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heeywewantsomenewday t1_j9of7m6 wrote

Reply to comment by kermitpolice in Research suggests that school-based physical activity intervention, by way of increasing physical exercise classes to daily during school, is successful in reducing childhood obesity. Scientists found that obesity was reversed after 3 years. by Wagamaga

I'm in education and the lads diagnosed with ADHD or who generally struggle doing long hours in the classroom do so much better when they have daily outdoor time (outdoor work) and exercise time. It improves their in class work.

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kermitpolice t1_j9okt0w wrote

I am completely certain without any doubt that regular exercise has a wide range of benefits on the development, health and wellbeing of a child.

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Vakulum t1_j9omsyn wrote

Also for adults. I need my office to provide staff with a playground and monkey bars as well . Best productivity would be higher and people missing work due back pain and other health problems would reduce.

Adult life sucks.

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hapianman t1_j9ouv3r wrote

Would be amazing to have a 90 minute lunch so I could workout, shower, eat halfway through the day. I would be incredibly productive

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10000Didgeridoos t1_j9p6irs wrote

And have this in a way that isn't adding 90 minutes to a work day, but rather keeping the work load the same with time to unwind and recharge midday.

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Palchez t1_j9p7rmf wrote

I have to work out everyday or I become a total jerk. I look forward to it all morning and then it resets my vibes for the rest of the afternoon.

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Skylark7 t1_j9rz620 wrote

I work from home and do this. I am prone to errors after 5-6 hours at my desk so the break keeps my productivity up.

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ItCanAlwaysGetWorse t1_j9oq1n9 wrote

there's this little fact that has stuck with me:

A "Gym" (short for Gymnasium) in english refers to a place where you physically work out.
A Gymnasium in german is a school.
"Gymnasium" is latin and comes from the greek Gymnásion, which is a place where they did both: sports and learning (mostly sports though, and they did it naked for some reason).
I think the ancient greeks were already onto something there, physical and mental health/performance might be linked. Maybe that's what "Mens sana in corpore sano" (a healthy mind in a healthy body) refers to.

I think regular sports in school is important for more than just preventing obesity.

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teeth_lurk_beneath t1_j9otvwf wrote

Until they became Christians and the gymnasium and fitness were seen as vain things. I believe that's what happened in Constantinople at least.

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WanderingPickles t1_j9oze7h wrote

It wasn’t so much that it was vanity as it was the legacy of games being a pagan religious activity. We forget that the ancient games were first and foremost religious festivals that incorporated ritualized combat (all of the ancient Olympic events were first and foremost combat skills - not that hand-to-hand-combat-ballroom-dancing doesn’t have a certain appeal in theory…).

It is true that as the empire turned away from paganism it eschewed various aspects of civic and private life that were incompatible with the Christian ethical/moral construct. Remember, the festivals were not some sort of neutral, secular, agnostic affairs. They were first and foremost acts of religious devotion and expressions of faith. And since Christianity (and Judaism for that matter) has a pretty strict prohibition about worshipping other gods, it all had to go.

Thus we see the end of gladiators fighting to the death, the large games (Olympian, Delphian, etc.) and a wide range of other activities, events and festivals. The ancient philosophic schools also declined as society morphed and changed; they were replaced by other schools and institutions more in line with the contemporary mores of the period.

As the gymnasiums were a fusion of the pagan philosophical tradition and the pagan religious athletic tradition, it faded as well. I am very interested to learn about how that particular area of interest evolved though. It isn’t as though athletes suddenly disappeared or that fitness and martial prowess went up in smoke. Like mosaicists, sculptors, etc. who used their skills & interests to praise the pagan gods and the Christian God, I am sure athletes found another similar outlet. And I don’t know about it.

There has been some interesting work around the decline of the large public bath. The latest thinking being that the public bath declined primarily as the result of environmental and economic factors. Baths consumed vast amounts of water and fuel (to heat the water). This cost vast amounts of money. Throw in the persistence of ideas around virtue and vice (Christian frowning on men and women being naked/bathing in each others company was not new or novel in any way) and presto, end of the large public baths.

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teeth_lurk_beneath t1_j9p02m6 wrote

Thank you so much for the response. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot from you. Not just new facts, but new strings to tug on too. I hope you have a great day!

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BeenBadFeelingGood t1_j9sbq4z wrote

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

—socrates

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kkngs t1_j9p3otl wrote

My kid has ADHD and his teachers keep punishing him for not getting work done by taking away recess. I can’t seem to get it through to them that it’s counterproductive.

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knit3purl3 t1_j9p9mkl wrote

The same thing happens to my son too! I didn't worry so much for the months that it's indoor recess because he's basically swapping the time that he colors. But now that it's occasionally outdoors, he's being forced to sit with a clipboard on a curb while the rest of the kids actively play.

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pupperonan t1_j9qcdyo wrote

MONTHS of indoor recess? Excuse me, what? As a Minnesotan that sounds insane to me. We had outdoor recess all year, even in the snow, unless there was freezing rain or frostbite-inducing wind chills. We brought snow pants and boots.

Do they at least get indoor recess in a gym? Or do they have to go back to sitting at their desks? Oh these poor children…

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knit3purl3 t1_j9qhniu wrote

In the classroom. So coloring, building blocks, etc. Quiet, creative play.

Apparently some dumb hick hunters were shooting guns too close to the school so they have no outdoor recess during active hunting seasons now. And then the weather is too cold.

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knit3purl3 t1_j9ooys4 wrote

You think you could tell that to my kid's school who cancels half a year of outdoor recess for hunting season reasons and then makes sport out of canceling the rest for punishment?

They've really adopted a "beatings will continue until morale improves" approach with a bunch of 5-8yos who are going stir crazy now after 4 months trapped indoors and they keep taking away every recess that could be outside when we get randomly warm days.

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heeywewantsomenewday t1_j9ov9ts wrote

It doesn't stop there. all green spaces in our local town are being built on pushing nature further and further to the outskirts, then teens get lambasted for hanging round the streets whilst also being told to get off the xbox at home. Can't win.

Post covid people should be encouraged to get out as much as possible, mental health is such a crisis right now and physical health and nature plays a part in that

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ChrysMYO t1_j9q6m6s wrote

Yeah, remember walking my ex's first grader to class. 15 min away. Her age, I could walk the same distance to school. But her school is on an insanely busy street. And every 5 steps is a drive way to allow cars to drive from the main st into the shopping center that straddles the side walk we'd walk home on.

Getting to and from school on the calmest, nicest day was still so car focused and we were the ones walking. It reminded me when I was her age, the less than 15 min walk from school would turn into a 45 min pre-homework play time on the way back home.

Its simply impossible for them. These cars dominate everything.

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InTheEndEntropyWins t1_j9p7k4u wrote

I do wonder if ADHD for many is just a good normal natural condition, but it just doesn't work well in such an unnatural modern society.

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roll_left_420 t1_j9ptapn wrote

This is true of many mental “disorders” in modern society.

In fact, an entire movement of people who identify/diagnosed as Autistic, ADHD, Dyslexic and a few other conditions call themselves “Neurodivergent” to indicate that there’s nothing “disordered” about them, their brain is just different than average.

Like - there is nothing wrong with kids who need to move/fidget to think, but teachers/parents view it as a distraction and punish the kids. Causing them to mask symptoms leading to serious anxiety and depression for ADHD youth.

Depression makes it even harder to focus than before, and thus the ADHD shame spiral.

More frequent breaks and outside time separate from PE / recess would’ve helped me dramatically as a kid with “undiagnosed” ADHD (my parents and teachers knew something was up but ADHD wasn’t considered a real thing where I grew up).

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schwoooo t1_j9p0ac6 wrote

When I started kindergarten we had PE every day plus recess. In third grade they changed it to every other day. We hated the change.

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knit3purl3 t1_j9p9qww wrote

laughs in once a week, indoors only, for only 35min

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Aethaira t1_j9pptyu wrote

The people in charge of what kids spend most of their time doing should have a better understanding of what is healthy for their bodies and minds, this kind of stuff is disgraceful

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dr-freddy-112 t1_j9p4314 wrote

This was definitely true for me and is still true to this day.

I'm always more productive at work when I have gotten a good workout in that day. Sometimes I'll get stuck on a coding or debugging problem, go to the gym, and then come back and figure out the answer instantly after having sat at my desk for several hours prior with no progress.

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roll_left_420 t1_j9ptfdh wrote

Same!! I go for a walk to grab a coffee or smoothie and on my way back I always figure it out out of the blue

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