Increase your brain power when you do any even moderate exercise!
EXPERT OPINION BY JEFF HADEN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, INC.@JEFF_HADEN - FEB 14, 2024
Grow new brain cells and strengthen neural connections? Definitely. Improve memory and cognition? Absolutely
If you want to get smarter -- and why wouldn't you, since intelligence is foundational to success -- there are plenty of ways.
- You can harness the power of interleaving by learning several subjects or skills in succession.
- You can leverage the power of memory consolidation and reconsolidation.
- You can even sleep your way to better long-term memory and recall.
And, since your brain is a tissue, and like any other tissue, declines in performance as you age, you can get a little exercise.
Once you hit your late 20s, the hippocampus -- the part of your brain devoted to learning and memory -- typically starts to shrink by about a percent a year. As your hippocampus shrinks, you naturally lose some of your ability to process and retain information.
New brain cells can be created; in this case, research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows exercise can increase the size of your hippocampus well into your 60s (good news for me) and 70s.
And there's a bonus. Your brain and your muscles are in constant communication, sending electrochemical signals back and forth. Contract your muscles and chemicals are released that, when they reach your brain, help trigger the formation of new neurons, boost synaptic plasticity (a fancy way of describing how well neurons communicate with each other), and therefore improve memory and cognition.
Put simply: stronger muscles, stronger brain.
A meta-review of studies published in Translational Sports Medicine determined that even "aerobic exercise for two minutes to one hour at moderate-to-high intensity improved attention, concentration, and learning and memory functions for up to two hours."
Participants who walked briskly -- shooting for a target heart rate of 60 to 70 percent of max, or Zone 2 for Peter Attia fans -- for 40 minutes, three times a week, increased hippocampal volume by slightly over 2 percent.
Study participants were evaluated over the course of a year, indicating it takes at least that long to spark hippocampal growth.
Which makes sense. As with nearly everything in life, doing the right things over and over, over the long term, is the surest path to success.
Including getting, and staying, smarter.