14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new paper published in the latest edition of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, typically sedentary children aged 7 through 11 benefit a great deal from exercising as little as 20 to 40 minutes a day. According to health experts at the Medical College of Georgia, out of the 207 kids that took part in the experiment, those who exercised right after school for about an hour exhibited a drastic reduction in depressive symptoms, and were also more likely to value themselves higher than their overweight peers who did not engage in physical activities.
“Just by getting up and doing something aerobic, they were changing how they felt about themselves. Hopefully these children are taking home the idea: Hey, when we do this stuff, we feel better,” the first author of the new study, MCG's Georgia Prevention Institute postdoctoral fellow in psychology Dr. Karen Petty, explains.
“If you feel better about yourself, maybe you are going to do better in school, maybe you are going to pay more attention.” Researchers at the institute say that mounting pieces of evidence suggest that an overweight child's ability to learn is directly linked to their mental state, as well as to his or her perception of themselves, which is the main thing the experts are trying to improve.
“This adds to the evidence that exercise is great for people of all ages, physically and mentally. Our physical and mental well being are intimately interwoven,” Georgia Prevention Institute clinical health psychologist Dr. Catherine Davis, who is working closely with Dr. Petty, points out. In addition to making the little ones feel better, the physical routines also help lower the risks of type I diabetes, the researchers share.
“Even if it's hard and I don't want to go, 15 or 20 minutes after I do, I feel so good I could go for another run. There's a message here for all of us that taking some time out of our day to do something physical helps make us better mentally,” Petty adds. She states that most of the youngsters who were involved in the new study showed signs of depression, even though none of them had been officially diagnosed with the disease.
In the next stage of the experiment, which is currently underway, the two researchers will closely monitor a group of overweight children for 8 months, in order to determine the long-term impacts of this daily routine. If future results will be as promising as these ones, then this type of training may become a standard recommendation for them, coming form their physicians.