At the start of the class, we were asked to select a book from three titles that were available. The one that stood out for me was Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. The first section of this paper will go over the reasons for selecting Spark. The following section will discuss two topics from the book that especially resonated with me. In the third section, I will present two different studies that corroborate the findings the author put forth in the book. The last section will explain how the book could influence my personal and professional practice.
Book
I chose the book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by Dr.
John J. Ratey and Eric Hagerman because I have often used exercise as …show more content…
I can say that when
I am running on a regular basis, I am better able to handle stressful situations. It just seems that if
I am stressed and go running, my body and brain seem to relax and when I am done, I feel much less wound up.
Corroboration
In looking for research to corroborate or refute the authors’ premise, I found several studies that back up their findings. In an article by American Psychological Association, it was found that exercise can train the body to handle stress because it causes the body’s systems to work together more efficiently. This allows us to better deal with unplanned stress in the long run ("Exercise fuels the brain," 2017). This study by the APA directly corroborates Ratey and
Hagerman’s position in their book.
The second article that I found was a study done by Perrie and Lodewyk that looked at the link between exercise and learning. They found that physical activity before students undertook certain tasks in the classroom increased their problem-solving ability and focus (Perrie
& Lodewyk, 2012). This same idea was proposed by the Ratey and Hagerman as well with
Naperville Central High School as the example that they used (Ratey & Hagerman, 2008).