It's no secret that exercise has tremendous benefits for students with ADHD. It not only helps them focus better, but it also has been shown to improve their mood, decrease impulsive behavior, and help them sleep more soundly. The real question is, which exercises are best for improving the symptoms of ADHD?
To answer that question, it's important to understand exactly how exercise helps to reduce and manage the symptoms associated with ADHD. According to bestselling author Dr. John Ratey, who wrote the book Beginning an Exercise Program for People with ADHD, exercise acts like a natural dose of the popular ADHD medications Ritalin and Adderall by boosting the levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain.
Exercise also helps to enhance the brain's "executive function", a term coined by mental health experts to describe the cognitive abilities associated with tasks like planning and organizing, performing complex tasks, and controlling emotions.
Benefits of Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise in particular, which gets the blood pumping faster throughout the entire body and forces the lungs and heart to work harder than they normally do, is a great way to naturally increase dopamine and norepinephrine levels. The most popular types of aerobic exercises for youth include:
Cycling
Running
Jumping rope
Swimming
Walking
Skateboarding
Playing organized sports like basketball, baseball, football, gymnastics, etc.
Dancing
Cheerleading
For young students who are looking to use aerobic exercise to help manage their ADHD symptoms, it's important to find an aerobic activity that is enjoyable enough to do at least 30 minutes a day five days a week.
Making Exercise Routine with Deskcise Pro™
Incorporating aerobic activity into tasks young people already do every day is the perfect way to "sneak" exercise into the day, especially for youth who don't see themselves as athletic. Deskcise Pro™ offers the perfect way to do that. The all-in-one desk bike allows students to elevate their heart rate (and raise those dopamine and norepinephrine levels) while doing homework, playing games on an iPad, reading a book, or drawing a picture.
It's also a perfect way to stay active during the cold winter months when students are more likely to stay indoors where it's warm.
To see just how easy it is for young students to use Deskcise Pro to stay active, watch this video.