A Winnipeg elementary school is dedicating a portion of class time to exercise in the hopes that kids can work out their energy and be more attentive during lessons.

Luxton Elementary School has embraced in-class exercise as a way for students to work out their emotional, behavioural and aggressive issues through positive, healthy means.

Students get 30 minutes of in-class exercise a day, and are asked to record how they feel before and after their workouts. They’re also taught how to find their target heart rate and stamina during their exercises.

It’s a healthy new practice to adopt in a country where only about seven per cent of children meet their recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity.

Teacher Winn Braun says she’s already seeing the benefits of in-class exercise in her 11- and 12-year-old students, who spend their exercise time on treadmills and recumbent bikes.

“It’s really had a range of impacts on these kids,” she told CTV News. “Everything from feeling calmer to being able to focus better in class, (to) not being as angry.”

Luxton Elementary is putting into practice the theories of Harvard psychiatry professor John Ratey, who conducted extensive studies on the positive links between exercise and brain function. His book, ‘Spark – The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain,’ has prompted a number of schools to look for new ways to add exercise to their lesson plans.

University of Manitoba kinesiology professor Fiona J. Moola says exercise can improve social functioning, behaviour at school, memory and overall health. “The benefits are well-researched,” she said.

Those benefits come as no surprise to Kirstine MacLean, director of the My Gym children’s fitness center. “It releases all those endorphins, all the feel-good chemicals going through the body, and it just puts kids in a good mood,” she said.

With files from CTV Winnipeg