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How Physical Activity Helps Your Memory Retain Information
November 21, 2018 The Childrens Academy

How Physical Activity Helps Your Memory Retain Information

Posted in Montessori Schools

How Physical Activity Helps Your Memory Retain Information

While there are many great reasons why you should be physically active, one of the main ones is that it boosts your hippocampus’ size (the part of your brain responsible for verbal memory and learning). This is especially true when you’re involved in aerobic exercise that gets your heart and sweat glands pumping. Unfortunately, resistance training, balance, and muscle toning exercises don’t have these same results.

Exercise and Your Brain

Exercise helps memory and thinking both directly and indirectly. There are some studies that even show how people’s prefrontal-cortex and medial temporal cortex are larger in people who exercise. These are the areas that control your thinking and memory. This is something that’s backed up by other studies. These show that engaging in regular, moderately intense exercise will increase your brain’s capacity within 6 months to a year. All of this is good news because it means when we can truly benefit by starting to exercise early on in life.

Physical Activity Helps Your Memory Retain Information

Directly, exercise can reduce your body’s insulin resistance and inflammation rate. It can also stimulate the release of growth factors (chemicals in your brain that affect your brain cells’ health, the growth of new blood vessels in your brain, and how many brain cells survive).

Indirectly, exercise will help put you in a better mood and help you sleep better. It also reduces your feelings of stress and anxiety. This is important because when you’re having issues with either of these feelings, you’ll find yourself being cognitively impaired, meaning you’ll have problems remembering, learning new things, concentrating, and making decisions that affect your everyday life. The amount of impairment you experience will range from mild to severe, but any amount is something you should do without.

Making Exercise More Prominent in the School Environment

Unfortunately, implementing an exercise program in the classroom isn’t something that every school is going to be willing to do. However, at Country Club Montessori School in Mansfield, Texas we understand that regular participation in physical activity is directly linked to improved academic performance and brain functions – including attention and memory. Since these brain functions are the foundation of learning we want to do everything possible to help children in this regard. This is why we’ve taken the time to integrate regular exercise routines into our students’ lives. Now that you understand this importance too, we invite you to stop by our school and see how our unique learning environment really can maximize your child’s potential to learn.