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If you’re a student, being physically fit isn’t just a great choice for your physical health; it’s also a boon for your studies. Don’t believe us? It turns out that a healthy body makes it easier to do your school work and to achieve more academically.
In this article, we’ll review the importance of physical activity for students and look at some of the ways that being physically fit can help you to do more in your college or university career. We think you’ll agree that making some healthy choices for a more active lifestyle can make a major difference in getting your academic and physical peak.
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Educators have long recognized the importance of physical activity for students. From early days, elementary school students had recess and high school students had physical education classes. This traced back to the Classical idea of men’s sana in corpore sano—a sound mind in a sound body. But it also recognized the obvious, that young people learn better when they have an opportunity to let out some of the energy and anxiousness that builds up during a long day of learning. Those benefits don’t stop just because you go to college.
That’s why many universities offer opportunities for physical activity through athletics and intramural sports. But sometimes, students might not have the time or ability to participate in these activities. That’s where buying a nursing essay can come in handy.
Adverse Effects College Has On Your Body
Indeed, once you are in college or university, the importance of physical fitness only grows. That’s because it’s easy to get trapped in a cycle of inactivity and overwork that can have a serious impact on your health—and your academics.
We’ve all heard of the “Freshman 15,” and it’s not just a myth. When students go to college, unless they are playing organized sports, they often begin to let their physical health slide. Many will eat more and exercise less as they adjust to living on their own with no one monitoring their self-care. Without a concerted effort to remain healthy and active, students will gain weight and become less able to adjust to their new lifestyle. If left unattended, these trends can become problematic over the course of four years of college.
Physical activity has a lot of benefits that you might not think about. One of the most important involves your rest. Sleep is important, and most college students aren’t getting enough sleep. In fact, students’ schedule of late-night cram sessions and early morning classes often leaves them with too little time to sleep. And too little sleep can have a major impact on students’ memory, academic performance, and study skills. When you don’t sleep enough, your brain becomes less able to absorb and retain new information, and you are more likely to make mistakes while doing your homework or taking exams. It can also lead to problems with motor coordination.
But the amount of sleep you get is only half the battle. The other half is the quality of your sleep. IT can be hard to get quality sleep in a college dorm, but physical activity can help to improve the quality of your sleep and make it easier to get a good night’s sleep. When you exercise, you expend energy and prime your body for deep, high-quality sleep. And high-quality, deep sleep is known to improve your academic performance and to help solidify in your brain what you learned during the day.
Physical Activity: Fighting Back Those Freshman 15
Physical activity also can help to stave off the freshman 15. The more active you are, the less likely you will be to eat out of boredom and the more likely you will be to maintain a healthy weight. Physical activity also helps you to build a body that will prefer healthy, nutritious food that will increase your overall health. When you eat well to support your active lifestyle, you will improve your body’s nutrition and thus your mental acuity. Healthy food helps build brain power and fuel your mind as you work through your college assignments. Junk food has the opposite effect. Eating well will give you an edge and help you to boost your brain power.
Beyond this, physical activity also instills a form of personal discipline that you can apply to your academic life. Physical activity is beneficial when done regularly, and when you develop the personal discipline to exercise on a regular schedule, you will become more disciplined overall and better able to apply that level of discipline to your academic life.
One of the habits of highly effective students is the ability to make schedules and stick to them. When you are able to schedule exercise and follow through on it at home according to your plan, you will be in a better position to provide the same discipline to your studies, attending class regularly and turning in assignments on time.
How to Make Room for Physical Activity in Your College Life
After reading this article, you may feel like we tell you to become a superhero, but don’t show you when exactly you are supposed to do that. Here are some ways you can spare extra time for physical activity:
- 10-minute breaks. If you work on your assignments using a Pomodoro-like system (25 min work, 5-10 min rest), do 10-minute breaks and spend half of them for light exercises. Bend, stretch, do sit-ups. Scientists prove that it is more important to do such breaks than to go to a sym 2 times a week.
- Add physical activity to your routine life. Churchill said that he never stood when he had an opportunity to sit, and never set, when he had an opportunity to lie down. You should do just the reverse.
- Think of fun cardio. Dance, play twister in a fast mode, impersonate Godzilla actively in front of the mirror, try shadow boxing. It takes very little time, and can be done in your dorm easily.
And one more thing! In order to make time for physical activity, you may find that you need a little bit of a boost. One great way to make time to exercise is to use professional academic writing services to help you with a particularly tough essay or paper that is taking up all of your time.
When you seek professional essay help from online writers, you will be on the fast track to getting the help you need to reduce stress, ease your academic burden, and find the free time to take care of your physical wellbeing. When you have time to exercise, you will feel better and do better, and there is no better way to get started than getting your toughest essays out of the way fast.
