As exam season ramps up, the science suggests that putting down the textbooks and moving your body might be one of the smartest things a student can do.
Every May, the same ritual plays out in households across the UK. Revision timetables are colour-coded and pinned to walls, past papers are stacked on desks, and teenagers disappear into their rooms for weeks at a time. Sleep becomes an afterthought. Fresh air, a luxury. Exercise, completely off the agenda.
It is, on the surface, understandable. With GCSE and A-Level students now required to sit terminal exams covering two years of content across up to eight or nine subjects, the legacy of curriculum reforms introduced a decade ago, the stakes feel enormous. But a growing body of evidence suggests that the grind of exam preparation may be working against the students who are subjecting themselves to it.
The anxiety toll
New research commissioned by youth mental wellbeing brand Chirpy paints a concerning picture of exam-season wellbeing. Nearly half of parents with secondary school-aged children report that their child appears anxious about school at least once a week. One in five say managing academic pressure is the aspect of parenting that causes them the most stress, while over a quarter worry about whether their child is getting enough exercise – and what that absence of movement is doing to their mental health.
These concerns are not unfounded. Adolescence is already a period of heightened emotional vulnerability, and the pressure of high-stakes exams compounds that. When anxiety takes hold, it affects mood, sleep, concentration and memory – the cognitive functions students are most desperate to preserve.
What the science says
The relationship between physical activity and mental health is well established, but it is worth understanding the specific mechanisms at play. Exercise lowers cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone, which when chronically elevated impairs the brain’s ability to encode and retrieve information. At the same time, movement stimulates the release of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), a protein that supports neuron growth and plays a direct role in learning and memory.
The biology is fairly unambiguous: students who move regularly during exam season are likely to retain information more effectively and manage anxiety more successfully than those who don’t. The challenge is convincing teenagers, and their parents, that stepping away from the desk is not time wasted.
Making movement accessible
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One practical response comes in the form of short, targeted workouts designed for stress relief rather than physical performance. Chirpy has partnered with The Gym Group to develop exactly that: a free 20-minute circuit aimed at students navigating exam pressure.
The principle is straightforward. Rather than committing to an hour at the gym, students can complete a focused session that targets the physical symptoms of anxiety – tight shoulders, tense hips, shallow breathing, nervous energy – and leave feeling measurably calmer.
The exercises that tend to work best are rhythmic and repetitive: movements like high knees, bodyweight squats and mountain climbers that raise the heart rate and encourage steady breathing, allowing the body to metabolise stress hormones and shift out of tension. Slower, more controlled movements – a glute bridge, a dead bug – help regulate the nervous system on the way back down. A few minutes of deep breathing in child’s pose at the end completes what is, in effect, a physiological reset.
Jenni Tardiff, master trainer at The Gym Group and the circuit’s developer, puts it plainly:
“It’s about that immediate boost in mood and clarity that helps you face challenges with a calmer mindset. A workout offers a vital chance to switch off the noise and regain a sense of control.”
Rethinking the revision timetable
The cultural shift required here is perhaps harder than the physical one. Academic culture in the UK has long treated rest and recreation as rewards to be earned rather than conditions to be maintained. The idea that a 20-minute workout might be as valuable as another hour of flashcards runs counter to the instincts of many high-achieving students and anxious parents alike.
But the research is consistent. Exercise is not a distraction from academic performance: it is a contributor to it. Students who build movement into their daily routine during exam season are not sacrificing revision time. They are investing in the cognitive and emotional capacity to make that revision time count.
With mental health services under sustained pressure and waiting lists for young people’s support running long, the case for low-barrier, evidence-based interventions grows stronger. This 20-minute circuit requires no equipment, no appointment and no prescription – only the willingness to accept that taking care of the mind sometimes means getting out of your chair.
As one of the most pressured exam cohorts in recent memory prepares to sit their papers this month, that may be the most useful revision tip of all. The Stress Reset Circuit is free to access via The Gym Group app, under workouts.
Image by Vitaly Gariev on Pexels
