By Meredith Crawford
When it comes to physical fitness and activity, studies conclude that it’s not just your body that benefits — your grades just might, too.
That’s right — taking a walk around the neighborhood, a spin on your bike, or engaging in your favorite exercise has been found to lead to higher grades and better scores on standardized tests, according to findings in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
But what about sports – particularly at the high-school level – that often take up so much of students’ valuable study time? If you think that an athlete’s academic performance will suffer in proportion to the time he or she spends in practice or competition, you’re wrong, says Ross Greenstein, president and CEO of Scholarship for Athletes.
“Athletes say they do better in school when they’re busier,” says Greenstein. “The reason is that they know they have a small window to do their homework and if they don’t do it then they will never get it done. It also helps athletes get work done early. If they have a competition later in the month they will get their work done before it because they know they won’t have time to do any work during competition.”
It seems the discipline and focus required of athletic competition really does translate to the classroom.
