Spark By John Ratey

Thesis: It’s hard being a student and working at the same time, and find energy for both. I will show you why starting an exercise program can boost your energy and your mental health.

Since 1990s, many scientists agree that exercise has positive impacts on people’s physical health and mental health (SIME WE, 1987). From Morgan and O’Connor’s research, people can reduce stress and state anxiety by doing physical activities; also gain emotional pleasure from the process (Morgan and O’Connor, 1988). Later in 1997, Landers states that physical activities can reduce people depression after weeks of regular and routine exercise. In addition, people can benefit from more

In the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and The Brain by Dr. John J. Ratey, MD (2008), Ratey discuses how exercise can help treat many mood disorders and how it can help strengthen our brains. This book is divided into ten chapters all with five to ten subsections in them. The chapters include: Welcome to the revolution: A Case Study on Exercise and the brain, Learning, Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Attention Deficit, Addiction, Hormonal Changers, Aging, and the Regimen.

In the book Spark, written by Dr. John J. Ratey, he discusses how exercise can positively affect how your brain works. He provides studies and personal experiences to support the claims he makes. I always knew exercise would improve your life but never could have imagined how much it can affect your brain health as well. The chapter I thought spoke the most to me was chapter two, Learning: Grow Your Brain Cells.

We often hear about the physical benefits of exercise and less about the psychological benefits promoted through physical activity. In fact, multiple researches suggest that physical activity increases academic performance and supports a positive outlook that is contributive to learning gains. Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that leave you feeling focused, more relaxed, and happier. A recent study by Fotuhi, M. confirms that exercise enhances both neurogenesis (the creation of new brain cells in regions of the brain associated with higher-order thinking and recall) and experience-dependent synaptogenesis (the formation of synaptic connections between neurons in response to learning and sensory input from the environment). Specifically, physical activity appears to stimulate the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which helps neurons and synapses grow. In fact, BDNF has been likened to fertilizer for the brain (Conyers, M., and D. Wilson p. 40).

Week two has been a bit of a rough week for my behavioral change project. I became sick and was stuck at home for three days this week. This caused me to have a bit of a relapse because when I am not feeling well I turn to things that comfort me. A big comfort for me is technology and I hate to admit it but I binge watched a lot of television this week and I used social media quite often. The worst part is that now that the binge has started I am having a difficult time stopping again. I am so stressed now because I missed a great deal of class and as a result I feel extremely far behind and anxious about if I can make it up successfully. Yet, all I want to do is watch Netflix and in all honesty that is all I have been doing this week. After the first week, I felt so strong (naively so) but now I only feel defeated by my own mind. That is a hard concept for me to grasp because how is it that something that feels so good, relaxing, and happy is so detrimental to my life in the areas of education, work, and relationships? I suppose though that part of the reason we do this project is to see what will make us relapse. For me and

The book I chose to read was Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey, MD. I chose this book because I am very interested in this topic. I enjoy working out, running and playing sports regularly, not only because of the physical benefits, but the mental benefits as well. I believe that John Ratey wrote this book to shed light on the fact that exercise is even more important than society already thinks. Everyone knows that exercise is healthy for the muscles, bones and heart; but, however, generally speaking, most people are unaware of the extreme mental profits that can occur as a result of exercise.

Godman, H. (2016). Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills. Harvard Health Publications. Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110.

2) Young athletes are more likely to achieve academic success than their peers. a) Data show that high school students who play sport are less likely to drop out. Participation in sport also has been associated with completing more years of education and consistently higher grades in school. b) team captains, MVPs achieve in school at even higher rates. c) physical movement can affect the brain’s physiology by increasing cerebral capillary growth, blood flow, oxygenation, production of neurotrophins, growth of nerve cells in the hippocampus, neurotransmitter levels, development of nerve connections, density of neural network, and brain tissue volume d) These changes may be associated with improved attention; improved information processing, storage, and retrieval; enhanced coping; enhanced positive affect; and reduced sensations of cravings and

For years, my father, a high school basketball and track and field coach has been telling my sister and I that athletes are superior students to non-athlete students. After reading this chapter in Ratey’s book, I believe that he may have been right. When Ratey compares the human brain to a muscle, the concept that exercise results in enhanced brain functioning makes sense. The quote from the text, “by pushing our bodies we push our brains” helped me realize that the two are not separate. Our brain, or our cognition is not a separate entity from our physicality.

1). “Longitudinal studies on school sports have suggested that such participation raises students’ grades and test scores” (Broh, 2002, para. 2). Stephens and Schaben performed a study looking at the number of sports each student played and its effect on academic performance. They noticed that students who participate in at least one sport each year outperformed those who participated in one or less, in class rank, overall GPA, and math GPA. They also noticed that the students who participated in more sports for many seasons had a “higher level of scholarship than the [students] who had competed in only a few seasons or for only one year.” Some research indicates that physical activity not only improves academic performance, but has an actual physical benefit for the mind. Shepard (1996) said, “Regular physical activity might influence cognitive development by increasing cerebral blood flow, altering arousal and associate necrohormone balance, changing nutritional status, or promoting the growth of interneuron connections” (Para.

Transition: Physical benefits for exercise are great, but exercise truly benefits something even more important, your mind.

Exercise is a most definite critical allaction to a well-being lifestyle. Doing such physical procedures keeps one highly appeased as it gives a feel of a vigor state on the outside body. Nevertheless, exercise does not only benefit the outside appearance and health. In fact, exercise has many positive benefits on the human brain as well. Physical activity can be advantageous and profitable to the brain by stimulating the brain’s growth, conflicting depression and anxiety, retaining memory, and lastly concentration improvement.

Furthermore, areas like physical activity and health I was able to score higher in, because of multiple factors. Through this class and previous classes I have taken in middle school and high school, I have been able to gain knowledge about the benefits of physical health and activity. For example, physical activity helps control weight, helps to prevent certain conditions and complications like heart disease, type 2 diabetes and depression. Physical activity can also boost one’s mood and energy, and promote better

Exercise may be one of the most important influences on your overall health to date. While the only benefits that are mainly focused on are the physical benefits, significant psychological impacts can also be linked to exercise. Although some of these benefits aren’t viewed with much enthusiasm, studies have proven that exercise can actually improve one’s quality of life greatly by increasing not only their physical health but their mental health as well. It is because of this that exercise is a