I’m a pretty laid back kind of guy. Very few things really bother me, and I’m able to stay at an even keel nine out of 10 days. But then comes along that one of every tenth day when something so sticks in my craw I want to explode! In those instances, nothing reduces my frustrations quite like a good run or bike ride. It may sound strange, but the physical action of putting my feet to the ground, my feet to the pedals, my rapid breath to the open air melts away pent up frustrations. And as a recent body of research suggests, I’m not the only one. In fact, exercise is something that helps youngins keep their anger issues in check as well./p>

The study was conducted by researchers from the Georgia School of Medicine and published in the journal Pediatric Exercise Science. The group of children, between the ages of 11 and 15, were all mostly sedentary in their daily lifestyle, but half of the group were assigned to participate in an afterschool aerobic exercise regimen that lasted for several months. The other half did what they normally did after school, which was, well, what your typical sedentary “tween” does: talk on the phone, video games, television…the usual.

Before and after the study, the researchers gave the kids – 208 in all – a questionnaire that measured their anger tendencies. It’s a well-known test in the pediatric profession called the Pediatric Anger Measurement Scale. The researchers found that exercise did indeed have an impact on the participants angry tendencies, trending lower for those who participated in the aerobic activity.

This is great news for all those parents who want to keep their doors on the hinge, their walls hole-less and their vases in one piece. As my dad used to say to me or to one of my siblings when we’d go up to our rooms in a huff, slamming our doors behind us, “If you’re angry and want to break something, break something of your own.”

Seriously, though, this is news that teachers and parents should take note of. We all know that exercise is good for us physically. Most of us know the good it does wonders for us emotionally. But studies’ focus on the emotional benefit of exercise has been with regards to depression. Now we have empirical evidence that for many of use was probably already common sense: anger can be controlled through exercise.

There are lots of responsible ways to control anger, like writing a scathing letter but not sending it; punching a pillow over and over again; talking it out with a confidant or squeezing the life out of one of those stress balls. All those things work to a certain extent, but why not getting the most bang for your buck through exercise: it melts away anger while melting away pounds.