Can exercise boost your brain power?
We keep hearing that exercise is good for your brain as well as the rest of your body, but what kind of exercise is best?
A study in Finland looked at three types of exercises. The subjects were rats, so this may or may not apply to humans, although we seem to have an embarrassing similarity to rats In lots of ways.
They tested the brain's ability to develop new nerve cells. Running or jogging had the best results (they didn’t say whether the rats wore little jogging shorts).
Next best was high-intensity interval training.
Weight training didn’t increase nerve cells but presumably made it easier for those rats to push the other ones around.
A human’s flawed experiment
Journalist Michael Grothaus decided to check whether he’d experience the same benefits. He already walked a lot, but for seven days he ran 45 minutes a day. The next week he did weight training four times. The third week he did 30 minutes of high-intensity interval training daily.
He didn’t stick to any of them long enough to increase nerve cells, and there was no measurement other than how he felt, so as a study it’s pretty worthless. However, running made him feel more clear mentally. He didn’t get that from weight training or high-intensity interval training. You can read his full account here.
What works is what you actually do
If you’ve been thinking about taking up some exercise perhaps his experience and that of the rats might inspire you to get started.
I’ve been doing weight training three times a week for a long time, and I feel it helps me to stay healthy, especially as I don’t do anything else more physically demanding than working the TV remote. I lie, I don’t even do that; the remote is firmly in my partner’s control.
I’m just about to add some cardio again (cross trainer and rowing in the gym) because when I’ve done that consistently in the past it definitely improved my mood and focus.
The trick, of course, is finding what makes you feel good because that's also most likely what you'll continue to do consistently.
