When I was about to turn 40, I started
working out more regularly after years of inactivity. As I sweated my
way through cardio, weights, and basketball, I noticed that exercise
wasn’t just changing my body. It was also profoundly transforming my
brain – for the better.
The immediate effects of exercise on my
mood and thought process proved to be a powerful motivational tool. And
as a workout devotee, I’ve come to believe that these neurological
benefits could have profound implications for how we live, learn and age
as a society.
Let’s start with one of the most
practical immediate benefits of breaking a sweat: exercise combats
stress. Exercise is a powerful way to combat feelings of stress because
it causes immediate increases in levels of key neurotransmitters,
including serotonin, noradrenalin, dopamine and endorphins, that are
often depleted by anxiety and depression. That’s why going for a run or
spending 30 minutes on the elliptical can boost our moods immediately –
combatting the negative feelings we often associate with chronic
stressors we deal with every day.
It has also been demonstrated that
exercise improves our ability to shift and focus attention. Even casual
exercisers will recognize this effect. It’s that heightened sense of
focus that you feel right after you’ve gotten your blood flowing,
whether it be a brisk walk or a full-on Crossfit workout. These findings
suggest that if you have a big presentation or meeting where you need
your focus and attention to be at its peak, you should get in a workout
ahead of time to maximize those brain functions.
But my favorite neuroscience-based
motivation for exercise relates to its effects on the hippocampus, a key
brain structure that’s critical for long-term memory. We all have two
hippocampi: one on the right side of the brain and the other on the
left. The hippocampus is unique because it is one of only two brain
areas where new brain cells continue to be generated throughout our
lives, a process called adult hippocampal neurogenesis.
Studies in rodents demonstrated that
increased levels of physical exercise can result in improved memory by
enhancing both the birth rate and the survival of new hippocampal brain
cells. Exercise encourages the long-term growth of hippocampal cells by
immediately increasing levels of a key growth factor in the hippocampus
called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). Now, when I exercise, I
imagine BDNF levels surging in my hippocampi, encouraging all those new
hippocampal cells to grow. All this should serve as a powerful
motivator for regular physical activity. But the immediate and long-term
benefits of exercise on the brain have even bigger implications.
Just consider how the educational system
might be altered if we acknowledge exercise’s ability to brighten our
mood, decrease stress, and improve our attention span and memory. The
growing evidence that exercise improves these key brain functions should
encourage schools around the world to increase, not decrease, students’
physical activity, particularly here in Nigeria. Not only would this
help students to better absorb everything from history lessons to
chemistry experiments, they’d be a lot happier too.
The positive brain-based effects of
exercise for education are just as relevant for very young children. The
growing popularity of outdoor preschools are a promising sign that this
message is starting to get through.
These brain effects of exercise also have implications for our search for that magic “smart” pill we hope will make us more productive, successful, and, if you believe the Bradley Cooper film “Limitless”, a lot sexier as well. What if the real magic does not come in the form of a pill, but in the form of an exercise regime?
These brain effects of exercise also have implications for our search for that magic “smart” pill we hope will make us more productive, successful, and, if you believe the Bradley Cooper film “Limitless”, a lot sexier as well. What if the real magic does not come in the form of a pill, but in the form of an exercise regime?
That’s exactly what the neuroscience
research suggests. In fact, some labs is focusing on identifying how
people can use exercise to optimize brain function for people of all
ages, fitness levels and abilities. If regular exercise becomes routine
for the vast majority of children and adults, we could have a population
that’s not only healthier and less stressed, but also more productive.
The good news doesn’t end there. Recent
findings have suggested that the brain’s hippocampus is also involved in
giving people the ability to imagine new situations. Since we know that
exercise enhances the birth of new hippocampal brain cells and can
improve memory function, this discovery suggests that exercise might be
able to improve the imaginative functions of the hippocampus as well.
This idea has not yet been tested in
people. But the hypothesis raises the exciting possibility that exercise
could make students more imaginative at school and adults more creative
at work, with broad benefits for society as a whole. It is also worth
noting one of the most profound long-term benefits of exercise on the
brain. That is, the longer and more regularly you exercise through your
life, the lower your chances are of suffering from cognitive decline and
dementia as you age. Part of this effect can be attributed to the
build-up in the numbers of healthy young hippocampal cells as you
exercise over the years.
Granted, this is a very long-term
benefit that may not be seen for decades to come. But if more people
were to join the gym this month and actually stick to it, more of us
will be able to avoid debilitating cognitive decline. This problem is
even more relevant for countries with particularly large aging
populations, including the US, Japan and Germany.
In these ways, neuroscience gives us a
framework to understand exercise as a tool for better education,
increased productivity in the workforce and combating cognitive decline.
It’s time for us to stop using the looming prospect of summer as the
motivation for exercise, and instead shift the conversation to a
discussion about how staying active can change the way we live.
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