<p>[Physically</a> active boys are smarter, study hints - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091203/hl_nm/us_physically_active]Physically”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091203/hl_nm/us_physically_active)</p>
<p>We have seen that during the season, our son/s are definitely busier and more tired, but often better organized and focused. For years teachers have told the kids to get some exercise every day and that it helps them with academics.</p>
<p>According to this study in this blog of the nytimes, exercise can help reduce anxiety and reaction to stress; [Phys</a> Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious - Well Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/phys-ed-why-exercise-makes-you-less-anxious/]Phys”>Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious - The New York Times)</p>
<p>This obviously can be significantly helpful when crunch time for papers comes around, or for high stress tests come along.</p>
<p>But perhaps a bigger factor is the willpower during sports; I find XC runners in various schools in particular to be some of the most successful in school, as the sport is all about willpower and endurance. Mentally, you need to be tough enough to push past the pain to succeed, and I guess the same goes for studying. It is all about toughing it out, and high school is something you need to be able to push through as well.</p>
<p>Agreed in my home that when my son is involved in a varsity sport that requires oodles of time (fall and spring) he seems more on top of things cause he has to be as opposed to now (winter) when he just doing recreational sports that don’t require the huge time committment.</p>
<p>Also will say, that because his body/mind is so conditioned to be physical, when he is out of the routine of an everyday practice/workout he feels sluggish and out of it. He recently has started waking up a 1/2 hour earlier a couple of times a week in the morning (I promise, this is a BIG sacrifice - giving up that 1/2 hour of sleep) to go for a run in the morning. He says he feels more awake and ready to focus at school.</p>
<p>Couple of points. First, this info was in Switzerland, not the US, so it wasn’t talking about US team sports and the massive time commitments a child must make to play team sports in high schools these days. I’m stunned by that. Second, this study makes what anyone would think is a good point, that being active and at least reasonably fit is better for you in many ways.</p>
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<p>In the short article linked in the OP, I don’t see any discussion at all about participation in competitive team sports. They simply correlated aerobic fitness and muscle strength at age 18 with intelligence. There is no doubt more detailed info elsewhere, but this article does not indicate if the young males being tested participated in team sports or not.</p>
<p>Fitness–positive correlation. Muscles–none.</p>
<p>One can be aerobically fit without any participation in sports teams.</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP was referencing the “team sports” to the article, just to how it fits for her boys who are physically active and it happens to be during competitive sports.</p>
<p>^^^The title of the thread implies that the reference article reported links between sports, fitness and intelligence. I was just pointing out that the study did not investigate “sports and academic success”. There are some leaps of logic involved in that interpretation.</p>
<p>I’m all for fitness. I completely agree with the premise that physical activity, particularly that which results in aerobic fitness, improves mental functioning. </p>
<p>Forming life-long habits of regular physical activity is the most important aspect of physical education at the K12 level, in my opinion. I think that aspect of PE has improved tremendously since I was young.</p>
<p>I think that your body learns to more efficiently use resources with aerobic fitness. One other thing is that under stress, you can simply add more time to your schedule by skipping your workouts for a short period of time (one to three weeks) and still benefit from aerobic efficiency.</p>
<p>Strength is nice to have if only for preventing injuries.</p>
<p>Exercise is also associated with better sleep. The most recent evidence is with children; an extra hour a day of activity led to falling asleep 10 minutes earlier and sleeping longer with fewer interruptions. The difference between a kid who is active and one that is mostly inactive translated into well over an hour a night of sleep. Since sleep is important to mental growth, that translates to a degree into …</p>
<p>It is interesting that the correlation is with cardiavascular health–
not just toning/muscle density…</p>
<p>Which makes me think about how sendetary elderly and dementia etc…might be correlated? I wonder about that…</p>
<p>Regardless of whether a kid is on a team-- strong cardivascular health has to be good for not only heart health benefits/ reducing stress etc and it is nice to see how it correlates with perhaps academic success (higher IQ) etc…</p>
<p>I should think that sports activity as part of a healthy lifestyle (eating right, not smoking etc) as a young person is a good habit to develop.</p>
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<p>I have read that several studies are underway that are looking at that link.</p>
<p>Time to get off the chair and exercise.</p>
<p>One thought–
In our local public schools PE is terrible–there is no real benchmark or fitness plan that the kids must work towards improving their personal best…t is not like it was when I was a kid (different state too) where we had to work over a period of time on situps/planks,chinups, runnign the mile, sprits etc…
…I see lots of overweight, or thin but very out of shape kids, not dressed out for gym…and “passing PE” with no improvment in their fitness/health.</p>
<p>Real cardio/fitness does not take place in a PE class…so we are thankful for our student’s after school sports program.</p>
<p>My daughter grew up dancing from the age of 3. I originally put her in dance class so young to help with coordination skills because she was always tripping over her own feet. As she got older and involved in serious ballet classes, I noticed that most of the girls who were serious about ballet at a preprofessional intensive level were excellent, very focused, high achieving students. I always wondered which came first…did the ballet and the time commitment create time management skills which strengthened academics or were those type students just more attracted to ballet?</p>
<p>Of course, after dancing for over 14 years, she still tripped over her own feet and bumped into things and still does!</p>
<p>[Futurity.org</a> – Fit teen boys smarter, better educated](<a href=“http://futurity.org/top-stories/fit-teen-boys-smarter-better-educated/]Futurity.org”>http://futurity.org/top-stories/fit-teen-boys-smarter-better-educated/)</p>
<p>This is another link to the article summarized in the OP. It contains a link to the abstract of the research paper on which the summary is based.</p>
<p>As was already surmised, the effect seems to be aerobic activity as it relates to the circulatory system and its effects on the brain.</p>
<p>The article linked here points out that there may be major effects during the 15-18 yr. old period. I think that is interesting, since that is the age at which many kids become more sedentary.</p>
<p>I think it makes sense that a “well-oiled machine” will function better in all respects. My D has also been a committed ballet student for 15+ years and continues to take dance, yoga, pilates, and aerobics classes at college. She says if she doesn’t keep active she doesn’t feel right. She also has always been a very serious and focused student and I think the discipline of dance has had a part in this. I should add that she eats well most of the time and doesn’t indulge in anything detrimental to her well-being. She doesn’t get enough sleep, however, which is a concern to me, at least. Do any college students get enough sleep? Certainly, I believe that exercise (in conjunction with other healthy behaviors) will give you increased energy and strengthen your ability to focus and persevere.</p>