age is especially compelling. Most concrete is the link between aerobic fitness and cognitive preservation. Workouts needn't be extreme either: 30-45 minutes of brisk walking, three times a week, can help fend off the mental wear and tear and delay the onset of dementia. It pays to get used to regular exercise early, though. The protective effects are clearest before the cognitive signs of old age kick in.

Nor is it all about your heart and lungs. Exercises to improve balance, coordination and agility made a clear impact on the brain structure and cognitive function of a large group of German elderly people. Twice weekly sessions of weightlifting can have a visible neurological impact. Dancing may also be restorative for ageing brains. Just an hour of dance a week, for six months, did little for elderly participants' aerobic capacity, but the physical and social stimulation bolstered their cognitive wellbeing.

Researchers are still teasing out the critical factors that make exercise such a potent brain tonic. Prime suspects include increased blood flow to the brain, surges of growth hormones and expansion of the brain's network of blood vessels. It's also possible that exercise stimulates the birth of new neurons. Until recently, few believed this could happen in adult human brains.

Don't sit still

The cognitive spillover from exercise reminds us that our brains don't operate in isolation. What you do with your body impinges on your mental faculties. Sitting still all day, every day, is dangerous. So don't dither about what form of exercise you do. Find something you enjoy, then get up and do it. Right, I'm off for a jog.
Ben Martynoga is a neuroscientist and science writer. He's currently a visiting researcher at the Francis Crick Institute in London. He tweets at @mountainogre. Get involved with the Use your head series by joining the discussion on #useyourhead

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How physical exercise makes your brain work better

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
he brain is often described as being "like a muscle". It's a comparison that props up the brain training industry and keeps school children hunched over desks. We judge literacy and numeracy exercises as more beneficial for your brain than running, playing and learning on the move.

# data[].attributes.headline
Excercise can effect Academic Performace.

# data[].attributes.subject
Excercise can effect Academic Performace.

# data[].attributes.body
There are many factors that can effect your academic perfermance but excercise is one of them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Opinion | Exercise and Academic Performance (Published 2013)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Physical activity should be a core educational concern, not a dispensable option.

# data[].attributes.body
Something to talk to your teacher about!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With the problem of childhood obesity looming, finding ways to increase our children's physical activity levels is becoming increasingly important. Even so, lowering our children's body fat percentages is just one small aspect of the bigger picture. Along with the multitude of health benefits, there are also many ancillary advantages that exercise and physical activity have on learning in the classroom.

Exercise and the Brain
In a study done by Georgia Health Sciences University, researchers had 11 to 17 year olds who were overweight commit to 20 to 40 minutes of vigorous play everyday (such as jump rope, running games, and hula hooping).

The activity was done every day after school for three months and the results of their fMRI scans at the end of the test period showed an enhancement in brain activity. The prefrontal cortex increased in activity while an area just behind it showed less activity, which is common for those who are rapidly developing cognitive shills. All of the students showed remarkable improvements in their math skills but the students that exercised the most also showed an impressive 3.8-point increase on standard I.Q. tests. However, improving test scores is not the only positive effect physical activity has on learning in the classroom.

Exercise in the Classroom
Recently a teacher in Canada decided to test what effect exercise had on her students and found some amazing results. The teacher added two weekly bouts of exercise that were 20 minutes each and conducted them while still teaching her regular subjects like language arts and mathematics. At the end of the four-week trial, the teacher found that every single student went up a full letter grade in reading and math; some of her kids even went from F's in vocabulary to A's. This was similar to the findings of the study done by Georgia Health Sciences University.

This four-week test on the effects of physical activity on learning not only found an increase in test scores, but also found that the kids had an improved ability to concentrate and could work for longer periods of time without interruption. Additional benefits included significantly improved student attendance, and an impressive 67% drop in disciplinary problems.

How do we make physical activity more prominent in our schools and reap the rewards?
Clearly, physical activity can have a positive effect on learning and behavior in the classroom. Unfortunately school systems are big, inefficient, and resistant to change, so the likelihood of any school adopting this teaching style on its own is very unlikely no matter how good it is for our kids, the school's discipline issues, and/or test scores.

What we have to do, as a community, is request that these changes be undertaken in our schools - for our children's educational benefit and for their health. Even if you don't have kids, the social benefit of improving kid's attendance and discipline would be evident with a reduction in teen crime and also a smarter more capable future workforce. As an additional benefit, introducing youth to physical activity increases their chances of continuing to work out later in life, which in turn lowers their chances for preventable health issues like diabetes, and heart disease...which in turn lowers everyone's healthcare costs.

Implementing exercise in the classroom is a win, win, win...win situation. Do everything you can to motivate other people to get onboard, and go to the school district and insist upon implementing these strategies in the classroom. In the meantime, take some responsibility for your own children by encouraging them to get up and move and to exercise with them. Go play with your kids; run with them, jump rope with them, hop, bounce, and wrestle with them. Just get moving and stay moving, and encourage other parents to do the same.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Benefits of Exercise in the Classroom - Effects of Exercise on Learning and Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With the problem of childhood obesity looming, finding ways to increase our children's physical activity levels is becoming increasingly important. Even so, lowering our children's body fat percentages is just one small aspect of the bigger picture. Along with the multitude of health benefits, there are also many ancillary advantages that exercise and physical activity have on learning in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.headline
Simple scientific reasons why you think better after excercise.

# data[].attributes.subject
Simple scientific reasons why you think better after excercise.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Advertisement

Why is it that I seem to think better when I walk or exercise?

-Emily Lenneville, Baltimore

Justin Rhodes, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, responds:

After being cooped up inside all day, your afternoon stroll may leave you feeling clearheaded. This sensation is not just in your mind. A growing body of evidence suggests we think and learn better when we walk or do another form of exercise. The reason for this phenomenon, however, is not completely understood.

Part of the reason exercise enhances cognition has to do with blood flow. Research shows that when we exercise, blood pressure and blood flow increase everywhere in the body, including the brain. More blood means more energy and oxygen, which makes our brain perform better.

Another explanation for why working up a sweat enhances our mental capacity is that the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for learning and memory, is highly active during exercise. When the neurons in this structure rev up, research shows that our cognitive function improves. For instance, studies in mice have revealed that running enhances spatial learning. Other recent work indicates that aerobic exercise can actually reverse hippocampal shrinkage, which occurs naturally with age, and consequently boost memory in older adults. Yet another study found that students who exercise perform better on tests than their less athletic peers.

The big question of why we evolved to get a mental boost from a trip to the gym, however, remains unanswered. When our ancestors worked up a sweat, they were probably fleeing a predator or chasing their next meal. During such emergencies, extra blood flow to the brain could have helped them react quickly and cleverly to an impending threat or kill prey that was critical to their survival.

So if you are having a mental block, go for a jog or hike. The exercise might help pull you out of your funk.

This article was originally published with the title "Why is it that I seem to think better when I walk or exercise?"

Latest News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Why is it that I seem to think better when I walk or exercise? -Emily Lenneville, Baltimore Justin Rhodes, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, responds: After being cooped up inside all day, your afternoon stroll may leave you feeling clearheaded.

# data[].attributes.headline
How Excercise Improves yoour Brain with Dr. John Ratey.

# data[].attributes.subject
How Excercise Improves yoour Brain with Dr. John Ratey.

# data[].attributes.body
40 minute podcast interview with Dr. Ratey about the science behind excercise and your brain as well as practical suggestions for simple excercises.

# data[].attributes.body
Great ways to set a routine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Early Morning Workout Tips (Before Work/ School Morning Routine)

# data[].attributes.headline
How excercise benefits your brain. (animated

# data[].attributes.subject
How excercise benefits your brain. (animated

# data[].attributes.body
Evolutionary implications about excercise and your brain with fun animations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Exercise Benefits Your Brain - Exercise and The Brain (animated)

# data[].attributes.body
Physical activity is important but so is working out your brain.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Physical exercise is a crucial part of staying healthy, but exercising your brain is just as essential to help keep your mind sharp and prevent memory loss. Here are some great brain exercises for memory improvement.