How Exercise Helps the Brain
There are a number of reasons to be physically fit and healthy. You may have the reason to improve your health conditions, or you want to lose weight, prevent depression, or just to look better.
So what should you better do? Let’s start exercising!
Often, people ask which exercise is the best and how much exercise does it need. Standard recommendations advise 30 minutes of moderate physical exercise most days of the week, or 150 minutes a week. Most researchers discovered that brisk walking for an hour, twice a week can improve memory. Some who do not want to walk, engage in moderate-intensity exercises, like, swimming, stair climbing, tennis, or dancing.
You can also be at your own pace, start with a few minutes a day, and increase the amount of exercise by five or ten minutes every week until you reach your goal. Whatever exercise you choose, commit to establishing exercise as a habit.
Most people do a regular exercise every day to make their selves feel good and sharp, but only a few really know the benefits of exercise to our brain.
Did you know that exercise can help our brain physically and mentally?
Exercise changes the brain in ways that it protects the memory and thinking. We have enumerated the benefits of exercise to our brain.
Exercise can improve the cognitive function of our brain. With this, you can think faster, concentrate longer, and remember more.
Your executive functions are enhanced, which is the higher level of thinking, it includes inhibitory control, task switching, attention, and goal management that can affect the planning skills, organizing skills, problem-solving skills, and most especially your behavior.
Your IQ is increased, exercise can literally make you smarter. Studies have shown that those who regularly exercised have an increase in their IQ.
Your focus is increased, people who are physically fit have an increased control over their ability to focus attention as measured by a challenging cognitive task.
It can sharpen your memory, both short-term, and long-term. The intensity and duration of workouts seem to affect the memory in different ways. Comprehension, interpretation, data manipulation, and recall were improved.
The brain has its psychological functions, too. Our personalities, moods, and motivations are processed in the brain, there are situations that can happen throughout the day that can affect our mental health. With exercise, positive feelings are restored, which can make you resilient in stressful situations.
The most common benefit of exercise that is known to everyone is it can alleviate stress. Exercise aids the brain to produce neurochemicals, it is associated with better cognitive functioning, alertness, and hormones that can efficiently manage your stress.
Your pain tolerance is increased, an intense exercise can dull pain in short term. The body releases endorphins during and after the exercise that can decrease the pain.
We all know that the brain is the most complex organ of our body, exercise has a number of neurobiological effects on our brain.
Exercises increase our energy, studies have found out that there is an effect of light to moderate exercises on our body’s energy levels. An increase in energy levels and reduced fatigue is an effect of the exercise activities.
Exercise increases the generation of new brain cells, a brain chemical known to be Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor promotes neurogenesis in our brains.
Everybody wants to enjoy life, to strive to have a better life. As we get a little older each day, some health conditions have surfaced, and it stresses us out on how to prevent or reduce the risk of having it. Using nootropics is one way that a lot of people try to handle stress, and guess what- they work! You can even check out my review of some nootropics for anxiety, and find a wide variety of quality nootropics online. But there are often other ways that we can incorporate healthy habits so we either won’t need drugs or at least don’t need them as badly. Exercise now, make it as one of your priorities!