Early history of Greece overvalued the body with sporting festivals and competition.
Before then, there hasn’t been anything such as gym sessions or sport-oriented societies. The “survival of the fittest” hung on as a fundament of human evolution.
In other words, you had to either be fit or, you died. Western heritages have struck a balance between extremes, to have transitioned from “fitness-for-survival,” to “fitness-for-entertainment” to “fitness as a privilege.”
So how can we incorporate exercise into our lifestyle?
We are not conditioned to remain in a state of inactivity and lethargy. Furthermore, if we do so, our brains pay a high cost, both in the short and long run.
You may be aware prior to now, that physical exercise is beneficial for you, but do you know how it influences the brain?
How exercise affects the brain
People workout for various purposes, but a lot of people stay fit in order to avoid critical health conditions. Such conditions involve cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and stroke.
Other people exercise mainly to lose weight, very few people workout with the purpose to improve their brain performance.
Exercise refines cognitive functioning, improves mental state, and working memory; it also promotes the improvement of specific neurological conditions.
Explaining how physical exercise positively influences cognition
- while working out, oxygen saturation and angiogenesis (blood vessel growth) take place in different parts of the brain related to reasonable thinking and as well as social, physical, and intellectual functioning.
- Exercise lowers stress hormones and raises the amount of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine that are known to step up the processing of information.
- Exercise boosts the regulation of neurotrophins which aids the existence and distinction of neurons in the brain development stage and dendritic branching, synaptic machinery in the adult stage brain.
Seemingly, the explanation of why the 3 mentioned theories are different is because they characterize different development via a different lens that happens at the same time inside the brain all through workout.
Regardless of their individual positions, the depicted result at the neurological stage is positive.
Any related function of the brain you could think of, physical exercise will step up, enhance detail functions, or hinder unwanted medical complications.
Here are some specific benefits of exercise to the brain.
Exercise benefits for the brain
- Reduced tension and stress
- Reduced social anxiousness
- Better management of emotions
- Hindrance of neurological complications
- Short term euphoria
- Boosted energy, attentiveness, and concentration
- Slows the aging process
- Enhanced memory
- Regulated circulation of blood
- Reduced Brian fatigue
All the mentioned benefits are linked to neurogenesis (the creation and development of new neurons), also neuroplasticity (synaptic plasticity; changes to the strength of already present synapses).
Almost all of the benefits are gotten through the ability to lower insulin resistance and inflammation.
There are plenty of myths about how the brains operate, including also plenty of ongoing analysis. Let’s highlight some of these facts then continue on how physical exercise is beneficial to the brain.
The Brain facts
The below list clears common myths on the brain and where exercise comes in;
Let’s begin with the facts.
- Fact 1: the degeneration of the brain is a Myth
For a long while, scientists believed that cognitive aptitudes also referred to as fluid intelligence, are highest at around twenty years of age, afterward slowly reducing.
Our cognitive processes do not get better or worse over time, instead, they alter. This implies that at varying ages, we are can be more suitable or appropriate in certain situations than at others.
- Fact 2: Exercise and the Size of Your Brain
Physical exercise increases the parts of the brain related to memory, task performance, and management, coordination, inhibition, and planning.
The increase implies that the already developed parts of the brain operate at a faster speed and more productive. During exercise, oxygen that flows to these areas of the brain is very beneficial.
Recent research is also analyzing the benefit of exercise to the brain and also your total well-being.
- Fact 3: Anxiousness and it’s damage to the Brain
How is anxiousness brain damaging? Research has acknowledged that people who suffer anxiety are 48% more at risk of developing dementia.
It is because of cortisol which is the stress hormone. This destroys areas of the brain associated with memory and coordinated thinking.
Try to reduce thoughts that stress you and view certain stress like exercise as benefiting for your brain.