Exercise and ADHD
Exercise is good for everyone. In a world racked with uncertainty, this statement holds truer than most.
Exercise looks different for everyone; you could be training for a marathon, or training to walk a 5k. You could play a few holes of golf on the weekend, or you could be doing a mile run followed by 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 200 squats, followed by another mile run. But no matter what and how much you are doing, you will very likely benefit from it.
Indeed, exercise is great for humans, not just for physical health and performance, but also for mental health, performance, and mood (Cooney et al. 2013, Candola & Stubbs, 2020, Hillman et al. 2014).
Now, this is likely known by many of you, but you may not have known about just how effective it is for the treatment of ADHD. The study I cited earlier by Hillman et al. (2014) was a randomized control trial of 221 children ages 7 to 9 who were either signed up for an after-school physical activity or a waitlist control group.
The children in the physical activity groups showed improved fitness (of course), but they showed statistically significant gains in cognitive flexibility (how well one’s thinking adapts to changing circumstances, rules, and events), and executive functioning (brain function involving planning, focusing, remembering, and juggling multiple tasks). While the children in the study weren’t necessarily diagnosed with ADHD, these are the cognitive functions that our ADHD youth wrestle with.
I know you’re probably saying, “We need more research on treatments for children with ADHD!” and I can’t agree with you more. You might even be saying, “Sure, exercise is good for our kids, but will it really help with my child’s ADHD symptoms in a meaningful, significant way?”
I would be remiss not to mention that exercise is by no means a replacement for medication or therapy as the more traditional modes of treatment (read my blog on ADHD and medication here), but I am a staunch believer in how helpful it can be for anyone’s mental health and performance. As I said before, I don’t have any clinical, published research on children with ADHD specifically, but I do have one case study: my personal experience.
Historically I have had an on-and-off relationship with exercise, but the recent stimulant shortage has spurred me to look for other alternatives for the management of my ADHD symptoms. After exercising consistently for a few weeks, I can tell you that I feel a remarkable difference. Compared to December when I was not exercising, and I felt as though I was steering a ship through a dense fog, avoiding numerous sharp rocks just in the nick of time (and sometimes crashing into them), now I feel the wind at my back as I steer my ship with confidence through those same rocks on a bright sunny day.
Additionally, when I look back at my life going all the way back to elementary school, it feels like the times in which I was exercising consistently were the times I was performing at my mental best, and my ADHD symptoms were at a dull roar.
All of this to say: in my experience, exercise is a game-changer for ADHD management.
But now we have to figure all of that into our schedules. It feels like I can’t write a blog without saying that every family, child, and circumstance is different. You may have a kid that is not only active but very athletic and is all too happy to get exercise. Conversely, you may have a child that has nothing but disdain for all things exercise-related, and it’s easier to pull teeth than to get them to be any type of active. For those of you in the latter situation, I have a few suggestions.
Here are some ideas for how to help your child get some activity in their day.
Give them some agency – Anyone who has read any of my other blogs knows I’m a big fan of giving your child a sense of agency! (Read my blog on agency here.) Many caregivers likely do this already, but starting at ages 7 to 9, if they shoot down all your ideas for physical activities, put the onus on them to find something they like. You could say, “As long as you’re doing something physical a few times a week, it can be almost anything. So let me know what you want to do and we can try and make it happen!” Alternatively you can give them a few choices and they must choose one.
Consider alternative forms of exercise – It doesn’t have to be basketball, soccer, or baseball. In fact, team sports can be discouraging for children with ADHD as there can be a lot of rules, coordination, and pressure that your child may not be ready for. This is not at all to say ADHD children can’t enjoy team sports, but consider their current interest in team sports and level of coordination. Also, don’t forget more individual sports like fencing, swimming, track, tennis, boxing, or martial arts. Jiu-jitsu in particular can be really great for our children that enjoy high-touch and rough play. If you do sign your child up for a team sport (which is absolutely fine) be sure to consider the level of competition; we want it to be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.
Do what works – Outside of their more organized activity, try to make it easy for your child to access physical activities, and try to build them into your schedule in a way that doesn’t require too much of your resources. It could be a scheduled family walk every Tuesday and Thursday, or a punching bag in the backyard. If you go to the gym, bring your child with you, as it’s been found that proper weight lifting won’t harm growing bones. Even if they don’t love everything you come up with, creating spontaneous opportunities for physical activities will make it easier for your child to think of and choose those activities, and it’ll likely lead to more variety and creativity in the activities they choose as well.
Overall, you know your child, family, and circumstances best, but I hope that this article has you thinking about the relationship between your child’s ADHD symptoms and their physical activity. ADHD or not, more activity can’t hurt and I think you’ll find (if you haven’t already) that it absolutely helps.
References:
Cooney GM, Dwan K, Greig CA, Lawlor DA, Rimer J, Waugh FR, McMurdo M, Mead GE. Exercise for depression. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013, Issue 9. Art. No.: CD004366. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004366.pub6. Accessed 21 February 2023.
Kandola, A., Stubbs, B. (2020). Exercise and Anxiety. In: Xiao, J. (eds) Physical Exercise for Human Health. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1228. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1792-1_23
Charles H. Hillman, Matthew B. Pontifex, Darla M. Castelli, Naiman A. Khan, Lauren B. Raine, Mark R. Scudder, Eric S. Drollette, Robert D. Moore, Chien-Ting Wu, Keita Kamijo; Effects of the FITKids Randomized Controlled Trial on Executive Control and Brain Function. Pediatrics October 2014; 134 (4): e1063–e1071. 10.1542/peds.2013-3219
Jacobsen, R. (2023, February 6). ADHD and exercise. Child Mind Institute. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://childmind.org/article/adhd-and-exercise/
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WRITTEN BY BEN KINSEY, LCSW (HE/HIM/HIS)
Ben has worked with children and families in many different contexts: Summer camps, schools, foster care and children's shelters, hospitals, medical clinics, and private therapy. He’s worked with teens, toddlers, and everyone in between. He can tell you one thing for certain: there is no handbook for the challenges and hardship you and your child are facing, both in and outside your relationship with one another. The goal in his room is to give your child the tools to cope with and navigate through any troubles they may be wrestling with, and with the family's support, empower them to use those same tools in the future.
