Exercise and running around increased blood flow to the brain, which also increases resource for the brain to use. The prefrontal cortex, which controls impulse is a ted bit slow.

Neuroscientists show that a single workout will immediately increase brain chemicals, such as dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline, to improve your child’s ability to focus up to at least 2 hours after exercise.

Exercise benefits the ADHD brain in more ways than you can imagine. Exercise not only helps to reduce stress, but it also helps to improves motor skills, physical fitness, attention, and social behaviors in children with ADHD. 

Exercise also has a protective effect on the brain. Long-term exercise improves attention, and the volume of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex increases as well. Think of the brain as a muscle. The more you work out, the bigger and stronger the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex get, and the longer before age-related degenerative brain disorders hit.

This is important because the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are two areas most susceptible to neurodegenerative disease and age-related cognitive decline.

Exercise can be an excellent non-medication tool to improve focus and concentration for people with ADHD. It’s unfortunate that society seems to shift away from the more time-consuming natural remedies such as exercise and in favor of quick-fix solutions.

Exercise helps ADHD by increasing the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine-both of which play leading roles in regulating the attention system. With regular physical activity, we can raise the baseline levels of dopamine and norepinephrine by spurring the growth of new receptors in certain brain areas.

A study by the San Diego Center for Children, an institute for psychologically troubled children showed that hyperactive kids running for as much as 45 minutes a day, four days a week. 

The kids who run 45 minutes x4 days a week started acting as if they were getting extra doses of medication and eventually need their medication doses reduced. Only a few non-running kids had their medication doses reduced.

Another study in 2015 shows that intense exercise (relay race involving 5-min run) can improve the attention and concentration of children with ADHD and may help their school performance.

In the study, the ADHD group with exercise showed a 30% improvement in tasks needing attention compared to the ADHD group without exercise. In the non-ADHD groups with exercise, the difference is only 2.5% with the non-ADHD group without exercise.

In another study, the ADHD group showed faster reaction times during physical exercise (treadmill) and decreased omission errors.

There is also a large body of research on the beneficial effects of exercise on depression and anxiety. The results of exercise as a treatment for mild to moderate depression compare favorably to psychotherapy and pharmacologic treatment.

When it comes to the best exercise for ADHD, it’s not just any exercise. Some activities are better brain boosters. When it comes to raising brain chemical levels in kids with ADHD, the more complex the exercise, the better.

The best exercise for ADHD demands constant physical exertion and a suite of technical movements that engaged brain functions dealing with balance, timing, error correction, decision-making, and focus. 

Aerobic exercise creates new pathways in your brain and floods it with the chemicals that help you pay attention. Exercise that challenges the brain and the body has a greater positive impact than aerobic exercise alone. 

Cycling, swimming, and running are tops. At the bottom are team sports, such as soccer, hockey, and baseball, where there are many downtimes during the game.

The more complex the exercise is, the better for your ADHD brain. Activities like, Taekwondo, jiujitsu, and judo focus on self-control and bringing together your mind and body.

• Ballet
• Cycling
• Dancing
• Gymnastics
• Ice skating
• Jiujitsu
• Judo
• Karate
• Martial arts
• Mountain biking
• Rock climbing
• Running
• Taekwondo
• Tennis
• Surfing
• White water paddling
• Yoga

If you have a choice, go outside. Studies show that being out in nature while you move can reduce your ADHD symptoms even more than just exercising inside.

What’s your favorite exercise that your enjoy?

The best time to exercise is in the morning to reap the mental focus and energy boost during work or school. But if evening works best for you, still do it.

You don’t need to join the gym or sign-up for Cross Fit to get the benefits of exercise.

Just put on some comfortable shoes and go for a power walk or jog for at least 30 minutes x3-4 times a week. or find fun dance workout videos from youtube.com.

To help get into the mindset of daily physical activities, I often ask my patients to start every morning with ten jumping jacks. This way, you get a sense of accomplishment and hopefully continue to stay on track.

Doing ten jumping jacks is so easy, there’s almost no excuse not to do it. This gets you into the daily activity mentality. And get the blood flowing.

This will take care of the problem most people frequently have, “I don’t have time,” “I’m tired.” When you are doing just this simple ten jumping jacks a day, you start feeling good about yourself and want to do more. And before you know it, you’ve just created a new exercise habit, and you may be doing more than just jumping jacks then.

When I first started exercise, I could only run for a couple of minutes, and I would get out of breath and had to stop. I slowly got myself up to running longer and longer distances before stopping. Before I knew it, I ran my first marathon in 2006, and the first triathlon in 2007.

I’m not going to lie to you. It’s going to be tough in the beginning to find the motivation. That’s why I ask you to only start with ten jumping jacks. If you can’t even do this, then no one else can help you.

Start asking yourself “why” you want to make this lifestyle change. Focus on the brain and emotional benefits of exercise. Focus on the joy you’ll have spending quality time with your happy, healthy child who does not need ADHD medication to focus.

Again, you need to do it with your child. Make it fun. As long as something is fun, your child will do it. Give your child a sense of control, let him or her pick the exercise to do for the day – jumping jacks, squats, lunges, crunches, or planks.

Keep track of your progress. Studies have shown that people who track their fitness progress tend to have better results and continue with the new lifestyle changes.

I use the SweatCoin app to keep track of my daily steps and earn SweatCoins while doing it.

In Hawaii, it’s easy to stay active all year long. During the week, I work out at the gym, and on weekends, we go hiking, stand-up paddling, playing tennis, playing golf, etc.

Find something that the whole family can enjoy together and convenient to do every day.

Ok, there you have it…

I hope you find this information helpful. Let me know what you think and comment below.

Remember ADHD does not doom your child to a life of under-achievement. You know your child is bright, full of potential, and deserves the best. In fact, many of the world’s most significant discoveries and inventions were made by people with ADHD.

I helped my crazy wild child who couldn’t read or write when she was little, overcome her learning difficulties and become a merit scholarship student majoring in premed at Loyola Chicago University.

So don’t give up; everything is possible.

If you’re just starting on this natural ADHD treatment journey and still in the research phase, check out my new book, Eat to Focus.