Physical Fitness and Academic Performance
Many studies have tested and proven the positive correlation between physical activity and improved concentration that benefit our youth’s academic performance as well as there overall well-being.
Promoting children’s motor skills at an early stage is important. Movement on a regular basis keeps kids healthy and fit for school. The benefits of fitness have been demonstrated in numerous studies. A research team at the TU Munich has found proof of the correlation between physical fitness, concentration and health-related quality of life for school pupils. The study involved 3285 girls and 3248 boys. The key criteria were physical strength and endurance, the ability to concentrate and health-related quality of life. The results of the study show: The higher the level of children’s physical fitness, the better they can concentrate and the higher their health-related quality of life. While the boys did better on the fitness tests, the girls performed better in terms of concentration and quality of life values. At the same time, in all tests for physical fitness overweight and obese children had significantly poorer results than underweight children and children with normal body weight. Obese children also had significantly poorer values for health-related quality of life on the whole, physical well-being, self-esteem as well as well-being in friendships and at school.
This means it’s all the more important to encourage motor development in children at an early stage, since this can also have a positive impact on the development of mental fitness. Collaboration among parents, schools and communitie is very important when it comes to creating a comprehensive and appropriate range of possibilities. Strength and conditioning is an interesting research subject affecting both physical and psychological wellbeing, including forming a positive body image, relieving depression, and increasing life satisfaction. In addition, there is evidence that physical activity promotes intelligence and brain development.
Intelligence can be defined as:
“The aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his/her environment” Wechsler D: The measurement of adult intelligence. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1939.