How Exercising May Affect Your Grades

If you want to do well in college, just add more exercise to your routine! Studies have shown that exercising can help students get better grades.

According to the New York Times, a student that studies 3 hours or more a day is 4 times more likely to exercise than a student who studies for less than an hour. Also, If a student has a GPA of 3.5 or higher, they are 3 times more likely to exercise than a student who has a GPA of 3.0 or less. The NYTimes also says that students who exercised 7 days a week had an average GPA that was 0.4 points higher than students who didn’t. But is this correlation because students who have work harder in school will naturally put more effort into exercising as well?

This may be a factor. But exercising also increases blood flow, allowing more blood to flow to your brain. According to NBC News, this helps students to focus more because their brain is more fully engaged. Exercise is also a good stress reliever. So if you’re stuck writing an essay or doing a project, taking an exercise break will help to activate your brain more, helping you to come up with more ideas and focus better on the task at hand after.

This is also helpful to adults who work long hours at their job. Taking a small break once an hour or so to get your body moving and help the blood flow will make you much more productive, and will help you to focus, says NBC News.

So now college students have even more of a reason to fight off the freshman 15. Exercising is good for the body, good for the mind, and can possibly be an important factor on your GPA. Don’t make exercising your last priority, especially during busy times like midterms and finals. During these weeks, making sure to fit in exercise can help to make sure you give yourself the best chance to ace your exams because you will be focusing better and will be less stressed out.