The Intellectual Gets Her Bootie in Gear in Everyday Ramblings

Taking advantage of Audible’s 2 for 1 credit sale I downloaded a couple of audiobooks to keep me busy and out of trouble. I am about halfway through the series on Western Philosophy and still really enjoying those lectures but I was thinking about what would help with motivating my students to actually practice at home a few minutes each day and then because my inner pony was so apparent on New Year’s Eve I saw another one of The Great Courses called The Barbarian Empires of the Steppes.

He starts those lectures out with a quote from Plato so you know those philosophy lectures do come in handy. :)

The book I got, it is modified to be a well done audio program, is called Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise. It is by John Ratey but co-authored by someone very skilled at making complex material approachable. This is the first time I actually understand what they are saying when they talk about various parts of the brain and how they interact and how learning and memory happen. I admit I am taking notes because I want to be able to quote him in class.

The book is about 7 years old but I keep reading that the scientific community is confirming even more what he talks about in this book.

I am fascinated by brain science and am very clear from my own experience that movement can profoundly affect mood and focus and my ability to retain information.

The basic premise of this book is… heck, if having a healthy attractive body is not enough reason to pull yourself away from the sedentary activities you do most for a relatively small part of your day, then do it for brain function!

I come from this intellectual family and the only activity any of us ever did consistently was swim (we either had pools or were close to a swimmable beach), and walk. And some of us danced. My brother and I were crazy bike maniacs as kids too; our bikes were like attachments that magically connected to us when we stepped outside. My mother, although she never practiced was interested in yoga from an esoteric perspective.

PE class was abject torture for me. I am not kidding, the competitive cliquish nature of it just slayed me as an introverted wild child. I used to jump rope and do skip tape and hopscotch on my own. I liked being out of the house. I seriously think the main reason I dropped out of high school about half way through10th grade was so I would not be forced to go to PE.

This book addresses the way PE has (and mostly is now when schools actually have PE) been taught and focuses on some innovative programs that focus on individual fitness and giving kids the encouragement and tools to be fit rather than just play team sports where you are often not active because you are waiting for something to happen.

I see this in the private school for the arts and the ballet school Miss E. goes to. A focus on being fit first.

I came to all this a circuitous way, because of my incurable skin condition, (a genetic defect in my sebaceous glands) for treatment I was able to learn early stage biofeedback but as a requirement they made me (I had to sign a contract) go to a gym.

I learned the basics of fitness there. In my mid twenties, basically on my own.

When I ask long term yoga practitioners why they practice, and I always do when I sub a class, most of them tell me it is to manage a health condition, work through and injury or to stay mobile as they age. That makes me sad.

There is now compelling scientific proof that if you want to keep learning new things and keep your memories (which in so many ways is who we are) you need to do moderate aerobic exercise regularly for modest periods of time followed by some sort of complex activity like tennis, or tango… or yoga!

Sorry to go on about this… I am just enthusiastic. Lets see if I can translate that to my students… But in the meantime I will be working on my Bollywood Belly dancing with these white girl hips.

Last updated January 03, 2015