Work out for good grades

Vigorous physical activity is not only beneficial for a healthy lifestyle, but also for an improved academic performance in school.

Vigorous physical activity is not only beneficial for a healthy lifestyle, but also for an improved academic performance in school, a study conducted by Michigan State University and Grand Valley State University has found.

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The researchers said that the middle school students who perform more energetic physical activity than their sedentary counterparts tend to do better in school.

Their research showed that students who took part in more vigorous physical activities such as organised sports like soccer or football, or non-organised after-school activities such as skateboarding did approximately 10 per cent better in core classes such as math, science, English and social studies.

"We have studies that link fitness to measurable academic outcomes,” Jim Pivarnik, one of the study's co-authors said. "Physical education and activity reduce boredom and help keep kids' attention in the classroom.

We were expecting to find that students enrolled in physical education would have better grades because of the opportunity to be active. But enrollment in PE alone did not influence grades", said Coe, an assistant professor in Movement Science at Grand Valley State University.