The Academic Benefits of Adding Exercise to University Lectures
Updated Apr 23, 2026
Long lectures make it easy for students' minds to wander, even when the material matters. This study suggests a simple intervention may help: get students moving for a few minutes during the session.
Attention is necessary for both immediate learning and longer-term recall. As time on task increases, minds wander, especially in lecture settings, and that drop in attention can weaken memory and academic performance (Wammes et al., 2016). Because lectures remain a core teaching format in higher education, any practical way to sustain attention, including active learning strategies that break up passive listening, could improve learning outcomes.
Off-task physical behaviours such as shifting and fidgeting are often treated as signs that attention is dropping. In primary school settings, exercise breaks have been shown to reduce these behaviours (Janssen et al., 2014), while also improving language skills (Martin & Murtagh, 2015) and fluency in mathematics (Howie et al., 2015). What had not been shown clearly was whether the same kind of break could improve learning during a university lecture.
Fenesi et al. (2018) at McMaster University in Canada tested whether exercise breaks during a university lecture could improve on-task attention and learning. They recruited 77 undergraduate students from an Introductory Psychology course, who gave informed consent and received course credit for taking part.
All students watched a 50-minute online lecture on form perception, a standard part of the course focused on recognising the visual characteristics of objects. Because the course already included online lecture delivery, the format matched normal practice. Students were split into three groups: Exercise Breaks, Non-Exercise Breaks, and No Breaks. The Exercise Breaks group took three five-minute breaks roughly 17 minutes apart and completed experimenter-led calisthenic exercises during each break. The Non-Exercise Breaks group had breaks on the same schedule but spent them playing the computer game Bejeweled. The No Breaks group watched the lecture without any breaks.
Immediately after the lecture, all students completed two tasks. First, they sat a comprehension assessment. Second, they completed a questionnaire about mind-wandering during the lecture, narrator clarity, their own understanding of the content, their interest and engagement, and the level of difficulty. The researchers repeated the comprehension assessment 48 hours later to test longer-term learning.
The results were clear. Students in the Exercise Breaks group performed significantly better in both the immediate and delayed comprehension assessments than students in the other two groups. The Non-Exercise Breaks group performed no better than the No Breaks group, which suggests that pausing alone was not enough. Students in the Exercise Breaks group also reported no decline in on-task attention as the lecture progressed, while the gaming and no-break groups did report declining attention. They also rated narrator clarity and their own understanding more positively. There was no significant difference in perceived interest, difficulty, or engagement.
For educators, the takeaway is practical: short exercise breaks may improve both focus and retention during longer lectures. The comparison between the two break conditions also suggests that movement itself mattered more than simply stepping away for a few minutes. The authors argue that similar benefits may extend to workplaces and training programmes. More research is still needed, but this gives teaching teams a low-cost intervention worth testing when attention drops in longer sessions, especially alongside related evidence on movement-based teaching interventions.
FAQ
Q: How do students feel about the introduction of exercise breaks during lectures?
A: The study does not directly report whether students liked the exercise breaks. It does show that students in the Exercise Breaks group rated narrator clarity and their own understanding more positively than the other groups, which points to a broadly positive experience. If a department wants to test this approach locally, a short survey or focus group as part of broader student voice work would show whether students find the breaks helpful, distracting, or energising.
Q: Can the benefits of exercise breaks extend to online learning environments, and how could this be measured?
A: Yes. The study itself took place in an online learning environment, so the findings already point to benefits in digital settings. In this case, exercise breaks improved both immediate and longer-term comprehension compared with the non-exercise conditions. To measure the impact more fully, educators could combine assessment results with student feedback, then use text analysis software for education to spot recurring themes around attention, fatigue, motivation, and perceived learning.
Q: Are there any differences in the effectiveness of exercise breaks across various subjects or types of lectures?
A: This study does not tell us whether the effect varies by subject or lecture type, so that remains an open question. The benefits may be stronger in subjects that demand sustained concentration or memory, but that still needs testing. Gathering student feedback across modules, then analysing it for recurring themes, would help educators see where exercise breaks are most useful and where they may need adapting.
References
[Source Paper] Fenesi, B., Lucibello, K., Kim, J.A., Heisz, J.J. (2018). Sweat so you don’t forget: exercise breaks during a university lecture increase on-task attention and learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 7(2), 261–269
DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2018.01.012
[1] Howie, E. K., Schatz, J., & Pate, R. R. (2015). Acute effects of classroom exercise breaks on executive function and math performance: A dose–response study. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport,86(3), 217–224
DOI: 10.1080/02701367.2015.1039892
[2] Janssen, M., Chinapaw, M., Rauh, S., Toussaint, H., van Mechelen, W., & Verhagen, E. (2014). A short physical activity break from cognitive tasks increases selective attention in primary school children aged 10–11. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 7(3), 129–134.
DOI: 10.1016/j.mhpa.2014.07.001
[3] Martin, R., & Murtagh, E. M. (2015). Preliminary findings of active classrooms: An intervention to increase physical activity levels of primary school children during class time. Teaching and Teacher Education, 52, 113–127.
DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2015.09.007
[4] Wammes, J. D., Seli, P., Cheyne, J. A., Boucher, P. O., & Smilek, D. (2016). Mind wandering during lectures II: Relation to academic performance. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology,2(1), 33–48.
DOI: 10.1037/stl0000055
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