Sitting still is out students spend lessons on exercise bikes

"Moving" model project: fifth-graders spend lessons on ergometers
Health experts say children are not moving enough. But adolescents in particular need exercise: for physical development as well as for the mental and social. In a model project at a Bavarian school, the children no longer sit on the school bench, but on home trainers.

Too much sitting makes you sick
Only recently, a study of the Techniker health insurance company was published, which came to the conclusion: Germans move too little. Other studies also conclude that much of the population spends too much time sitting down. But long sitting makes you sick. Among other things, this increases the risk of back pain, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular complaints. As part of a model project at a Bavarian school children now no longer sit still in the classroom, they spend the lessons on home trainers. This also serves concentration.

At a Bavarian grammar school, students do not have to sit still during class as part of a model project. They spend the lessons on an ergometer. This also serves concentration. (Image: matteozin / fotolia.com)

Fifth graders no longer have to sit still
At a grammar school in Aschaffenburg, a fifth grade "moved" into the new school year has started: According to the news agency dpa, children between the ages of ten and eleven ride their bicycles in the classroom during lessons. Instead of the handlebars, small desks with bookends are mounted on their bicycle ergometers, on which they can read or write in the textbook. According to the information, it is slow to increase the pulse slightly. The goal is around 100 beats per minute. The children should not kick and sweat.

Positive effects predominate
Leif Johannsen, a psychologist at the Department of Motor Science at the Technische Universität München (TUM), said: "As a rule, cognitive abilities are limited if I am to do another motor task."

He has carried out experiments in which the participants should solve cognitive tasks on an ergometer. The neuroscientist nevertheless assumes that the Aschaffenburg ergometer class outweighs the positive effects. "The physical activity raises the general level of arousal," says the expert. It was therefore obvious that students on a ergometer reported more frequently and were more attentive. "The call to sit in school is actually nonsense," said Johannsen.

Fitter children have better grades in the long run
It is said that the idea of ​​the ergometer class originated in Austria. Accordingly, the sports scientist and high school teacher Martin Jorde initiated the first class in 2007 at a Viennese grammar school and noted positive changes in fitness as well as grades and social behavior among his students. "Studies show that in the long term, fitter children also have better grades," Johannsen confirmed.

"When you move, the cardiovascular system is stimulated," explained Tobias Bauer, who heads the Department of Sport at the Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium (FDG) in Aschaffenburg. This will pump more blood into the brain and increase concentration. The teacher, who took the ergometer class to school, organized the implementation of the project in 5a together with 15 high school students.

Summing up on the website of the grammar school: "What is already commonplace in almost 70 Austrian schools should bring advantages for the students at the FDG: increase in the ability to concentrate, positive influence on learning achievements and grades, condition increase, health promotion by movement and much more." (ad)