Cal Newport talks quite a bit in his books (definitely Deep Work, but probably others too) about the linkage between walking or running and thinking creatively and solving hard problems.
In high school, I noted with curiosity that the cross country team had an extraordinary proportion of kids who excelled academically, going to top-tier colleges based on their academic merit alone. I chalked it up to an overlap between the traits required for both distance running and academic excellence: daily persistence, measured in hours, at something that doesn't involve a lot of action or cheering crowds. But there's probably more to it than that.
Military flight training is known to be like medical or law school for many people, spending all day memorizing technical manuals and regulations when not in the cockpit learning to fly. Despite military requirements for physical fitness, and the fact that officers need high fitness scores to get into flight school, many officers let their fitness slide in that environment. I found early on that making time for exercise had a very noticeable effect on my day-to-day performance, both in memorizing stuff and in the cockpit, and I rose to the top of my class. In particular, practicing golf (which involves a lot of finesse, but I also walked and carried my own bag) for a few holes after class every evening seemed to help with learning to execute precise maneuvers on the flight controls.
In high school, I noted with curiosity that the cross country team had an extraordinary proportion of kids who excelled academically, going to top-tier colleges based on their academic merit alone. I chalked it up to an overlap between the traits required for both distance running and academic excellence: daily persistence, measured in hours, at something that doesn't involve a lot of action or cheering crowds. But there's probably more to it than that.
Military flight training is known to be like medical or law school for many people, spending all day memorizing technical manuals and regulations when not in the cockpit learning to fly. Despite military requirements for physical fitness, and the fact that officers need high fitness scores to get into flight school, many officers let their fitness slide in that environment. I found early on that making time for exercise had a very noticeable effect on my day-to-day performance, both in memorizing stuff and in the cockpit, and I rose to the top of my class. In particular, practicing golf (which involves a lot of finesse, but I also walked and carried my own bag) for a few holes after class every evening seemed to help with learning to execute precise maneuvers on the flight controls.