Key 2: Energize Your Body to Engage Your Mind
Key Points:
1. Physical activity offers various mental benefits, including enhancing memory & learning, but also improving our mood and energy levels.
2. Yoga is one such activity that is well-researched, with evidence to show that it increases a variety of different brainwaves, such as alpha, beta, and theta waves.
“Movement will give you access to joy that will dramatically improve the quality of your life and help support mental health and meaning and belonging.”
Growing research shows that physical activity improves brain function and facilitates learning, creativity, and problem solving, among other key functions. Even simple movements like walking before a mental task can help you do that task better. Researchers in Japan discovered that a short bout of moderate-intensity exercise (at 50% of a person’s maximum intensity) improved reaction time on the Stroop Test (a test of cognitive interference) after the exercise session ended.
Similar research subsequently performed by another group in Japan showed that improvements in cognition (speed and accuracy) were demonstrated at 40% of maximum intensity, with an increase in cognitive performance matched by improvements in blood flow and oxygenation of the brain.
Even better: Jeffrey Miller and Zlatan Krizan from Iowa State University found that short bouts of exercise not only help with your mental processing, memory recall, and accuracy but also improve your mood and make you feel more energetic.
Increasing focus isn’t just about aerobic activity. Yoga has long been known as a practice that emphasizes mind–body–energy connections. In fact, an overwhelming amount of research supports the notion that yoga does indeed improve our health and performance. In a recent review article, from Professor Tanvi Bhatt’s lab in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, concluded that breathing, meditation, and posture-based yoga increased overall brainwave activity and helped to improve the function of the amygdala, which is involved in processing the experience of emotions and activation of the frontal cortex of the brain. The frontal cortex is thought to help with skeletal movement, movement of the eyes, speech, and the expression of emotion.
The overall increase in brainwave activity may explain the decreases in anxiety and increases in focus that are evident after yoga training programs. Overall, yoga seems to have positive effects on brainwave activity in terms of stimulating the activation of alpha, beta, and theta brainwaves, which have been associated with improvements in cognition, memory, mood, and anxiety.
An Exercise Protocol to Help You Focus Better and More Easily
We know that if we have an important mental task to do, a 15-minute walk, jog, or bike ride beforehand can help us focus and perform. We’ll feel better, have more energy, and think more quickly and accurately. Yoga or even just some deliberate deep-breathing exercises beforehand can also help.
That’s just a single bout of exercise. What would happen if we did this consistently over time? How would that change our brain and our ability to control our attention, focus, and maybe even prevent age-related cognitive decline?
Dr. Arthur Kramer’s lab at the University of Illinois specializes in trying to answer those questions. In a series of studies, they suggested that cardiorespiratory endurance—how fit our heart, lungs, blood, and muscles are—has a positive effect on your brain function and that better cardiorespiratory fitness is also related to better outcomes in people with neurodegenerative disorders. They have also shown that 6 months of exercise training changes the brain and stimulates growth and better activation of the frontal and temporal lobes along with the hippocampus.
Today’s Call to Action: Find out what you like!
We are much more likely to stick to an activity that we enjoy, so this is a very important step when trying to become more active.
Over the next week, brainstorm some activities that you think you’d like. Do you prefer to workout alone or with a friend or group? Do you prefer structured classes? Team sports? Or something where you can let your mind wonder? Everyone enjoys different things so there is not one right answer. You can use the Notes section on page 18 of the Rest, Refocus, Recharge Workbook to jot down some ideas.
Once you’ve made a list, try one of these activities this week. Maybe it’s to go for a hike on the weekend, or to try out a new online yoga class. Maybe it’s trying a new sport, or picking up a sport you used to do years ago. The point is, try it out and see how it makes you feel. Enjoy!
Today’s Bonus
As a thank you, check out this podcast Here with Paul Chek, a world-renowned exercise and wellness expert. Also, click Here for a bonus mini-course titled “Science of Exercise”, offered by the University of Colorado. Just create an account (if you don't already have one) and you're ready to go!
The information and advice provided in this program is intended to assist you with improving your performance, as well as your general health. It is not intended and should not be used in place of advice from your own physician or for treatment or diagnosis of any specific health issue. By participating in this program you acknowledge that undertaking any new health, diet and/or exercise regime involves certain inherent risks, that you assume such risks, and that you release Wells Performance Inc. from any responsibility or claim relating to such participation.