Building Muscle, Builds Your Brain

Mar

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Sports, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

An interesting article over at Male Pattern Fitness talks about the relationship between exercise and brain function. Anyone who has ever spent any time exercising strenuously, knows that you always feel better and sharper after working out. Some of that is just increased blood flow and oxygen to the brain. But there is evidence that there are long term effects as well-

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In the ’90s, we learned in a big study [by UC Irvine neuroscientist Carl Cotman] that exercise is one of the factors that delayed the onset of cognitive decline. That surprised a lot of people and no one knew how to account for it. The assumption was that exercise didn’t act on the brain. We also knew there was a thing called BDNF — brain-derived neurotrophic factor [a protein that helps build and maintain the cell circuitry in the brain]. Another study [also by Cotman] showed exercise elevates BDNF. It truly is Miracle-Gro for the brain.

In the interview, he goes on to hit some of the highlights of the book’s message:

Intense exercise is better than easy exercise. So if you have a choice of doing more exercise at an easy pace, or less at a harder clip, it’s better to work harder for a shorter time.

Exercise that requires intense motor learning, such as dance or martial arts, is better than exercise in which your body does what it’s already good at doing, like walking or jogging. (Side note: I wrote a story ages ago for Men’s Health that touched on the same idea as it related to strength training, explaining why dumbbells make you smarter by forcing you to improve your balance and coordination, a benefit you wouldn’t get from using machines.)

Ratey believes it’s better to exercise in the morning, since it gives you an attention-boosting benefit that can last much of the day. Over the years I’ve exercised at all times of the day — early morning, lunchtime, evening — and for me the midday workout is best. But Ratey’s book makes a forceful argument for morning exercise, showing how it boosts the academic performance of struggling high school students.

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Well, I pretty much hate working out in the morning since I generally lift pretty heavy and I’m usually just to stiff and sore in the morning. But, it is definately worth trying if you are the morning type.

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