How exercise boosts your brain power

Keeping fit not only works the body, it also keeps the brain limber and offers several mental health benefits.

Angela Tufvesson 17, 20163:47pm

Everyone knows regular exercise reduces the risk of chronic disease and helps us maintain a healthy weight, sleep better and perhaps even live longer. But when you pound the pavement or hit the gym, your biceps and triceps aren’t the only muscles getting a workout. Research consistently shows that exercise is good for your brain as well as your body.

Nicola Gates, a clinical neuropsychologist from the University of New South Wales Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, says aerobic activity combined with resistance and flexibility training makes the most of exercise’s brain-boosting effects.
“Aerobic fitness is important to allow your heart to pump a good supply of blood to the brain,” Gates says. “We also know that resistance training – weight training or anything that pits your body against gravity, like Pilates or yoga – works your muscles, which stimulates growth changes in the brain. Flexibility and balance exercises are also good for your brain as they’re challenging.”
The best part? Just 30 minutes of exercise each day will help boost your brain power.

Ever been told to go for a walk to clear your head? Scientists have long known a clear head allows for greater creativity, but new research suggests exercise aids this process.
Scientists used to believe the brain was static, but the discovery of neuroplasticity shows it continues to adapt and change throughout life, aiding the creative process.
Gates says exercise can help maximise this type of mental development.
“Exercise stimulates important changes in neuroplasticity, which is essential for learning. The brain is increasing its capacity for new learning and ideas.”

Associate Professor Jacqueline Close, a senior researcher and geriatrician at Neuroscience Research Australia, says people who exercise more are believed to have a larger hippocampus – a part of the brain responsible for memory.
Physical exercise can also help to prevent brain shrinkage, which is linked to Alzheimer’s disease and can affect memory.
The incidence and prevalence of dementia is increasing rapidly in Australia – it is the third leading cause of death.
Close says a trial looking at the benefits of exercise on reducing the risk of falls in people with dementia is likely to strengthen the link between exercise and memory retention.
“We anticipate that exercise will improve strength and balance and reduce falls, but also that there may be additional cognitive benefits and quality-of-life gains from regular exercise,” she says.

A 2012 study at the University of Copenhagen found that one session of intense exercise performed immediately before or after practising a motor task helped improve long-term retention of the task.
In particular, getting your heart rate up immediately after practising a motor task helps the brain consolidate and store physical or motor memories.
Gates says population studies indicate exercise increases information processing in the brain. “When we’re exercising, our brain is working hard coordinating movements, keeping us upright and balanced and possibly increasing reaction times. All of this increases our learning.
“Studies also show that after exercise we have heightened attention and are less distracted, so we concentrate on what we have learnt.”

If you hit the gym or cycle home after work, chances are you feel a lot better during your workout and immediately afterwards.
“When you exercise the body releases endorphins, feel-good neurotransmitters, and when we’ve got those it’s hard to be depressed,” Gates says.
Exercise can also help alleviate long-term depression. The link between depression and exercise isn’t entirely clear, but exercise is thought to reduce levels of immune system chemicals that can worsen depression. It is also thought the increase in body temperature may have a calming effect.
Any type of exercise is thought to be beneficial, but Close says there is evidence that strength training has stronger potential to improve symptoms of depression.

High levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline elevate the risk of chronic health conditions such as heart disease, depression and obesity. Exercise reduces the presence of cortisol and adrenaline in the body.
Gates says the body burns adrenaline during exercise, but cortisol reduction occurs after a workout. “When you exercise, particularly if you’re doing lots of aerobic exercise, you actually increase your cortisol, but afterwards it reduces your baseline cortisol level.”
Gates says exercise is important for stress reduction and mood stability and to help prevent mental illness. “When we have a high stress response, our risk of depression and anxiety increases, but exercise reduces the physiological stress load and increases energy.”

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