We know the stereotype, jocks are dumb and brainiacs are terrible at anything remotely athletic.
While some people may be better at team sports, and others at solving a math equation, it is important that everyone spends time every day being physically active.
In fact, research shows that physical activity has a direct effect on brain growth, development, and function.
As important as food is for helping to maximize our body and mind, activity is another key factor we need to implement into our daily regime.
The Guardian recently published an article looking at the effects physical exercise has on the human brain. Check out this blurb from the article:
The part of the brain that responds strongly to aerobic exercise is the hippocampus. Well-controlled experiments in children, adults and the elderly show that this brain structure grows as people get fitter. Since the hippocampus is at the core of the brain’s learning and memory systems, this finding partly explains the memory-boosting effects of improved cardiovascular fitness.
As well as slowly improving your memory hardware, exercise can have a more immediate impact on memory formation. German researchers showed that walking or cycling during, but not before, learning helped new foreign language vocabulary to stick.
So why do business professionals get stuck sitting in a chair at a desk all day, barely getting any chance to be active?
Doesn’t this make you want to go out and buy a treadmill desk?
It’s for this same reason that getting up and going for a walk/run can help with writer’s block, remembering something important, or just being able to process new pieces of information.
It’s also critical to point out that this doesn’t just benefit the growing minds of youth, but it is beneficial at all ages.
So get up and start moving. Why wouldn’t you want to maximize your brain power?
Check out the entire article on The Guardian for even more benefits to being physically active.
