Family Fitness, Mortality,Exercise Your Brain and Learning

Yesterday I felt mortal.  Secretariat and I went out on the trail for about four hours.  First, we ran to the arena to assist Linda with her horse Nails.  She has tendinitis in her right shoulder and is unable to mount her horse by herself so I helped her get on Nails.  From there we headed toward 3^rd gate.  After that, we ran towards the Dead Truck trail, crossed American Canyon Creek, and continued past poverty bar on the way towards Maine bar.  I was tempted to call it a day and head up the steep Maine bar trail climb but continued on.  Looking back, that would have been the smart thing to do since I was running in cement during most of the entire run.  Now it is on to Browns bar.  Normally I would run up Brown’s bar but not that day. Secretariat was waiting for me at the bridge.  He said he was there for about 15 minutes, and he also walked up most of Browns bar.  He said he was tired too but seemed to have more youthful energy than me.  We had more climbing to do before we finally reached the house. To no one’s surprise, within a half mile of home, I started feeling good again.  I was happy to reach home .I cannot remember having a run like that.  I probably have and of course it would be good to forget.  Upon reaching home, Secretariat had his beer while I added a chocolate supreme Lean Pro-Matrix-a next level protein solution to my smoothie for recovery. I purchased this product from my friend Marty.  I will provide feedback about this 34 gram protein supplement after a trial.  Anyway, today might be a rest day.

I will bet that you will love this bit of information found in Time magazine dated January 16, 2012.  Researchers in the Netherlands reported that children who get more exercise, whether at school or on their own tend to have higher GPA’s and better scores on standardized tests .  Their conclusion was based on 14 different studies of physical activity and academic performance.  Guess what, the more the children moved the better their grades were in school, particularly in the basic subjects like math and English and reading.

Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that students need about one hour of physical activity every day to remain healthy; only 18% of high school students meet this weekly requirement   According to a 2009 survey, 23% of students had not exercised at all during that period.  We know that physical activity can improve blood flow to the brain, fuel memory, attention and creativity, which is essential to learning.  Exercise releases hormones that can improve mood and suppress stress, which can also help learning.

Is anybody listening? Hopefully, this information will not fall on deaf ears.  Is there a coincidence that shows that standardized test scores in the United States is dropping compared to the rest of the world.  However, our student obesity problem is growing in the other direction.  Test scores drop as body weight rises. Inactivity increases and body weight increases.  This nation is getting heavier and dumber.  What are we going to do about it?