Cats on Treadmills
It’s unseasonably cold outside and you’re looking for motivation to go for a run.
You could bust out that Sweatin’ to the Oldies DVD. Or, you could entertain yourself by watching cats run on a treadmill.
Suit yourself!
Exercise Makes Kids Smarter, Too!
In a recent post, I wrote about the connection between brain health and physical fitness. Now, there is yet even more evidence for keeping kids active. In two separate studies of children and physical fitness, researchers demonstrate the link between fit children and smart children.
One study demonstrated improved performance by the fitter children (identified by a treadmill test) and connected that with actual physical differences that show up in MRI scans of the brains of the kids .
Meanwhile, a separate study (by some of the same researchers) found a similar connection between working memory in children and the size of the hippocampus. Previous research has shown that exercise can increase the size of the hippocampus, but this study linked working memory, exercise and the size of the hippocampus in children.