The Why

Smarter Stronger Children's Back Cover

Too many children today are not getting the large-muscle activity they need in order to be their best – both physically AND mentally! Seduced by the mesmerizing appeal of multiple electronic devices and limited in their outdoor play for various reasons, children are not getting the exercise required to be optimally fit and healthy, exercise such as previous generations routinely enjoyed as a matter of course in their everyday lives. Even as this situation worsens, scientists are now finding that aerobic exercise also greatly improves cognitive function and academic achievement!

Smarter Stronger Children’s Mega Brain Power Boosters / Muscle-Makers Program for Excellence combines academic subject matter of YOUR choice with scientifically-based fitness-producing activities. These fun learning-enhancing exercises cause a virtual flood of brain-boosting (and muscle-making) chemicals to be unleashed in the body and in and into the brain. The result is:

¨ Accelerated Academic Learning

¨ Optimized Brain Function

¨ Improved Health & Fitness for YOUR Children

All at the same time!

These teacher-and-kid-approved, fun movements take up very little space and require no equipment, so they can be enjoyed right beside your children’s desks in the classroom and at home – virtually anywhere, any time – to give your children a huge advantage!

"As a long-time elementary school prinicipal, I've seen firsthand what Ed Mayhew's Mega Brain Power Boosters can do. They flat-out work!"
-- J. Vernon Laney, Coordinator of Curriculum & Instruction
Winchester City Schools

Ed Mayhew, the creator of Smarter Stronger Children’s revolutionary Mega Brain Power Boosters / Muscle-Makers, draws experience from his 40 years as a professional educator (physical education teacher, classroom teacher, consultant, tutor & coach). He is the author of several books on the benefits of physical activity for all ages and is a dynamic seminar and workshop presenter. He is available to give workshops and presentations on how easily you can give your students/children that huge advantage (and make life easier and more fun for you, too). www.SmarterStrongerChildren.com

Smarter Stronger Children's
Mega Brain Power Boosters Are the Answer

Take a drive through neighborhoods across our great land and you’ll find something missing – children out playing. This lack of large-muscle activity is something to be concerned about because in recent years scientific study after scientific study has shown that this newly-acquired sedentary lifestyle that plagues enormous numbers of our children not only hurts them physically, but mentally as well. One of the findings of these studies is that there is a virtual flood of brain-boosting, brain-growing chemicals unleashed in the brain and into the brain from the body when our children get out of breath – are breathing deeply – from vigorous play and exercise.

Here’s a brief sampling of other startling discoveries researchers have recently made:

A study of 1.2 million Swedish military recruits found that there is a strong correlation between the aerobic fitness of these teens and their I.Q.’s. Further, those young men who bettered their cardiovascular fitness between the ages of 15 and 18 also had improvement in their cognitive abilities.
Closer to home, research at the University of Illinois found that the fittest 9- and 10-year-olds in their study had, on average, a 12% larger hippocampus (the learning and memory part of the brain) than the least fit children. In another study at this same university, 9-year-olds who walked on a treadmill for 20 minutes prior to a reading comprehension test scored ONE WHOLE GRADE LEVEL HIGHER than when they sat for 20 minutes before taking the test.
The Naperville School District (Illinois) had students who were struggling with math take a special fitness-based PE class immediately before math class. At the end of the semester, the exercisers had improved their math scores by 20.4% compared to 3.9% better scores by the non-exercising control group.

The problem is that children today, on the whole, are not getting the vigorous activity they need to be their best. According to a 2009 Kaiser Foundation for the Family study, eight- to 18-year-olds average 7 hours 38 minutes per day being entertained by electronic gadgets, and that doesn’t even include time spent texting, talking on cell phones and doing school work on the digital devices. This leaves little time for the large-muscle activities that have been proven to optimize brain function.

One solution, offered by author and 40-year veteran professional educator Ed Mayhew, is for parents and teachers to intersperse aerobic activity into their children’s days with Mega Brain Power Boosters / Muscle Makers activities. Mayhew says that “the MBPB/MM are unique scientifically designed brain-boosting exercises that can be enjoyed in the classroom – right beside one’s desk -- or at home, whenever the kids can’t get outside.” He adds, “AND because they can be combined with academic subject matter of the adult’s choice, they don’t take away from academic class or study time.”

While we are not likely to completely eliminate our kids’ electronic screen time, nor would we want to, we can pepper their days with brain-growing aerobic exercise by inserting Mega Brain Power Boosters in between their array of more sedentary pursuits.

A Moral Imperative for Schools?

Today’s children, as a whole, are not outside playing ball, riding bikes, playing tag, etc. as past generations did. As a result, too many youngsters are not getting the large-muscle play/exercise they need to be their best – both physically AND mentally. Can schools help? Here’s the situation:

· According to Kaiser Foundation Research (2009), kids 8 to 18, on average, spend 7 hours 38 minutes per day being entertained by electronic devices. Make it 10 hours if we include all the time they are plugged in (i.e., relatively sedentary).

· In 2009, U.S. high-school students ranked 25^th of 34 countries in math on the Program for International Student Assessment. Meanwhile, countless recent studies have shown that aerobic exercise optimizes brain function.

· A 2010 report by the American Association for Cancer Research finds that at least half of all cancers could be prevented by lifestyle tweaks (namely, improved diet & more exercise).

· The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states in a 2010 report that if current trends continue, by 2050 one in three U.S. adults will have diabetes (our children and grandchildren?). Diet and exercise are the two main means of controlling and preventing diabetes.

· An Australian study of 4,757 individuals found that the number of breaks one takes from seated activities, even breaks as brief as one minute, is more important than the total number of hours one sits when it comes to health (i.e., insulin resistance, cholesterol levels, C-Reactive proteins and size of one’s waist circumference).

· Dr. Karim Khan, University of British Columbia, says that lack of physical activity is the biggest health problem of the 21^st century. According to his research, 16% of North Americans will die from low fitness / sedentary lifestyle versus 14% from smoking, diabetes and obesity combined.

Children learn lifelong habits in our classrooms that will affect their entire lives. The Mega Brain Power Boosters / Muscle Makers learning activities will improve your children physically and mentally, while helping them develop the lifelong habit of taking frequent activity breaks and staying physically active for the long run.

Smarter Stronger Children's Teacher/Parent Guide Book has the easy and fun to follow step-by-step program to meet this moral imperative!