How Does Exercising Positively Effect Academic Sucess in College Students?
Introduction
After reading chapters 2, 3, and 4 of Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Carol Dweck is a professor of psychology at Stanford University. I learned about how mindset improves academic performance and how mindset affect athletes’ ability to succeed. These topics made me think about exercising and student performance. I want to find the correlation between these two topics by researching how physical exercise improves academic performances in university students. This topic interest me because I played many sports during high school and was aways active. But, now in college my life contains only school and work I find myself tired and exhausted at times. I want to learn about how staying active and working out will help me maintain my focus to my studies. This is a relevant topic because many college students can relate and need to know how important exercising is for this academic achievement.
Does Exercising Effect Memory Recollection?
The ability to remember information is an important key in students’ success in quizzes and exams. Also retaining information about what was discussed in lectures will help the students apply it to their studies and determining real life examples.
My first source was “Effects of Physical Activity Interventions on Cognitive Outcomes and Academic Performance in Adolescents and young adults: A meta-analysis”. This study was conducted by Barbara Franca Haverkamp, Rikstje Wiersma, Karen Vertessen, Hanneke van Ewijk, Jaap Oosterlann and Esther Hartman for the Journal of Sports Sciences. The researcher’s purpose was to determine how physical activity has a positive effect on attention, processing speed and inhibition. To determine the correlation, the scientist had the participants watch a rapid- fire collection of faces and names of random strangers. After a while they tried to remember the names, they had seemed like the photos flashed again on the screen. Then they split the participants into two groups. One group rode a stationary bike at an increasing pace until they were exhausted. The other group sat quietly for 30 minutes. Both groups took the memory test again. The researchers noticed the exercising group had a better performance and the other group didn’t improve. Both groups had blood samples taken throughout the experiment which helped conclude that the bikers had a higher level of protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This protein is known to promote the health of nerve cells. The non- biking group had no change in BDNF levels.
Exercising has a significant impact on the ability to recall information on a memory test. Also, short periods of exercising create a greater cognitive outcome specifically the improvement in attention. This source has also provided a deeper understand of the neurological factors that is impacted by physical activity such as the BBDNF levels. It is recommended for students to focus on adding physical activity into their routine prior to studying or even taking an exam.
How Does Exercising Effect the Body Directly and Indirectly
Another source I found supporting this idea is, “Exercise Can Boost Your Memory and Thinking Skills”. This article is written by Harvard Health Publishing. This source approaches the correlation that exercising, and memory works together both directly and indirectly on the body. Exercise acts directly on the body and brain by maintaining healthy insulin levels, helps manufacture new blood vessels in the brain, and supports the overall health of brain cells. On the other hand, exercising improves memory and thinking indirectly by enhancing mood and sleep while diminishing stress and anxiety. This source explains that they haven’t determined whether the type of exercise is more beneficial than another. But they suggest that it is likely that aerobic exercises may have more benefits since it gets the heart pumping at a higher rate. However, Harvard Health mentions a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. This study found that tia chi shows a great increase in cognitive function. Specifically in planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, and verbal reasoning. These results are because martial arts involve slow, focused movements that require the person to learn and memorize skills and movements. According to Dr. Scott McGinnis, an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School exercising should be a habit because it takes up to six months to see final cognitive benefits of exercise. He recommends making goals for yourself to work up to 150 minutes per week of physical exercise. But suggests that you can start small by only 5 or 10 minutes every week until you reach your final goal.
From this source I have learned the important aspects that exercising has directly and indirectly on the body. Physical activity not only affects the body but also the mind and has positive effects on students’ overall wellbeing. Also, I learned that all physical activity has a positive impact in one way or another. I now know that specific types of workouts or different sports may play a roll in the amount of effect on the bodies cognitive function. I still wonder if there are studies that compare different types of workouts and the effects they have. Lastly, I learned the importance that keeping physical activity in your routine has on the overall effects because it takes time to see lasting effects on aspects such as improvements in memory.
Exercise can boost your memory and thinking skills — Harvard Health
Concentration, Creativity, and Emotion
The third source I came across was another article called “The Link Between Physical Activity and Academic Performance” written by Post University Blog. This source focuses on explaining how physical activity improves concentration, greater creativity, the power of emotion, and supports the previous sources ideas about memory and recall. Post University begins by telling the reader that physical and mental health is one of the most important aspects to become a successful student. Taking short breaks during long hours of studying can help students return with a clear head and more concentration. They refer to the University of Western Ontario, researchers at this university found that only 10 minutes of exercise can improve executive functions of the brain. Next, Post University emphasizes how important memory recollection is for efficient studying and determination on tough coursework. They also refer to the University of British Columbia, who found those who exercise on a regular basis to have a significant increase in the hippocampus, where the brains verbal memory is stored. They emphasis that aerobic training leads to a great capability of improving recall. Post University also highlights on the findings from another study from the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. This study supports the idea that exercising strengthens two different types of thinking: Convergent and divergent. Meaning, finding single solution or multiple solutions to a problem. Lastly, they discuss the hardships of being a college student and all the stress people face. According to a study from JAMA Psychology working out for only 15 minutes instead of sitting can reduce the likelihood of suffering from depression.
This source has provided my research with many other credible studies conducted by different universities and other scholarly journals. This source has also supported previous sources I have looked at by talking about the same idea that short periods of working out has a beneficial impact to students. I also learned more about other neurological factors that are affected by working out in this case the hippocampus. I still wonder what other parts of the brain are specifically affected by physical activity. They also mentioned the same idea that aerobic activity is a more beneficial workout. From this source I have learned more about how concentration, creativity, and positive emotion are positively affected by working out.
How Physical Activity Can Impact Academic Performance | Post
GPA and Graduation Rates
My fourth source is an article called “How Exercise Can Improve Your Academic Performance” written by Terri Williams from ThoughtCo which is a website that focuses on expect education content. Williams highlights that regular exercisers have higher GPAs and Graduation Rates. She references Jim Fitzsimmons, E.D. director of Campus Recreation and Wellness at the University of Nevada, Reno who found that students who regularly exercise (at least 3 times a week) graduate a higher rate and have at least a full GPA point higher than student who do not exercise. Williams also explains that a reason student don’t exercise is because they don’t have time. But, according to Mike McKenzie, PhD, of Exercise Physiology Sports Medicine at Winston Salem State University students with a higher GPA were more likely to be regular exercisers than those with a lower GPA. Another study Williams discusses is from Johnson & Johnson researcher Jennfier Turgiss, DrPH of Behavioral Science found that 5 minutes of walking every hour had a positive effect on mood, fatigue, and hunger. Next, Williams talks about how exercise lowers stress and anxiety while increasing focus. She talks about how Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor plays a role in memory and is increased in intense exercises. She emphasizes how physical activity improves student time management skills because they must balance scheduling time to work out and studying. Also, how exercise lowers stress levels specifically help lower cortisol, which is a stress hormone. Stress hormones reduce memory production and the ability to sleep. Cardiovascular exercise leads to a better quality of sleep and helps move information learned from short term to long term memory in REM.
This source has provided my research with another positive impact on physical activity, GPA, and graduation rates. This proves that physical activity can help student long term in helping them finish school successfully. This source also supported the information I learned in my first source about BDNF and how it is greatly impacted by exercising and how important it is in terms of memory. I also learned about other aspects like time management and how those skills are increased and improved. I learned about more hormones are increased through an active student’s body that help long term success. Lastly this source also supported the idea that cardiovascular and aerobic training is a very beneficial from of exercising to produce these effects.
Exercise, College Grades, and Graduation Rates (thoughtco.com)
Grit
In my last source I analyzed another peer review article called “Relationships between grit, physical activity, and academic success in university students: domain of physical activity matter” by Bryce T. Daniels, Ashton E. Human, Kaitlin M. Gallagher and Erin K. Howie published in the Journal of American College Health. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between contexts of physical activity, grit, and GPA in a college population. The researchers gathered 875 undergraduate students from a large, southern university for their participants. The study took place between October 2018 through March 2020. The researchers had their participants complete an electronic survey that evaluated physical activity and grit. The university provided the participants official GPAs. They used Multiple linear regression models to evaluate the correlation between grit, the different levels of physical activity between participants, and GPA. The researchers found that Grit was positively associated with domestic physical activity, leisure time physical activity, and GPA. Effort was positively association with walking, transport, domestic physical activity, leisure physical activity, and GPA. In conclusion the researchers found that perseverance of effort is related to different domains of physical activity and GPA.
From analyzing this study, I learned that perseverance of effort is a critical factor of grit and is related both to physical activity and academic success. Although this source was harder to interpret since the researchers’ audiences where other professors in this field. I noticed that this study has supported the information I have learned in my previous sources that physical activity can help student remain focused in their studies and determined to work hard to achieve their goals academically. This source has proved that grit is a useful characteristic for students to obtain to help students overall physical health and academic success and achievement. I am still curious what questions were asked on the surveys, I wasn’t able to interpret how they got this specific data.
