Exercise for Brain Power

Cheryl Mashore LVN, CNWC
Director, Health Education/Fitness

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There are plenty of good reasons to be physically active. Reducing the odds of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, just to name a few. Maybe you want to lose weight, lower your blood pressure, prevent depression, or just look better. Here’s another good reason, exercise changes the brain in ways that protect memory and thinking skills.

We know that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. Resistance training, muscle toning and balance exercises do not have the same effects.

Exercise helps memory and thinking through both direct and indirect means. The benefits of exercise come from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, and inflammation, and stimulate the release of growth factors—chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and the abundance and survival of new brain cells.

Indirectly, exercise improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety. Problems in these areas frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment.

So what should you do? Start exercising! It’s not clear exactly which exercise is best, but walking, is a great place to start.

The standard recommendation for exercise is half an hour of moderate physical activity most days of the week, or 150 minutes a week. If you haven’t exercised in a while, start with a few minutes a day, and increase the amount you exercise by five or 10 minutes every week until you reach your goal.

If you don’t want to walk, consider other moderate-intensity exercises, such as swimming, stair climbing, tennis, or dancing. If you have difficulty standing or walking, chair based exercises are a great option; believe it or not, you can get a good work-out while seated!

Don’t forget that household chores count too. Tasks such as mopping the floor, raking leaves, washing the car, or anything that gets your heart pumping so much that you break out in a light sweat counts as exercise.

Don’t have the discipline to do it on your own?
Try these ideas:

• Join a class or work out with a friend who’ll hold you accountable.
• Track your progress, which encourages you to reach a goal.
• If you’re able, hire a personal trainer. (Paying an expert is good motivation).

Whatever exercise and motivators you choose, commit to establishing exercise as a habit, almost like taking a prescribed medication. After all, exercise is medicine, and that can go on the top of anyone’s list of reasons to exercise.

High Desert Medical Group offers a variety of free workshops and classes that help our members reach their individual health and fitness goals. For more information, call our Health Education Department at 661-951-3375.