While the physical benefits of exercise are widely publicized, the mental and emotional benefits have not been adequately promoted, and yet they are just as important to a person’s overall health. Exercise has often been scientifically shown to relieve the symptoms of stress but it offers so much more.
Recently, it was discovered that a fast-paced workout, like tennis, improves the production and release of brain-boosting proteins, and increases the production of cells in the brain’s hippocampus, which is where learning and memory function takes place. Catherine Davis, professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia, reported in 2007 that “children who are not active may be at a disadvantage academically.” Her research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, found that children who were involved in intermittent, high-energy running games for at least 40 minutes had significant improvement on an executive function test (examining, planning, organizing, goal achievement, resisting impulses, etc.) over children who did no activity.
The active group also exhibited an increase on a cognitive performance scale. Darla Castelli, professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois, says that this corroborates much of their research, citing that they have “found strong associations between math performance and aerobic fitness among children.”