Twenty minutes of daily vigorous physical activity among college students may lead them to have grade point averages about .4 higher, on a scale of 4.0, compared with students who do not exercise. That’s a TEN PERCENT improvement!
A study presented at the American College of Sport Medicine’s annual meeting demonstrated the relationship and reinforced the notion that exercise reduces stress, improves performance and increases a sense of well-being. Here are the details from WebMD.
Joshua Ode supervised the study at a university in the northern U.S., of students ages 18-22. Ode said, “If the students are improving in the classroom, it may create a better campus environment. You’re creating more successful students, which is the goal of universities.”
Researchers studied 266 undergraduates and defined moderate activity as those exercises which don’t make you sweat or breathe hard, and vigorous activity for those which do, of any type. Their findings were consistent regardless of gender or major.
Ode said one of the next questions for further study should include the impact of activity on GPA throughout college.
And it doesn’t have to be seven days a week, Ode said. But the research suggests the more often, the better.
As I’ve blogged before, for younger kids, not only does physical education keep kids fit, but studies show that healthy kids learn more when they are physically active.
In fact, exercising kids not only tend to bring home better report cards, they do better on standardized test scores.

For more information on helping your child (and family) make wise physical activity choices, consider picking up a copy of my book SuperSized Kids: How to protect your child from the obesity threat. Both the hard- and soft-cover editions are on sale here.

In addition, I have an entire chapter on how to work with your local school board to help them promote schools with better food and snack choices, and better physical activity choices.