Home

Advertisement

Customize
  Journal   Friends   Calendar   User Info   Memories
 

Alexandr's Friends


snitko
 19th December, 2009. 8:23 pm. Exercise and the brain

Let this post be a quick introduction to a wonderful book by John J. Ratey called "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" which you might want to consider reading after.

Now here's the deal: exercising makes you not only healthier physically, but also smarter. And it does so immediately: you don't need to be doing this for a month or so to get the results. During exercising the body releases a bunch of important hormones (dopamine, (nor-)epinephrine, IGF1, endorphines etc.) which are involved in maintaining the existing cells and neurogenesis. Body also highers tremendously its levels of BDNF - an important protein which "acts on certain neurons of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system, helping to support the survival of existing neurons and encourage the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses." Long story short, you become more attentive, less depressed, feel and act more productive and learn better - and all that happens immediately after a single exercise and lasts for a few hours.

Studies showed that exercising regularly helped people to overcome medical conditions such as ADHD and various stress and panic disorders. In some cases people combined medications and exercises, and it turned out that exercising augmented the drugs effect. There's also an evidence, that being physically active helps your brain to stay sharp in the old age and decreases your chances of getting Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, especially if you have the genes that make you more vulnerable to them. And, what's interesting, it's never late to begin exercising: even if you're old you'll get your reward. But it's always better to start earlier.

The key, though, is to do the workouts in a certain way. You may choose running, jogging, walking, swimming, climbing - whatever blows your skirt up. But you have too keep your heart rate at 70-80% of your maximum for a certain amount of time (it's 25 min a day for me) - that way all the described processes take place. You may find more specific instructions in the book and, of course, if you're not sure - you should consult your doctor or your shaman.

Most of you probably heard that thing about the evolution working very slowly while the human progress relatively quickly put us in a position when we don't need to move a lot to get the food, so our bodies are now under conditions they were not supposed to be. But another peculiar and obvious fact I read in this book, which I've never thought about before, is that only moving things need nervous system. Trees, for example don't have one. More interestingly some primitive creatures get rid of it as soon as they don't need to move anymore. And it turns out it's also true for humans to some extent. The more you sit on the couch, the less nerve cells you deserve. It might seem unfair for those of you doing intellectual work designing the software, for example, and, no doubt, you're using your brain a lot more than those watching soup operas. But still, you owe your brain a little help, because without the exercise it just cannot do the job better and it will only do it worse with age.

Now a little personal experience. I've been doing my workouts for over 4 years now, 3-4 days a week in the gym - on the treadmill and then lifting weights. But until I read this book, I couldn't mentally connect my exercises and my brain. I felt better after almost every workout, but I've never had a chance to test my productivity, since I usually went to the gym in the evenings. A week ago, while reading this book, I bought a treadmill and started running at home in the mornings, before getting to work. And I gotta tell you, this thing boosted my productivity like a rocket. And since I started doing this everyday, I started to control my emotions and occasional micro-depressions. Now I got only one question for ya: how would you like to join me?

--
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/romansnitko

Read 1 Note -Make Notes