Move More to Think Better - The Relationship Between Exercise and Brainpower with John Ratey

In the first of 3 conversations with Harvard Professor John Ratey, a neuropsychiatrist and ADHD expert, Friederike sits down with him to discuss his book 'Spark' and the significant impact of exercise on brain health. John shares the importance that physical activity has in his life with his personal exercise routine as well as how regular exercise enhances mood, cognitive function, and protects against diseases like Alzheimer's. He explains the success of a revolutionary school PE program in Naperville, Illinois, where a focus on wellness and fitness improved students' academic performance dramatically without any extra studying or homework. They discuss the importance of making physical education inclusive and enjoyable for all students and the broader implications of fitness for cognitive and overall health. Friederike and John share their thoughts on using your own personal best as the main metric for tracking progress and long term success, rather than comparing yourself to others. 

00:00 Introduction
00:48 The Benefits of Exercise on the Brain
02:38 Naperville's Revolutionary PE Program
07:12 Making Exercise Accessible To All
10:56 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

 

John Ratey (https://www.johnratey.com/)  is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognized expert in Neuropsychiatry. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles, and 12 books published in 20 languages. With the publication of his bestseller, "Spark-The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain," Dr. Ratey established himself as one of the world's foremost authorities on the brain-fitness connection in areas such as ADHD, Autism, Aging and Cognition.

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Episode Transcript

Friederike Fabritius (00:05):
Hello everyone.
Today I'm with Professor JohnRatey, a world expert on ADHD, a
neuropsychiatrist, a Harvard professor.
He has written 12 bestsellingbooks, translated to, I
think, 20 different languages.
I came across his book, Spark, and letme say it was such an important message

(00:29):
and I want all of you to hear about it.
So, hello John.
How are you?

John Ratey (00:34):
I am fine.
How are you this morning?
I'm in Hawaii where it's paradise,you know, it's, it's wonderful.

Friederike Fabritius (00:40):
I can hear the bird singing.
I would say you're in a better placethan I am, um, geographically speaking.
So I would like to start out bytalking about how exercise is good
for our brains, because I think that'sa key message from your book Spark.
And so, first of all, I wanna hearwhat is your personal exercise program?

John Ratey (01:03):
Well, it's eight 8:00 AM right now here in Hawaii,
and I've already walked two milesto get my coffee every morning.
That's part of my ritual.
That's the way I wake up.
Then throughout the day, I'll be moving.
That's one of the reasons why I mean,we are in Hawaii because we're moving
all the time and we're moving outsideand in nature a lot of the time.

(01:26):
You know, we're near the Pacific Ocean,about a half a mile away, we go down
to the beach and then I have a personaltrainer a couple days a week because as we
age, we need to make our muscles stronger.
We need to have them.
We're learning so much more about howstrength is so important, not only

(01:47):
for our bodies, but for our brain.
When I wrote Spark, it wasn't as clearthat strength training has a profound
effect on the brain as, aerobicexercise, but we're learning Yes, it
does it really has a big effect onpromoting a good mood and keeping our

(02:09):
brain cells active and ready to learn.
And keeping us away from thecognitive decline as we age, which
leads to protection against nastythings like Alzheimer's disease,
Parkinson's disease, and all the otherravages that aging has on our brain.

Friederike Fabritius (02:30):
Absolutely.
I would like to ask you like exactly howwe should exercise and all of this because
I think that's like a natural question.
But first I was so impressed in yourbook you spoke about that school district
in Naperville, Illinois, and, how therewas a very specific PE program at the
school and how not only the kids gotfitter, but they also got much smarter.

(02:56):
And I would like for you to speak on that.

John Ratey (02:58):
Yes.
When people read the book theyall wanted to make their school
system into Naperville, right.
Basically, it was a revolution of thePE program, the physical educators there
who said we have to, change the way we'redoing physical education and not just
emphasize sport training, but to emphasizewellness and fitness for all the students.

(03:25):
So they really changed PE so thatevery student was evaluated constantly
eventually with the polar monitors tosee how many steps they were making,
and that eventually led to making theirgrade based on how much time they were
spending in cardiac training, makingtheir their hearts better and more fit.

(03:50):
Well, this led to a veryprofound effect on weight.
I became aware of them and they wereon a big program on our NPR here,
looking at our problem with the,our overweight adolescents around
the world, around the country.

(04:10):
We were about 33% at that point,of overweight adolescents.
They did this study in Naperville of19,000 kids of their school district
and they were at 3% overweightand not one obese child in their
7,500 kids in their high schools.

(04:31):
So that was the impetus for awareness,but at the same time, the head PE
teacher got on and was talking aboutall the things that they have done at
Naperville, and one of the things thatthey mentioned was that 99% of the
kids took the Tim's tests, every threeyears, that every country takes to see

(04:52):
how we're doing in science and math.
Well, usually the US is inthe late teens somewhere.
But they could take it as a "country".
All 19,000 kids were participating andthey came in number one in the world
in science, and number six in math.
And this was astounding becauseusually the first six or eight

(05:15):
school districts or schools who wereevaluated are in Asia, and Finland.
By the way, Finland is always up therefor various reasons, but one of the
reasons is that they really do a lotfor fitness for all the kids every day.
So, again, a nice, showingthat if you have fit kids,

(05:36):
you're gonna have smart kids.
And so that, that got me on an airplane.
You know, not just because offitness, but for my world,
looking at the brain and being apsychiatrist, I said, this is amazing.
I have to see what's going on.
I fell in love with the place.
The PE teachers were like buddingneuroscientists, you know, because they

(05:59):
were all reading my stuff because I wasalready talking about how exercise has
such an effect on mood, on anxiety, onpanic disorder on addictions, on ADHD,
as well as promoting protection againstcognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease.

(06:19):
So it was a natural fit and anatural love fest when I went there.
And, so that led to my researchin putting together Spark.

Friederike Fabritius (06:32):
I thought it's such an important message because if you think
about it, most parents think if they wanttheir kids to be smarter, they cancel the
afterschool sports activities to make surethey study more or something like this.
And also, what I find verysad is that most kids love to
move, but they hate PE class.
I mean some teachers make itexciting, just the kids, they love

(06:54):
sports, but they hate PE class.
And I think that's so saddening.
And what I loved in the book isthey were so tangible on simple
things that teachers could do.
So for example, I love theidea of the personal best.
Can you speak a little bit onthat so people hear about that?
I think, why is nobody doing this?

John Ratey (07:12):
Yeah, no, so the first thing they did, the PE teachers was
really, they threw out the balls.
Initially, as they were evolving theirprogram, it was everyone moving, all
throughout their 45 minute period.
So kids were running, theywere doing calisthenics.
They were playing small sport games.
So instead of soccer being nine on a side,there were three on a side, basketball

(07:37):
the same way, volleyball the same way.
So that everybody was importantand everybody was participating.
And this led to more excitementamongst all the kids, not just the
athletes, and that was a big change.
All of a sudden you were getting thesekids that weren't athletic at all to do
well in PE because they were encouraged.

(07:59):
And then when they finally put ontheir polar watches to measure how
much they actually were working,how their heart rate was going.
And the grade was dependent ongetting in your cardiac training zone.
Wow.
So, you had kids that were really outtashape all of a sudden getting A's in PE.

(08:21):
You know, I mean, who, you know,they disciplined the kids, especially
the people that were forgotten forPE and sport, were now in shape.
And then, they could offer all kindsof activities that kids could pursue.
So they were ready.
They were ready to do that.

Friederike Fabritius (08:41):
I so agree with you because I'm thinking like everybody's
talking about, get more iPads intothe schools or something like this.
You could take that money and putit into exercise, in my opinion,
more of that and also the ideathat every kid can do something.
And then let's switch to a slightlydifferent angle, but I love
two things, the personal best.
I mean, not just twothings, but in particular.

John Ratey (09:03):
Yeah.

Friederike Fabritius: So the personal best. (09:04):
undefined
So you compare yourself toyourself and not to others.
I think that is a paradigm shift becauseeverybody hates being compared to others.
Like unless you're the best.
Right?
Right.
And so there you improve, youdo continuous improvement on
yourself, and that's so good.
Self-efficacy, you start, your confidencebuilds up, you can make progress, you

(09:27):
can be active, you can do something.
And then also the idea ofoffering many different things.
So if you hate balls, you don'thave to be great at basketball.
You can do something completely different.
And so offering that range ofmotion instead of just enforcing
one type of exercise on the kids.
So I really thought a lot ofpeople have to hear about this.

(09:50):
Sure that was a rich schooldistrict, let's not like ignore that.
But still, I do think there they're simpletakeaways we can all take from this one.

John Ratey (09:59):
Part of their brilliance was to, to develop small sided games
where three on three all the time andthey were com computer generated sides.
It wasn't choosing sides.
So that the the more athletic kidswould choose other athletic kids.
No.
Yeah.
It was randomly assigned every day.
So, in volleyball, three on three,you had somebody not that good,

(10:21):
but they were part of the team andthey eventually brought them up.
And so there was a, an incredibleesprit de corps that developed over
a couple decades at this school.
And that was part of it, that was partof what the magic was in the whole town.
It is, is always now one of the placesin the United States that voted you

(10:44):
know, the best places to live because,uh, you know, they're so ,it's a
vibrant community or it had been.
I'm not sure where it's at these days,but, you know, things change all the time.

Friederike Fabritius (10:55):
Of course.
Thank you so much.
That was, I think incredibly inspiringboth for people because we've got
to hear about your exercise regimeand how you really walk the talk.
And I think it's interesting notjust for parents, but I think to
see that clear correlation betweenexercise and academic performance.

(11:18):
I mean, hello, like everybodyshould be exercising.
It's the best thing youcan do for your brain.
So thank you for today.
We'll see more of you.
But for today, I want tothank you and say goodbye.

John Ratey (11:31):
Goodbye.
And enjoyed being with you.

Friederike Fabritius (11:34):
Thank you.