By LIZ NEPORENT
Posted on 1/27/2012 at: Ace Fitness, http://www.acefitness.org/certifiednewsarticle/1402/exercise-and-the-brain/
You probably tell your clients all the time how exercise has
the potential to make their bodies beautiful. Don’t forget to tell them it also
has the power to help them create a beautiful mind.
To middle- and golden-agers concerned their memory may be
slipping with advancing years, knowing exercise preserves and enhances the
parts of the brain associated with memory, recall and learning is likely to be
more motivating than the promise of sculpted abs. Even younger clients are
encouraged when they find out exercise helps, among other things, sharpen
focus, boost mood and dial down stress levels—exactly the skills they need to
get ahead in their careers. Best of all, these benefits appear to be true
whether you put someone through the paces of a hardcore CrossFit workout or
coach them through an easy stroll on the treadmill.
Exercise Fuels the Brain Instantly
As you know, when someone is huffing and puffing in their
target zone, they are sending more generous amounts of oxygen and glucose into
the brain compared to the time they spend sitting at their desk staring at a
computer screen. (Think of glucose as the brain's main fuel source and oxygen
as the means to spark that fuel into energy.) In one study performed by researchers at the University of
Illinois, just one 30-minute treadmill session—and only 20 minutes for
children—improved cognition by 5 percent to 10 percent. Cognition processes are
part of the so-called “executive functions” that occur in the frontal lobes of
the brain. They’re associated with how quickly you perform mental tasks such as
decision making, flexible thinking and problem solving.
Although the effects from a single exercise bout seem only
to last a few hours, it’s easy to see how even a short-term mind lift could be
useful. You might suggest to a client that he hit the treadmill shortly before
an important presentation or interview. Or if he can’t find the solution to a
sticky problem at work or home, the answer might pop into his head during a
spin class. If you train students, suggest they replace a last-minute cram
session with a cardio kickboxing session. It may seem counterintuitive, but
research studies show this is a more productive strategy and it can help them
score higher on their exams.
It’s Never Too Late…..
Many scientists point to regular exercise as the number-one
way to preserve brain function into the golden years. So far, it’s proven to be
more effective than brain games, super foods, supplements or any other method
used to keep the brain sparking on all cylinders into old age. Even senior
clients who don’t care about getting a Hollywood body or shedding pounds will
absolutely care about keeping their mind sharp.
Regular exercise has been proven to be more effective
than brain games, super foods, supplements or any other method used to keep the
brain sparking on all cylinders into old age.
Along with reshaping muscles, exercise can also reshape the
brain over time. Just as you build muscle, consistently exercising appears to
be one of the best ways to trigger “neurogenesis,” the growth of new brain
cells, something that, until recently, wasn’t thought possible in the adult
brain. Scientists used to believe that somewhere around the late teens, your
mental organ stopped generating new cells and from that point on, you could
only shed them and multitask with the ones we had left. In the past two
decades, this view began changing thanks to a scanning technique known as fMRI,
which provided vivid images of the brain’s remarkable ability to continue
changing even into old age.
One terrific example of this phenomenon is a 2010 investigation done at Cambridge University in
England. After just a few days of running, the fMRI images of the volunteer
joggers revealed the growth of hundreds of thousands of new brain cells. Not
only that, the joggers exhibited a marked improvement in their ability to
recall memories, learn new information and excel at other important cognitive
tasks.
Actually, it appears that anything that gets the heart
thumping and the lungs expanding on a regular basis has the capacity to keep
you faster, stronger—and yes, smarter. Any aerobic activity—not just
jogging—causes new brain cells to sprout, possibly by increasing the capacity
of capillaries serving the brain so there is better blood flow and oxygen
uptake all of the time, not just when you're working up a sweat. Increased
blood volume also appears to promote the growth of new connections between
brain cells and facilitate the delivery of an assortment of other beneficial
chemicals. And once again, it seems to work on brains from eight to 98.
It’s Never Too Early To Start…
Consider what Harvard clinical behavioral psychologist, Jeff
Brown, Psy.D., who is also on the medical team for the Boston Marathon and
other national sporting events, has to say about treating the brain right with
exercise, diet and an otherwise healthy lifestyle: “We’ve taken the human brain
for granted and not seriously considered how to optimize it. But solid research
is telling us just how to fine-tune the most special, hi-tech gadget available
to us. The days of neglecting the brain should be over. We should all be
embracing brain care at any age. So, the next time you tell someone to lace up
for a run, get ready for a workout or take a Zumba class, their brain will
thank you. Tell your clients that even if their goal is to lose weight, their
brain is the 3 pounds they never want to lose.”
For children, the advantages of exercise shine brightly in
the classroom, something parents will be keen to learn. In one famous example,
a Canadian middle-school teacher started her kids jogging on a treadmill during
language arts class and pumping iron as they solved math problems. To her
astonishment, at the end of the four-month trial every single student went up
at least one full grade in reading and writing and some kids went up six full
grades in their vocabulary scores. The students’ ability to concentrate was
sharper and they spent more time working without interruption. Attendance also
improved and disciplinary problems declined by an impressive 67 percent. All
this from two weekly, 20-minute workout sessions.
Georgia Health Sciences University researchers confirmed
these classroom
results by having overweight 11- to 17-year olds commit to 20 to 40
minutes of vigorous play—running games, hula hooping and jumping rope—every day
after school for three months. Their playtime was fun, but also delivered some
serious results: fMRI scans showed an enhancement in brain activity in the
prefrontal cortex—an area associated with complex thinking, decision making and
appropriate social behavior—and less activity in an area of the brain that sits
behind it, a shift in activity that is consistent with more rapidly developing
cognitive skills. The kids who exercised the most posted a 3.8 point increase
on I.Q. tests, and all the children saw dramatic improvements in their math
skills, despite the fact that they received no additional math instruction
during the time of the study.
The investigators suspect that cognitive improvements likely
resulted from the brain stimulation that came from movement rather than
improved cardio fitness. They hypothesize that vigorous physical activity
promotes the development of brain systems that underlie cognition and behavior.
This should be enough to convince parents to get their
children up and moving. They’ll want to set a good example for their kids by
exercising themselves so suggest to your clients they ask their kids tag along
for an after dinner walk or jog—or they can turn the tables and join their kids
on the playground. Either way, exercising as a family reinforces the habit for
everyone.
Starting Late Is OK, Too
For any client who fears it may be too late to make brain
changes, tell them to think again. People who begin exercising in middle age
significantly reduce their risk of dementia and are less likely to suffer from
Alzheimer's disease, and that includes those who were less active in youth.
Also, by improving cardiovascular health, exercise prevents
heart attacks and strokes, which, due to compromised blood flow, often cause
brain damage. Even the most exercise-averse who don’t get up and moving until
later in life can still lower their risk of cognitive decline. Researchers at
the University of Washington determined, for instance, that seniors who exercised
at least three times a week diminished their risk of dementia by up to 32
percent. (That's not to say that exercise or anything else is a sure-fire cure
for Alzheimer's or dementia.)
At the very least, exercisers who begin hitting the gym in
middle age show an increased cerebral blood flow and a greater number of small
blood vessels in the brain compared to their non-exercising peers. And in one
recent study, those who devoted themselves to one year of
modest aerobic exercise reversed normal brain shrinkage by one to two years and
improved their memory function. More than 100 subjects age 50 or older either
walked briskly three times a week for 40 minutes or did a similar amount of
yoga and strength training. The walkers increased the volume of the front part
of the hippocampus by 2 percent, while the yogis continued to experience the
normal neural shrinkage associated with aging. Both groups, however, showed
significant improvements on spatial memory tests.
A Little Goes A Long Way
Here’s the best news to share with clients: They don’t have
to spend all their time exercising to pump up their brains. A growing body of
research suggests that 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, three times a
week, works pretty well for boosting and preserving brain capabilities. Isn’t
that the same recommendation you’d make to them for reaping the physical
rewards of exercise?
Want to know to more about how exercise and other healthy
lifestyle habits can help your clients sharpen up mentally? Check out The Winner's Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve
Success
(Perseus Books, 2010), co-written by Harvard clinical
behavioral psychologist, Jeff Brown, Psy.D., and Guelph University neuroscience
researcher, Mark Fenske, Ph.D., and Liz Neporent. In addition to learning how
treating the body better is good for the brain, you’ll also discover other
valuable neuro-building strategies you can incorporate into your training
repertoire that will truly make a difference in your clients' results.
___________________________________________________________________________
Liz Neporent is an author, writer and social media
consultant. She is a regular contributor to ABC News where her influential
online Reporter’s Notebook series covers a diversity of health topics such as
the psychology of barefoot running and obesity in fruit flies. She is author
and coauthor of more than 20 health books including Fitness For Dummies
, now in its 4th edition and Weight Training For Dummies, now in its 3rd edition. In
her work with Harvard Medical School Publications she wrote last year’s
acclaimed best seller The Winner's Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve
Success with coauthors Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske and the
upcoming Harvard Medical School’s Guide to Managing Migraines.
http://www.acefitness.org/certifiednewsarticle/1402/exercise-and-the-brain/
