Brain Gym Exercises: Get Fit, Get Smart

Brain gym exercises. Huh? What are brain gym exercises? According to a story in The New York Times today, exercise strengthens more than just your muscles — it makes your brain faster and stronger too!

A growing body of research indicates that regular aerobic exercise can boost your brain's memory and cognitive processing speed by stimulating a process called neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons in the brain).

In a related study, neuroscientists at Columbia University had a group of men and women, ages 21-45, work out for one hour four times a week. After 12 weeks, besides a number of other health benefits in the participants, the scientists noticed something even more intriguing: Compared to initial measurements, almost twice as much blood was being sent to each person's hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for producing new neurons).

“We’ve always known that our brains control our behavior,” Gage says, “but not that our behavior could control and change the structure of our brains.”

The subjects all showed significant improvements in memory tests, with the amount of increased blood flow in direct proportion to their improvement.

And, it's never too early or too late. Two other studies show the same results in children and older adults.

Now there's even more motivation for you to fit your brain gym exercises into your busy schedule today. Go get 'em Egg Head!

One piece of health advice that works in almost all situations is that more exercise is a great way to stay healthy. Plenty of medical info agrees with this, though while following advice you hear make sure to keep good sports nutrition in mind as well.

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