Some time in the late 80s, My Mom (holding the torch) got to run with the Olympic torch. A once in a lifetime experience for all of us. That's me on the left with the "Sun-in" bleached hair 🙂

written by john c ashworth, ma, cscs

**Note: This idea and article was inspired by a post to the Phys Ed Column in The New York Times, written by Gretchen Reynolds

I can always tell when my kids haven't had physical education during their day at school.  Yes, that's right, just like in so many other cases, physical education is trumped two days per week in order to focus on other seemingly more important tasks.  The problem is, that the negative impact is glaring.  Tired, lethargic, and attempting to recover from all that sitting all day long, they're grumpy, unfocused and badly in need of some physical activity and exercise.  Equally important, is the fact that when they don't get their physical education, they are missing an important opportunity to improve their fitness levels each day, which new research suggests, helps to speed up the development of their brain's executive functioning.

We have long known that improved fitness levels in kids helps them think better.  The problem with that data has been the fact that it is more associational than cause and effect.  As such, in a new study published in Pediatrics, kids were recruited into an after school program and split in to a control and exercise group.  The exercise group participated in a combination of fun fitness and motor skill development activities that kept them moving for 70 minutes after school, and that helped to significantly improve their fitness levels.  The control group continued with their normal every day life patterns after school.

What did researchers find?

Study participants were aged 8 and 9, because at that age researchers have determined that this time period is associated with a leap in brain development.  Specifically, the executive functioning of the 8 to 9 year old's brain is developing rapidly during this time.  This is the part of the brain that allows them to impose more order on their thinking, and help control mental multi-tasking, maintain concentration, and inhibit inappropriate responses to mental stimuli.  All of which is becoming more difficult to accomplish in the age of digital distraction.

In addition, kids whose executive functions are stunted tend to have academic problems in school, while children with well-developed brains in this area usually do well.

Sure enough, both subjects in the exercise group and the control group demonstrated improvements in the executive functioning of their brains, but the kids in the exercise group demonstrated a much more significant improvement than did the controls, which coincided with their significant improvements in fitness level.  Kids in the control group showed no improvement in their fitness levels.

Once again, we are presented with evidence that exercise is better than no exercise, especially when it comes to the development of kids' brains.  The challenge, of course, is making that physical activity and exercise happen each day amidst busy schedules, and seemingly more important pursuits.  Winter time here in Wisconsin also presents the added challenge to get outside on cold and blustery days when darkness often arrives home before we do.

That said, however, how can you ignore these results?  You owe it to your kids to find a way.

-John

Additional quick bullets for those that might be wondering:

Type of exercise they performed after school:

• Each 2-hour session after school focused on FUN!  The kids played and interspersed rest times, and by the end of each two hour period accumulated 70 minutes of physical activity and about 2 miles of overall distance.
• The activities changed frequently.  They played tag, as well as learned skills like how to dribble a soccer ball down the field.
• The exercise and activity was specifically designed to improve both fitness and motor skills.
• The program lasted for a full school year, which means every day of the week for nine months.  And ,of course, not every kid made it to every session.
• In spite of mounting evidence, school districts nationwide continue to shorten or eliminate physical education altogether.  Awkward silence...