It’s a well-known fact that the body benefits greatly from regular exercise. Physical workouts can build bone and muscle strength, increase energy, and help lower the risk of chronic diseases.
What’s more, regular exercise can lift your mood, clear your head, ease anxiety, and give you a “post-exercise high”—the happy feeling or excitement that comes after sustained physical activity.
But did you know that just as working out can support the body, it can also protect and energize your brain?
Studies have found that exercise supports memory and attention, regulates emotions, and helps protect against cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases.
“Exercise in general is probably the best thing you can do for your brain,” Matthew Stults-Kolehmainen, an exercise physiologist and exercise researcher at Yale New Haven Hospital, told Real Simple. “In fact, some researchers think the initial function of the brain was to help people to move.”
The positive impact of physical exercise on brain health has been the focus of much research and discussion. For example, research has shown that actual, structural brain changes occur during exercise, such as:
• Changes in brain volume ( the total amount of space your brain occupies)
• Changes in connectivity (how different regions in the brain communicate using neural networks)
• Increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that promotes the creation, growth, and survival of neurons. BDNF also supports memory and learning.
Researchers and doctors are currently investigating what types of exercise are best for optimal brain health. While some exercise is always better than none, the most effective approach to improving brain health through exercise remains an ongoing topic of discussion for researchers.
How Long Should You Exercise?
Stephen M. Rao, director of the Cleveland Clinic Schey Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, told Real Simple that the World Health Organization recommends exercising for about 50 minutes, three times a week. However, researchers are still studying the optimal intensity and type of movement to do during those minutes.
While exercise is beneficial, you don’t want to overdo it and exercise for hours on end.
“A good duration of time is one where you end the exercise still feeling energized,” Stults-Kolehmainen noted. In other words, you don’t need to do exercises that leave you feeling completely exhausted. You want to do energizing exercises, not energy-draining ones. Feeling exhausted may mean you are working too hard and not receiving the brain benefits that exercise can provide.
“Cerebral blood flow seems to maximize at 60 to 70% of oxygen uptake and seems to decline after that,” Stults-Kolehmainen said. What this means is exercising at about 60-70% of your maximum effort is great for your brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex, which controls thinking, short-term memory, and executive function (the mental skills that help you make plans, solve problems, organize, and start and finish tasks, for instance).
Keep in mind that everyone has a different starting point. For example, someone who has been inactive but starts exercising for just 10 minutes a day can feel just as good as someone who exercises regularly for 30 minutes. The key is just to get started, because going from zero to 10 minutes can have a positive impact on your brain.
Also, health experts suggest mixing up your workouts and challenging yourself to learn a new activity because this can help keep your brain sharp and get your neurons firing again.
Five Exercises That Provide Health Benefits to Your Brain
1. Dance
Whether it’s ballroom, line, or freestyle, dancing is a great workout for the whole body, as well as for your brain.
“Humans thrive on novelty,” Stults-Kolehmainen noted. So it makes sense, he says, that dancing is a good pick-me-up for the brain, since “it can be highly novel, very complex, social, and intellectually involved—all things the brain appreciates.”
2. Cycling
Cycling is a fun exercise, and studies show that cycling (whether indoors or outdoors) appears to have cognitive benefits for adults aged 50 and over. In fact, there is evidence that indoor interval training cycling has a positive impact on individuals with Parkinson’s disease.
Rao is currently conducting a clinical trial with high-risk sedentary patients ages 65 to 80 using the stationary Peloton bike to assess if riding three times a week for 30 minutes each time can improve brain health and slow the progression of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.
“We hope and hypothesize that exercise reduces [negative] changes in the brain,” Rao said. “The reason being that exercise is neuroprotective and reduces the amount of inflammation in the brain. The changes in Alzheimer’s are clearly aggravated by inflammation.”
3. Interval Training
Interval training involves alternating between two activities or two intensity levels. It can also increase BDNF levels. To experience optimal brain benefits, Stults-Kolehmainen suggests doing interval training in shorter bursts, such as jogging for one minute, then running hard for six seconds. In this way, you can avoid building up lactic acid levels in the blood and the brain, which occurs during high-intensity interval training.
Interval training also tends to hold a person’s interest for a longer period compared to basic high-intensity training or 45 minutes of moderate movement on an elliptical.
4. Brisk Walking
Walking is great for your health, but brisk walking is even better for your brain. A 2018 study found that walking more than 4,000 steps a day improved memory in older adults.
What’s more, walking is easy on your budget because you don’t have to join a gym or buy any equipment, unless you want to use free weights as you walk to increase intensity and burn more calories. Walking is free and can be done anytime, anywhere.
5. Tai Chi
Tai Chi is great for older adults and those who are just starting to exercise because it’s low-impact and easy on the joints. This mind-body exercise uses a variety of slow, flowing movements with balance and control, and breath and body coordination. Equipment is not needed for this exercise, which is typically guided by an instructor and can be done outdoors.
Meditation is also part of Tai Chi, and research has found that this component of the exercise can promote cognitive growth and memory, as well as regulate mood and reduce stress.
This site offers information designed for educational purposes only. You should not rely on any information on this site as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or as a substitute for, professional counseling care, advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional.
