Over the years we have seen an increase in exercise initiatives at first we had the Presidents Council on Fitness, the First Lady has Lets Move now, the NFL has the 60 campaign looking to get kids moving 60 minutes a day. They also have them at jobs with fit bit competitions, wellness evolutions, or companies encouraging folks to work out at lunch. They are all great programs I applaud you for your efforts in fighting obesity and getting people moving. I psyched you out we are not talking about physical fitness programs. Don’t be disappointed, and please don’t be butt hurt. We are talking about exercise it has many benefits one of which is in learning. This subject came from two places a New York Times article outlining two studies one showing exercise benefiting learning, the other study showed a benefit but the study was flawed. When we look at it you will see why! I promise. This subject also came to me from another angle my interest in the conscious and subconscious mind as well as methods of reaching both with information namely learning. I always wonder about yoga where you put in work physically but the juicy part of yoga is in Shavasana or relaxation in the end. Where it is said you get the greatest benefit, the idea crossed my mind if we could tap into that to access different parts of the brain to learn. Some people are experimenting with learning language and sensory deprivation tanks with some success. To date it has self experimentation by biohacker’s without medical based evidence. Exercise is not only good for body, its good for your soul you know you feel good when your on track with your fitness goals, its also good for your mind and getting your learn on.
The first study up is titled Physical Exercise during Encoding Improves Vocabulary Learning in Young Female Adults Citation Schmidt-Kassow M, Deuser M, Thiel C, Otterbein S, Montag S. 2013 Published in Plos One. The participants in the study 105 right handed german females between the ages 18-30 were broken up into three different groups Relax, Post and Sim. The Relax groups task was to learn a word for 30 minutes and relax in a chair for the same amount of time. The Post group cycled at a hard effort for 30 minutes prior to learning new words for 30 minutes. The members of the Sim group learned while they cycled for 30 minutes. This resulted in all of the women learning some new words but the women in the Sim group faired the best. They had better recall of information, the Relax group performed better than the post group which faired the worst. The testing of the subjects took place two days after learning the words. The next study up is The Effects of Acute Exercise on Retention and Learning Mastrocola M, Exercise Science Elon University NC. They took 11 female college students who read a chapter in a nutrition text book during 2 separate elliptical sessions lasting 30 minutes which was to be moderate to hard or sitting. The group that studying quietly tested better immediately after the rest than the exercise group. After 24 hours there was no discernible difference in the groups retention. The study was flawed in my eyes as they had two problems no moderate to mild exercise group and if you have exercised hard even on an elliptical reading is not easy. You will get queasy or feel see sick and lose your place, a better option would have been auditory learning materials, in an effort to avoid the previously mentioned pitfalls. I do applaud the efforts of the researcher in looking at this topic.
I believe the difference in the studies are the result of two differing forms of exercise, the fact that a moderate to hard effort lights up your central nervous system. This is a variable that cannot be discounted as it has a direct correlation on the brains ability to focus and learn. Do you learn a new skill when your all light up with your body and mind ready to move? No look at Jiu Jitsu practitioners they practice moves breaking them down into mini moves going over them slowly and working them before going live. The same can be said for wrestling, combat sports, and football. The likelihood is that during physiological arousal certain chemicals are released that affect memory formation according to Dr. Schmidt but this has not been proven. If you have a test in a few hours study and review in quiet, but if the test is a couple of days away try some mild exercise.
I mentioned exercise initiatives earlier in the article, one program has added a new element to their program academic benefit of learning during exercise. At the Take 10 Program the core of the program are 10 minute activities combining exercise and learning. One appeared in the journal Preventative Medicine called Invisible Jump Rope the objective is to recall basic counting, addition and subtraction facts while jumping. The teacher calls out numbers from 1-10 starting with one, everyone jumps as they count up to that number. Then you start at 20 and count backwards as students do the invisible jump rope backwards. This is the beginner level of a three level system. It is backed by case studies posted on their website http://www.take10.net/case.
In this article we have looked at three different studies with varying methodologies, age groups and sexes. Some of the results have fallen in line others have changed due to different variables. One thing is evident that the test subjects who studied during mild exercise faired the best out of the exercise groups having the best retention. If you think about it with runners in mind it holds true, many runners myself included feel that while you run you can really work out problems or issues once you catch a rhythm. I feel that exercise can help to stimulate learning, but like everything else you need to apply the appropriate form of exercise don’t go all out in a training session then expect to sit down and be ready to study. People learn in different ways so please experiment and find what works for you and your kids as far as learning goes. This weekend we will be looking at Gut Microbiota, next week a summer wrap up list of movies, music, books and other entertainment. Please read and share.
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