86Thousand400: Exercise for the Brain summarised

Exercise improves learning on 3 levels:

1. Optimises your mindset to improve alertness.

2. It prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another.

3. It spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus.

Blood flow shifts back to the brain almost immediately after you finish exercising – therefore that is the perfect time to focus on something that demands sharp thinking. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to do some short term intense exercise prior to an important meeting/brainstorming session in order to help you 'switch on'.

Learning creates bushier, healthier, better connected neurons throughout the brain. The more we build these networks and enrich our stores of memory and experience, the easier it is to learn. With this in mind choose a sport that simultaneously taxes the cardiovascular system and the brain - eg tennis

Any motor skill more complex than walking challenges the brain.

With walking (or any new movement) at first you're awkward and you flail, then as circuits link within the brain your movements become more precise. This can then be taken onto all sports, in particular a sport such as golf.

Repetition means you create thicker myelin sheaths around the nerve fibres, which improves the quality and the speed of the signals and in turn the circuit's efficiency.

To summarise everything, please see our simplified explanation of what happens to the brain when we exercise below:

Brain - Exercise (High Intensity Movement) - BDNF produced

BDNF created which allows neurogenesis to occur (Neurogenesis - Stem cells divide to form new fully formed brain cells) – The brain 'grows' (Dendrites sprout)

Neurotransmitters: Serotonin, Acetycholine, Dopamine all fire a lot during exercise

This allows more nerve transmission to occur which in turn allows more connections and stronger pathways to form in the brain.

The more you exercise the more BDNF is created, the more neurotransmitters fire which keeps you more alert/vigilant and prevents your brain cells and also muscles from shrivelling and dying.

(Exercise needs to be at an intensity high enough to stress the muscle and the brain in order for it to come back stronger).

Simple message - Keep active and you brain/muscles won't shrink. Brain shrinkage can lead to Parkinson's (lack of Dopamine), Alzheimers and other degenerative diseases, which of course we do not want.