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Vigorous physical activity can mean better grades

Contact: Jim Pivarnik, kinesiology, (517) 353-3520, jimpiv@msu.edu; or Tom Oswald, University Relations, (517) 432-0920, oswald@msu.edu

An MSU study has found that middle school students who take part in more vigorous physical activity tend to do better in school.

For one academic year, the researchers tracked more than 200 sixth graders. For one semester half of them took the general physical education class, while the others took non-physical education classes. Halfway through the year they switched. The researchers found that students taking the physical education course did no better or worse in their academic classes.

However, they also found that among the students taking part in the project, those who participated in vigorous activities – ranging from organized sports like soccer and football to simple after-school fun like skateboarding – did approximately 10 percent better in core classes such as math, science and English.

“Considering all the factors that go into what determines students’ grades in school, a 10 percent increase by the most physically active kids is huge,” says Jim Pivarnik, an MSU professor of kinesiology and one of the researchers.

He said it’s noteworthy that the grades of students who took the physical education class were unchanged. In this day of “No Child Left Behind” and standardized testing, some public schools think physical education is a luxury they can’t afford.

“If kids have PE every day, is it going to hurt grades? The answer is no,” he says. “But, maybe if we pump up the volume a little bit, if they are a little more vigorously active, it might make a difference.”

The research was published in a recent issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

For the full-length release, see newsroom.msu.edu/site/indexer/2821/content.htm