Harper College/Student Success/Exercise/Learning

Lissette Nava

How does fitness affect learning in students? This question has been asked by many students in generations over time. Nobody ever wants to run the mile, or do the daily stretches when they would rather be home sleeping. Every excuse to skip the gym has been used in the book. These excuses from students come from the lack of knowledge that they did not attain. Knowledge that if passed on correctly could impact their lives in a substantial way that these students would benefit from in school. Doing simple regular exercises can improve learning, memory, and students overall mental health. Fitness is way more important than we think, especially when it comes to improving learning, Dr. John J Raley, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard medical school claims that exercise improves learning on three levels: “ First, it optimizes your mindset to improve alertness; attention and motivation; Second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells in the hippocampus.” Basically, exercise trains the brain to get ready to learn and it also allows to retain information easier helping your memory. When we exercise it improves many parts of our brains and bodies, like our memory for instance. Your memory is something that slowly deteriorates as we grow older. But some studies show that regular exercise changes the brain to protect memory and thinking skills. In a study done at the University of British Columbia, “Researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved In verbal memory and learning.” If we continuously stimulate the parts of our brains that improve memory and thinking, this will help students retain more information. Furthermore, exercise can improve students mental health. To some going to college, exercise may just be just another chore, it could be one of the hardest part of their day and sometimes without knowing it, many students suffer from mental illness wether it’s stress, anxiety, depression and ADHD, these illnesses greatly impact on a students learning capabilities. Dr. Raleys, “ Exercise controls the emotional and physical feelings of stress and it also works at the cellular level. Physical activity is a natural way to prevent the negative consequences of stress and actually reverse them. In addition, studies show that people who add physical activity to their lives become more socially active, which boosts confidence and helps establish and maintain social connections.” All in all, it is very beneficial to exercise regularly if you want a healthy body and mind. We have learned that if we take a little time for fitness, then it will improve a students learning, memory and overall mental health. All of which are necessary if we want to live normal lives because college can be stressful, but if a student can get themselves into a routine where they can exercise sometime in the day it will greatly improve their memory and mental health.

Godman, Heidi. "Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills." Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Health Publishing Blog, APRIL 05,htts://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/rgular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-thinking-skills-201404097110

Barlie, Nancy. "Exercise and the Brain: How Fitness Impacts Learning" Hey Teach, Western Governors University htts://www.wgu.edu/heytech/article/exercise-and-brain-how-fitness-impacts-learning1801.html