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How does exercise affect a child with ADHD?

I always see these portrayals of ADHD children being hyperactive and just think: what if you just made them run outside for a while...surely they can't have never-ending energy and eventually tired themselves out.

And after this period of exertion, when they rest, do they then just instantly revert back to 100% hyperactivity?

[UniverseHacker]

The physical hyperactivity is often a pretty minor symptom of ADHD, bigger issues for many kids are things like inability to regulate emotions, e.g. causing violent outbursts over small things, or inability to focus, e.g. not able to do school work.

The physical hyperactivity, like other ADHD symptoms, is a lack of executive control- the person cannot choose to stop moving even though they want to, or feel they should. This is the part that is often hard for non-ADHD people to understand: lack of executive control is an inability to direct our own activity with will or intention. We know what we should do and want to do, but cannot make it happen. So we can, e.g. be really tired, and really want to stop moving, but be unable to do so. Sometimes, with enough will and focus, we can for a short time, but it takes 100x the effort it would take someone else, and can't be sustained for long.

As a person with ADHD, and a father of a kid with ADHD, I can tell you that what you are asking isn't true, at least in our case. It's not about having never-ending energy, but about not being able to limit movement. My kid is constantly moving, even when extremely tired. They will fall out of chairs, and even thrash hard in the bed while trying to fall asleep. We are active outdoors people, and hiking all day long with a heavy load even makes zero difference. In fact, being tired seems to make the executive control worse, and therefore the hyperactivity worse. Which can be a downward spiral, because then you get increasingly tired, and are unable to physically relax, causing even more tiredness. For my kid, peak hyperactivity for the day is often the moments before falling asleep!

That said- lesser amounts of exercise that are enough to be calming, but not tiring, are often very helpful. A short walk, etc. can really help.

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It's very interesting. I wish I could observe it.

Don't you wonder though how evolution allowed this trait to come so far though, especially with it being so prevalent.

Potentially it meant that for centuries there have been children with poor school grades who simply went off into lower-income careers that they were suited to.