As a student, we usually have an hour a day or a week in our timetable dedicated to playing outside that we look forward to. It is highly recommended to unwind ourselves, run around, and sweat it out right from a young age. We all have heard that exercise is good for our physical health time and again. It is true that regular exercise keeps us fit, builds our muscles, and helps develop our strength and stamina. Along with health benefits, exercise will help you have a strong and healthy mindset.
Particularly for students, exercise is of utmost importance. Now, you may ask how does exercise help a student?
For starters, exercise makes you smarter. Exercise affects learning and a little physical activity here and there improves concentration.
In this article, we intend to outline a couple of ways that exercise makes you a smarter and better student.
6 Ways Exercise makes you Smarter and Better
- Helps sharpens focus
Exercising helps to improve the brain activity. Sitting in one place and turning one page after another will become monotonous after a while. After that point, we would not be able to capture and understand the subject no matter how hard we push ourselves. We have all experienced such monotonous lengths of time. Taking a brisk walk, a couple of jumping jacks or simply one-place jogging will refresh your senses and break the monotony. After your brief exercise period, your focus will be refreshed and you will be able to understand concepts with increased clarity.
- Develops discipline
Physical activity is not a one-time activity. To reap the benefits of exercising in the long term, physical activity has to be done consistently and has to be part of your daily routine. When this is inculcated in your daily routine, it builds discipline and helps you to achieve something you have set your mind to rather than postponing it. Once you discipline your exercise routine, you will be able to follow a study routine and stick to it. Consistent studying and preparation will make a huge difference in your exam results.
- Enhances your memory power
When the brain is active and alert, it tends to remember more and recollect more. Simply reading line after line will not help you retain everything you read. While reading, take a break and walk around and then continue. This will help you build your retention power and you will find that after regular exercise, you are able to remember much more than you used to earlier.
- Reduces stress
Exam times are really stressful times for students. More than studying for the exam, students will be concerned about the difficulty of the exam and if they will be able to crack the paper. This simply adds to the pressure of so many chapters to complete. In such times, jogging and short runs in between your study sessions will help you release the built-up stress and keep you light-headed.
- Keeps you brisk
The more movement you give to your hands and legs, the more energised you will feel. Moving around for a couple of minutes will get your creative juices flowing and keep you energised. With renewed energy, you will be able to think clearly with more clarity.
- Get comfortable being uncomfortable
Working out in the middle of the day or taking a walk in the sun will not be a comfortable task we enjoy doing. We usually shy away from all such uncomfortable things. But life is never comfortable, so we have to be able to adapt and shape ourselves to embrace the uncomfortable. Engaging in physical activity will help us in this endeavour and this can be applied to other areas of our life too. For example, many of us would have a fear of public speaking. But, once you are able to embrace the uncomfortable, you will be able to overcome your fear of public speaking and enjoy speaking in front of a crowd.
Engaging in physical activity does not mean that you need to work out for hours and do intense work outs. Simply challenging your physical fitness is enough to keep you alert while studying. This will help you grow both physically and mentally. Applying this to other areas of life – challenging yourself and going outside your comfort zone will reap a bunch of benefits for your growth.
