The Multifaceted Benefits of Physical Education

Physical education offers a multitude of advantages that extend far beyond the gymnasium. From enhanced academic performance to improved physical and mental well-being, integrating physical activity into the daily lives of children and adults yields significant positive outcomes.

The Link Between Physical Activity and Academic Achievement

Evidence increasingly suggests a strong connection between physical activity and academic performance. Studies indicate that increasing physical activity and physical fitness may improve academic performance and that time in the school day dedicated to recess, physical education class, and physical activity in the classroom may also facilitate academic performance. Mathematics and reading are the academic topics that are most influenced by physical activity, because these topics depend on efficient and effective executive function, which has been linked to physical activity and physical fitness.

Executive function and brain health underlie academic performance. Basic cognitive functions related to attention and memory facilitate learning, and these functions are enhanced by physical activity and higher aerobic fitness. Single sessions of and long-term participation in physical activity improve cognitive performance and brain health, with children who participate in vigorous- or moderate-intensity physical activity benefiting the most. Given the importance of time on task to learning, students should be provided with frequent physical activity breaks that are developmentally appropriate. Although presently understudied, physically active lessons offered in the classroom may increase time on task and attention to task in the classroom setting.

While academic performance is influenced by various factors, including socioeconomic status and parental involvement, health plays a crucial moderating role in a child's ability to learn. The idea that healthy children learn better is empirically supported and well accepted, and multiple studies have confirmed that health benefits are associated with physical activity, including cardiovascular and muscular fitness, bone health, psychosocial outcomes, and cognitive and brain health.

The Impact of Physical Activity on Brain Health

Given that the brain is responsible for both mental processes and physical actions of the human body, brain health is important across the life span. In adults, brain health, representing absence of disease and optimal structure and function, is measured in terms of quality of life and effective functioning in activities of daily living. In children, brain health can be measured in terms of successful development of attention, on-task behavior, memory, and academic performance in an educational setting.

Research suggests that engagement in physical activity and the attainment of a health-enhancing level of physical fitness contribute to cognitive and brain health in children. Correlational research examining the relationship among academic performance, physical fitness, and physical activity also is described. Because research in older adults has served as a model for understanding the effects of physical activity and fitness on the developing brain during childhood, the adult research is briefly discussed. The short- and long-term cognitive benefits of both a single session of and regular participation in physical activity are summarized.

Counteracting the Reduction of Physical Activity in Schools

State-mandated academic achievement testing has had the unintended consequence of reducing opportunities for children to be physically active during the school day and beyond. In addition to a general shifting of time in school away from physical education to allow for more time on academic subjects, some children are withheld from physical education classes or recess to participate in remedial or enriched learning experiences designed to increase academic performance. Yet little evidence supports the notion that more time allocated to subject matter will translate into better test scores. Indeed, 11 of 14 correlational studies of physical activity during the school day demonstrate a positive relationship to academic performance. Overall, a rapidly growing body of work suggests that time spent engaged in physical activity is related not only to a healthier body but also to a healthier mind.

Short-Term and Long-Term Cognitive Benefits

Children respond faster and with greater accuracy to a variety of cognitive tasks after participating in a session of physical activity. A single bout of moderate-intensity physical activity has been found to increase neural and behavioral concomitants associated with the allocation of attention to a specific cognitive task. And when children who participated in 30 minutes of aerobic physical activity were compared with children who watched television for the same amount of time, the former children cognitively outperformed the latter.

When physical activity is used as a break from academic learning time, postengagement effects include better attention, increased on-task behaviors, and improved academic performance. More important, teachers can offer physical activity breaks as part of a supplemental curriculum or simply as a way to reset student attention during a lesson and when provided with minimal training can efficaciously produce vigorous or moderate energy expenditure in students. Further, after-school physical activity programs have demonstrated the ability to improve cardiovascular endurance, and this increase in aerobic fitness has been shown to mediate improvements in academic performance, as well as the allocation of neural resources underlying performance on a working memory task.

Reviews and Meta-Analyses on Physical Activity and Cognition

Over the past three decades, several reviews and meta-analyses have described the relationship among physical fitness, physical activity, and cognition. The majority of these reviews have focused on the relationship between academic performance and physical fitness-a physiological trait commonly defined in terms of cardiorespiratory capacity. More recently, reviews have attempted to describe the effects of an acute or single bout of physical activity, as a behavior, on academic performance. These reviews have focused on brain health in older adults, as well as the effects of acute physical activity on cognition in adults. Some have considered age as part of the analysis. Reviews focusing on research conducted in children have examined the relationship among physical activity, participation in sports, and academic performance; physical activity and mental and cognitive health; and physical activity, nutrition, and academic performance. The findings of most of these reviews align with the conclusions presented in a meta-analytic review conducted by Fedewa and Ahn (2011). The studies reviewed by Fedewa and Ahn include experimental/quasi-experimental as well as cross-sectional and correlational designs, with the experimental designs yielding the highest effect sizes. The strongest relationships were found between aerobic fitness and achievement in mathematics, followed by IQ and reading performance. The range of cognitive performance measures, participant characteristics, and types of research design all mediated the relationship among physical activity, fitness, and academic performance. With regard to physical activity interventions, which were carried out both within and beyond the school day, those involving small groups of peers (around 10 youth of a similar age) were associated with the greatest gains in academic performance.

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Global Perspectives on Physical Activity and Academic Performance

The number of peer-reviewed publications on this topic is growing exponentially. Further evidence of the growth of this line of inquiry is its increased global presence. Positive relationships among physical activity, physical fitness, and academic performance have been found among students from the Netherlands and Taiwan. Broadly speaking, however, many of these studies show small to moderate effects and suffer from poor research designs.

Addressing Health Disparities and Academic Achievement

Basch (2010) conducted a comprehensive review of how children's health and health disparities influence academic performance and learning. The author's report draws on empirical evidence suggesting that education reform will be ineffective unless children's health is made a priority. Basch concludes that schools may be the only place where health inequities can be addressed and that, if children's basic health needs are not met, they will struggle to learn regardless of the effectiveness of the instructional materials used. More recently, Efrat (2011) conducted a review of physical activity, fitness, and academic performance to examine the achievement gap. He discovered that only seven studies had included socioeconomic status as a variable, despite its known relationship to education.

Physical Fitness as a Learning Outcome

Achieving and maintaining a healthy level of aerobic fitness, as defined using criterion-referenced standards from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), is a desired learning outcome of physical education programming. Regular participation in physical activity also is a national learning standard for physical education, a standard intended to facilitate the establishment of habitual and meaningful engagement in physical activity. Yet although physical fitness and participation in physical activity are established as learning outcomes in all 50 states, there is little evidence to suggest that children actually achieve and maintain these standards.

Statewide and national datasets containing data on youth physical fitness and academic performance have increased access to student-level data on this subject. Early research in South Australia focused on quantifying the benefits of physical activity and physical education during the school day; the benefits noted included increased physical fitness, decreased body fat, and reduced risk for cardiovascular disease. Even today, Dwyer and colleagues are among the few scholars who regularly include in their research measures of physical activity intensity in the school environment, which is believed to be a key reason why they are able to report differentiated effects of different intensities. A longitudinal study in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada, tracked how the academic performance of children from grades 1 through 6 was related to student health, motor skills, and time spent in physical education. The researchers concluded that additional time dedicated to physical education did not inhibit academic performance.

Longitudinal Studies on Physical Education

Longitudinal follow-up investigating the long-term benefits of enhanced physical education experiences is encouraging but largely inconclusive. In a study examining the effects of daily physical education during elementary school on physical activity during adulthood, 720 men and women completed the Québec Health Survey. Findings suggest that physical education was associated with physical activity in later life for females but not males; most of the associations were significant but weak. Adult body mass index (BMI) at age 34 was related to childhood BMI at ages 10-12 in females but not males. Longitudinal studies such as those conducted in Sweden and Finland also suggest that physical education experiences may be related to adult engagement in physical activity. From an academic performance perspective, longitudinal data on men who enlisted for military service imply that cardiovascular fitness at age 18 predicted cognitive performance in later life, thereby supporting the idea of offering physical education and physical activity opportunities well into emerging adulthood through secondary and postsecondary education.

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Components of Fitness and Academic Performance

Castelli and colleagues (2007) investigated younger children (in 3rd and 5th grades) and the differential contributions of the various subcomponents of the Fitnessgram®. Specifically, they examined the individual contributions of aerobic capacity, muscle strength, muscle flexibility, and body composition to performance in mathematics and reading on the Illinois Standardized Achievement Test among a sample of 259 children. Their findings corroborate those of the California Department of Education (Grissom, 2005), indicating a general relationship between fitness and achievement test performance. When the individual components of the Fitnessgram were decomposed, the researchers determined that only aerobic capacity was related to test performance. Muscle strength and flexibility showed no relationship, while an inverse association of BMI with test performance was observed, such that higher BMI was associated with lower performance on standardized tests.

Physical Activity for Overall Health and Well-being

Physical activity can help prevent disease, disability, injury, and premature death. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans lays out how much physical activity children, adolescents, and adults need to get health benefits. Strategies that make it safer and easier to get active - like providing access to community facilities and programs - can help people get more physical activity. Strategies to promote physical activity at home, at school, and at child care centers can also increase activity in children and adolescents. Physical activity is a vital component in the development of a person’s life. From adolescence to adulthood, moving our bodies throughout the day can have positive effects on our sleep quality, memory, bone health, and more.

Integrating Physical Activity into the Classroom

Classrooms are not only a space to teach valuable skills, but to inspire healthy habits for a lifetime. Physical activity can improve concentration, problem-solving, memory, and school attendance, which correlates with better grades and test scores in school. Additionally, physical activity builds strong muscles, bones, and joints, and it improves cardiovascular health, which positively impacts blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Physical activity releases endorphins, the brain’s feel-good chemicals while reducing the stress hormones, such as cortisol. It also fosters social development and communication skills through sports, group activities, and teamwork, and builds self-esteem, belonging, and confidence by providing room for achievement and athletic improvement.

Examples of classroom activities that promote physical activity include:

Ball tossing: Students can sit or stand in a circle while they take turns asking and answering questions, spelling, or learning new words.
Creative workstations or scavenger hunts: A simple yet interactive way to get students out of their seats. Hand out activity sheets and set up information-based workstations that lead them to each area around the class or school to find the answer.
Answer relays: While quizzing groups of students on previously learned information, break them into groups to see who can race the fastest to the front of the class and write the answer. Or have them write the answer on paper or a small whiteboard before they pass the item with the written answer up to the front of the class in a row.
Trashcan basketball or soccer: This is a great activity for healthy competition! Students can be broken up into singles, pairs, or larger teams while they answer fact-based questions to score points. Whether you try this out with a basketball hoop or just a trash can and a crumbled-up piece of construction paper-students are bound to have fun while moving their bodies.
Mindful exercises: In between lessons or at the end of a school day, promote stretch breaks.

Resources for Educators

Several resources are available to help educators integrate physical activity into their classrooms, including:

B3: Brain, Body, Behavior: A multimedia curriculum that helps students in Grades K-6 spark their brains, build their bodies, and improve their behavior to increase academic performance.
HealthSmart Supercharging Lesson Cards: These colorful and laminated cards are ideal for getting students active throughout a lesson, promoting critical thinking, moving their bodies, and encouraging them to work collaboratively with their classmates.
Floor Graphics: Encourage the excitement of learning through play with our colorful sensory floor graphics. Great for problem-solving, creativity, balance, coordination, and motor skills.

Benefits for All Ages

Some benefits of physical activity for brain health happen right after a session of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Benefits include improved thinking or cognition for children 6 to 13 and reduced short-term feelings of anxiety for adults. Regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age.

Both eating patterns and physical activity routines play critical roles in weight management. If you are not physically active, work your way up to 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity. This could be dancing or doing yard work. People vary greatly in how much physical activity they need for weight management. You will need a high amount of physical activity unless you also adjust your eating patterns and reduce the amount of calories you're eating and drinking. Healthy eating combined with regular physical activity help you get to-and stay at-a healthy weight.

Heart disease and stroke are two leading causes of death in the United States. Getting at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity can put you at a lower risk for these diseases. You can reduce your risk even further with more physical activity. Regular physical activity can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is some combination of too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure, low high-density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol, high triglycerides, or high blood sugar. With a regular schedule of moderate-intensity physical activity, people start to benefit from even less than 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity.

Physical activity may help reduce the risk of serious outcomes from infectious diseases, including COVID-19, the flu, and pneumonia. People who do little or no physical activity are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 than those who are physically active. More active people may be less likely to die from flu or pneumonia.

Being physically active lowers your risk for developing several common cancers. As you age, it's important to protect your bones, joints, and muscles. Lifting weights is an example of a muscle-strengthening activity. Muscle strengthening is important for older adults who experience reduced muscle mass and muscle strength with aging. Everyday activities include climbing stairs, grocery shopping, or cleaning the house. Being unable to perform everyday activities is called functional limitation. For older adults, doing a variety of physical activities improves physical function and decreases the risk of falls or injury from a fall. Older adults need to include aerobic, muscle strengthening, and balance activities in their physical activity routines. Hip fracture is a serious health condition that can result from a fall. Breaking a hip can have life-changing negative effects, especially if you're an older adult. adults ages 40 and older increased their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Taking more steps a day also helps lower the risk of premature death from all causes. In one study, for adults younger than 60, the risk of premature death leveled off at about 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day.

Exercise Guidelines

Exercise and physical activity are great ways to feel better, boost your health and have fun. The Department of Health and Human Services recommends these exercise guidelines:

Aerobic activity. Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity. Or get at least 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week. You also can get an equal combination of moderate and vigorous activity. Aim to spread out this exercise over a few days or more in a week. For even more health benefits, the guidelines suggest getting 300 minutes a week or more of moderate aerobic activity. Exercising this much may help with weight loss or keeping off lost weight. But even small amounts of physical activity can be helpful. Being active for short periods of time during the day can add up and have health benefits.
Strength training. Do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups at least two times a week. One set of each exercise is enough for health and fitness benefits. Use a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions.

Moderate aerobic exercise includes activities such as brisk walking, biking, swimming and mowing the lawn. Vigorous aerobic exercise includes activities such as running, swimming laps, heavy yardwork and aerobic dancing. You can do strength training by using weight machines or free weights, your own body weight, heavy bags, or resistance bands. You also can use resistance paddles in the water or do activities such as rock climbing.

If you want to lose weight, keep off lost weight or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more. Remember to check with a health care professional before starting a new exercise program, especially if you have any concerns about your fitness or haven't exercised for a long time. Also check with a health care professional if you have chronic health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes or arthritis.

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