New research from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, shows that when students engage in high-intensity interval exercises, they score significantly higher on standardized tests measuring verbal comprehension, according to article in The 74.
Studying elementary school children age 9 to 12, researchers examined a type of brain neuroelectrical activity called “error-related negativity.” This occurs when people make a mistake and it is associated with reduced focus and performance. After acute exercise, error-related activity decreased significantly, the research revealed.
“If we want our children to succeed academically and mental health-wise, exercise is something that needs to be in the forefront,” says Eric Drollette, the study’s lead author and a professor at UNC. “Yes, it helps with their physical health, but we can’t forget the brain part of it. The benefits of exercise can be influential in an [educational] environment .”
Research has long demonstrated the benefits of physical exercise on the mental health and general wellness of adults and children alike. One of Drollette’s experiments involving college students who underwent high-intensity interval training showed improved brain function and cognition.
With three children of his own, Drollette knows that any type of prolonged high-intensity activity, such as running on a treadmill or using other types of exercise equipment, is not feasible for younger children. Boredom and lack of motivation aside, this activity isn’t a scenario that educators can easily replicate.
Drollette designed a fitness routine that would hold student interest and could be performed in the classroom without consuming too much time. His solution: a series of stationary exercises – high knees, jumping jacks, lunges and squats — performed one after another, alternating between 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off for nine minutes total.
“This is more natural for a kid’s type of exercise,” he says. “I wanted to make sure that if a teacher reads this, or if the public reads this, they can say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s something that’s possible to do in the classroom.’”
The regimen improved word recognition and fluency, which include reading and word processing, and was less effective for math. Another surprise: Children didn’t realize they were exercising as hard as they were. Drollette says this suggests that they truly enjoyed the movement break.
The study comes as schools shorten recess and physical education classes to emphasize instructional time and boost academic achievement. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children should get four 15-minute recesses every day. More than 90 percent of the country’s elementary schools incorporate regularly scheduled recess into each school day, but on average students receive just 27 minutes.
Only eight states require schools to offer a daily recess, and most districts don’t have a formal recess policy. Since the mid-2000s, about 40 percent of school districts have reduced or cut recess. And some districts still allow educators to take away recess as a punishment. Experts say this does more harm than good.
Drollette believes the practice of shortening recess and physical education is short sighted.
“As a nation, we’ve really struggled to recover loss in physical activity since the pandemic,” he says. “If we keep removing physical activity, we may be hampering mental health as well as cognitive function. And then if kids are performing poorly cognitively, they’re not doing well with academics, causing schools to keep pushing academics. And so my approach is that we may need to flip the other direction. We need to focus on physical movement for a better healthy mind in order for kids to do well in school.”
This summer, the Trump administration reinstated the Presidential Fitness Test, which dates back to the 1950s under President Dwight D. Eisenhower but was phased out in 2013.
“For far too long, the physical and mental health of the American people has been neglected. Rates of obesity, chronic disease, inactivity and poor nutrition are at crisis levels, particularly among our children,” the order reads. “These trends weaken our economy, military readiness, academic performance and national morale.”
The 74
