Concentration and Exercise
Sometimes referred to as 'zoning in', this does not just apply to mental disciplines, such as the ability to complete a test or exam without getting distracted and losing concentration.
It applies just as well for instance to elite athletes who will often speak of having been 'in the zone', meaning a really focused place, whilst running a really quick race, or having an amazing performance on the tennis court where they see the ball 'like a football'.
It is an important consideration, because one of the best and most effective ways to improve performance is to improve your concentration. This stands to reason, but it is often overlooked in favour of actually making some sort of intrinsic improvement to your ability or skill in a particular area. Usually, just by being able to improve our focus and concentration when tackling a problem we can up our chances of overcoming that problem.
With regard to exercise, does this help us concentrate? Well, many people report that after they have undertaken exercise, as long as it has not completely exhausted them, they notice that afterwards they find it easier to concentrate completely on the task in hand for a longer period.
At the very least, it is a well cited phenomenon that concentration levels fall during a period where we work on the same task, or for instance during a lesson at school, and then starts to increase again when we know the end is nigh, as it were.
Therefore certainly having fairly short periods of intense concentration followed by quick breaks where we avert our intention to something completely different would seem to help us concentrate on the task in hand; whether we do exercise in those periods of break or something else and whether one is relatively more effective than the other is a matter of debate.
But in general it seems a fair thing to suggest that doing exercise helps us concentrate afterwards on another task just from our personal experiences.
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