Smarten Up During Your Workout

In today’s society it can be easy to get caught up in the overwhelming presence of Facebook, reality TV, and smart phones. The trend is causing an inclination of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and the general deterioration of physical and even mental health. Getting up off the couch and keeping active will clearly benefit your body, but something we may not know is that exercising will actually improve our mental health as well!

We sometimes take a stroll because it’s a great way to clear your head. This may be because walking actually increases blood circulation in the brain as well as the amount of oxygen and glucose that reaches it. Also, because walking isn’t overly taxing to your body it allows for the oxygen and glucose to be more evenly distributed to your head opposed to being used up by your leg muscles, like in other types of activities. However, while performing cardio or strength training exercises do provide mental health benefits, engaging in sports activities such as soccer, basketball, or tennis, can be much more effective due to the requirement of hand-eye coordination. Also, the need for strategizing can be more of a workout for the brain.

Physical activity has been proven to increase the production of stem cells, which help develop new brain cells. This can improve your attention span and memory, as well as help you feel more focused, calm, and motivated. This is because neurons in the brain connect with skeletal muscles at a place called the neuromuscular junction. There the brain uses its primary chemical neurotransmitter for memory and attention to communicate with the muscles. It also regulates movement and acts as the connection between body & mind. Try wiggling your toes in the morning when you wake up; it activates the nerves that stimulate your brain and internal organs, so you’ll get up much faster.

Studies have shown that the area of the brain that’s associated with emotion, memory, and learning (the hippocampus), is the region that is mainly benefitted from physical activity. As this is the part of the brain that is affected by Alzheimer's disease, regular exercise can decrease your chances of developing some mind weakening diseases. In fact, a study at the University of Muenster, Germany, demonstrated that participants that sprinted learned new words 20% faster than those who didn’t engage in any physical activity.

Overall, physical activity improves your heart’s oxygen carrying capacity and its blood pumping efficiency. This means more oxygen is flowing through your body and reaching the brain. Even doing simple activities everyday like walking the dog will help keep you active when there isn’t much time to hit the gym.