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LIFETIME
LEARNING FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH
Written by: Eric
James & Phillip
Conatser
Research has
found that being healthy means having
a high level of ‘complexity’
and adaptability in body and mind. New
interventions are being designed to
enhance health across the lifespan by
having people continue learning new
activities to enhance the adaptability
that is required for good health. These
interventions draw from theoretical
and experimental work based on dynamical
systems and chaos theories. Physical
education can play a great role in this
learning process that enhances health
across the lifespan through greater
complexity and adaptability.
It has been
found that high levels of what is called
complexity and irregularity are necessary
for high levels of physical and mental
health. This means that when our brains
and bodies function in highly predictable
ways, we lose the ability to adapt to
changing circumstances.
For example,
a healthy beating heart has many small,
unpredictable fluctuations which, if
absent, make the heart less able to
adapt when rapid changes in heart rate
are needed. This negative nature of
regular, highly predictable heart function
has been found across the entire life
span, from the developing fetus (Pincus
& Viscarello, 1992; Van Leeuwen
et al., 2006) to the heart function
of the elderly (Chaves
et al., 2008). Numerous studies
have also found the value of less predictable
fluctuations in the endocrine system
(Pincus, 2000),
brain waves (Abásolo
et al., 2005), and walking (Hausdorff
et al., 1995). For example, healthier
people have shown gait patterns that
fluctuate in less predictable ways than
in less healthy populations.
In scientific
terms, the less predictable functioning
of body and mind that is associated
with greater health is also known as
‘complexity.’ Complexity
is a broad topic, but generally refers
to having highly connected physiological
systems within the body. The greater
the complexity within our nervous systems,
the more information we can transmit
within and between different physiological
systems. This allows for more functional
and adaptable behaviors. Notice as children
develop, so do higher levels of complexity
within their body movements and brain
waves until they reach adulthood. On
the other hand, as people start entering
old age, there is a tendency for this
complexity to begin decreasing.
Loss of complexity
in adults may be contributed to by years
of predictability in movement patterns.
For example, children (on average) use
twice as many ways to grab an object,
whereas adults settle into using only
a few grip patterns. By repeatedly using
only a few movement patterns over years,
motor systems may decrease in adaptability.
Developing more effective movement patterns
(abandoning less effective movements)
to complete a given task is not necessarily
bad within itself.
Take for example,
coaches repeatedly teaching skills and
offence/defense strategies to increase
reactionary movements. However, if permanent
neurological injury occurs to those
pathways and/or a new movement pattern
is demanded, old abandoned pathways
will need to be redeveloped. Increasing
adaptability may not only decrease rehabilitation
time but also decrease the chance of
injury. Sports specify that practice
might be beneficial during season; however,
coaches during off-season should explore
a variety of movement patterns.
Recent studies
of chaos theory in relation to human
health incorporated new training protocols
designed to increase levels of complexity
in the brain and body (Kyriazis,
2005; West, 2006). These protocols
involve having people continually learn
new activities, including physical activities.
The objective isn’t to become
an expert at one activity, but is rather
to continually learn and adapt to new
tasks and environments. The idea is
to get the brain, nervous system, and
body to become more flexible, to adapt
and to create new connections within
the brain.
On average,
it takes 3 to 6 hours of practice to
learn a motor skill, and around 30 hours
to become relatively efficient. Make
note that ample practice time is needed
to acquire a skill. If insufficient
time is given for skill development,
skills will not be retained for future
use. This has been observed when elementary
physical educators teach year after
year too many skills (not allowing enough
practice time) and, subsequently, by
sixth grade children are still incapable
of throwing or catching correctly. Educators
should allow for some level of mastery/efficiency.
Physical educators
can participate in, and promote, this
type of learning process that can lead
not only to greater physical fitness,
but also to greater health at a much
more basic physiological level that
includes greater adaptability in the
brain and other systems of the body.
Physical educators have the opportunity
to teach numerous new sports and physical
skills to young people. Educators should
teach more than the traditional football,
volleyball, basketball, and track skills.
By starting today’s youth out
on the path of regularly learning new
skills and activities, we can instill
in them the very processes that enhance
greater complexity and adaptability
at an intrinsic level.
Educators should
constantly give students new learning
situations, tasks to practice, and choices
in equipment, distances, and rule modification.
Learning in this manner helps students
engage in the process of adaptation,
which can increase the complexity of
their nervous systems.
These types
of learning programs could include:
(a) new forms of dance (b) sports or
(c) intellectual challenges such as
‘brain-teaser’ exercises.
Individual activities could also be
combined into multiple events, such
as having 6-8 students on a team (varying
abilities levels) work together to accomplish
several stations. The first station
could be a low level ropes course activity.
The second station might consist of
performing balance and tumbling skills.
And the third station might include
a folklorico dancing activity. The last
station could be a martial arts fitness
event. Working as a team though the
variety of skills and situations, each
member is responsible for helping everyone
succeed. The cognition of creativity
in group decision on task completion
helps build cooperation, intellect,
and motor development in a fun way.
Another suggested
form of training that might potentially
increase complexity is having people
practice movement skills with different
movement constraints. For example, practice
balancing skills without vision, standing
on a pillow, and/or holding the head
toward the sky. Each of these situations
limits the ability to balance and perform
the skill optimally. Practicing with
constraint(s) forces the body to maximize
other senses to achieve the objective.
Once the constraint is lifted (like
“opening you eyes”), balance
becomes easer. The same is true for
increasing gait complexity, which can
be addressed through practice walking
on uneven or narrow surfaces or with
different stride lengths or durations.
Another side
benefit to teaching children a variety
of activities and skills is the confidence
they receive knowing they can be successful
in may different movement patterns.
This confidence and adaptability may
prove useful later in life when fast
paced activities like “basketball”
can no longer physically be performed
and new slower paced skills like “sailing”
need developed.
We hope this
article inspires creativity, flexibility,
and a inclusive movement experience
for all. Have a great and fun filled
summer!
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