The book Spark written by Dr. John J. Ratey begins with the story of Naperville Central High School and two P.E teachers who reinvented physical education. They came up with a way to make P.E. more fun and fair to everyone by monitoring children’s heart rates and crafting more fun and advance ways to exercise. This Naperville High School found that children who were participating in P.E. before class, actually performed better in school. Ratey then begins to talk about all of the other benefits of exercise on your body, but most importantly your mind. Dr. John J. Ratey talks about how the brain is plastic and how it is ever changing, and exercise can change that for the better. One major point that is consistently brought up through …show more content…
I know feel that I have enough information; through his personal examples and the studies he used, to help promote the values of exercise. I think that this book is a great example of an effective informational approach to draw more people to exercise. Not only does it increase understanding of exercise and its benefits, I also believe that attitudes towards exercise. A great example of how this book does this is in chapter 9, when Ratey gives the 9 benefits of exercise and how it does that. “It strengthens the cardiovascular system, regulates fuel, reduces obesity, it elevates threshold, lifts mood, boots immune system, fortifies your bones, boosts motivation, and fosters neuroplasticity” (Ratey 189-190), which is enough to motivate anyone to exercise. After reading through this book I thought that maybe I should stop exercising for a better aesthetics and start exercising to boost my health. The goal of this book was to get people to exercise, but I think that it does so much more than that. This book not only make you want to exercise, but it makes you want to exercise for the right reasons, inform people about the benefits of exercise when they are uninformed, and bring others along as you go on that exercise …show more content…
The chapter that made the strongest connection for me was the Attention Deficit chapter, because my brother has suffered from A.D.H.D for quite some time now. My brother was a wrestler and a great one at that, but he had a tumor in his leg that stopped him from wrestling and paralyzed his leg from the knee down. From that moment on my brother could no longer exercise and his A.D.H.D symptoms became worse and worse. I never put it together that exercise and specifically a combat sport (mentioned in the book) was what helping his symptoms. He struggled with his symptoms until he got a break as a tool salesman and began to exercise because of his job. It occurred to me that my brother was what the book called a “rainmaker” someone who has a hyper active, social personality, who is made for sales. He is able to focus under high stress situations like exercise and sales. I instantly called my brother after reading this information and told him to start exercising when he beings to get distracted. From the day I called him my brother has been going to the gym at least three times a week, and his symptoms have lessened