The Secret Weapon

There's an excellent article in this month's issue of Success Magazine. It's called The Secret Weapon to a Sharper Mind and Better Business. Let us sum it up for all of you in case you haven't had the chance to check out the article.

A doctor named Dr. John Ratey just released a book called Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. In this book the Dr. talks about a high school in Naperville, Ill., where they approach physical education a little differently. In my high school, P.E. was all about pick up games in basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, and pretending to act tough in the weight room. Well, this high school does things a little different, the students wear heart monitors and are graded on the amount of time they are able to keep their heart rate in the optimal aerobic range for their body type. What?!!! I think in my high school, P.E. would have gone from most guy's favorite class to don't ever take that dumb P.E. class...

Due to this intense P.E. class, the standardized test scores of the entire student body have jumped. In math, the school placed sixth in the world. On the science section, they placed first in the entire world!

Dr. Ratey has proven that when you exercise, it changes the physical structure of your brain. It increases your speed of processing, your memory. Basically, science has proven that exercise primes your brain for success and makes you smarter. That's not all however, Dr. Ratey also says that if you want to think clearer, beat stress, put the damper on your depression and boost your confidence, you only have to do one thing, and that's exercise!