Exercise shouldn’t only have to be for athletes! It has been shown that on average, individuals who exercise regularly perform better academically. This study found that incentivizing physical exercise improved the academic performance. Improved academic performance is just one of the benefits of exercise. There are a myriad of other health benefits that exercise can provide for the brain.
Exercise Helps to Maintain Brain Health
Personally, after studying for a long period of time, the perfect remedy is to go for a walk around the neighbourhood. It allows me to clear my mind, get a breath of fresh air, and get the blood flowing throughout my body. It clarifies my mind and reinvigorates my body, allowing me to get right back to studying. It is almost as if my brain reboots after physical activity, anew and ready to learn again.
Researchers at The University of Iowa found that both aerobic and resistance training are key activities to maintain cognitive health in old age; this discovery can be explained by the increased stimulation in the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain responsible for decision making and emotions. Between the ages of childhood to adolescence, the circuitry in our brains develop to support higher-level cognitive abilities, such as regulating behaviour, multi-tasking and resisting distraction
Exercise Improves Memory
During exercise, gene expression of IGF1, a growth hormone that promotes bone and tissue growth, is upregulated within neurons in our brains. This increase of IGF-1 is essential for improving memory, and is also useful for neurogenesis (process of generating new neurons). Furthermore, exercise also induces brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene expression. BDNF is a protein in the brain whose genes promote the survival of neurons, a necessity for brain function. Most notably, BDNF gene expression occurs in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that is responsible for learning and memory.
Figure 1: Diagram of the Brain. The hippocampus is labelled in red. Credit: Internet Archive Book Images / Flickr
Although more and more research is being conducted on the health benefits of exercise, it has been estimated that less than 50% of children between the ages of six to eleven years old, a whopping 8% of adolescents, and less than 5% of adults and seniors are getting their recommended daily amounts of physical activity. This statistic is concerning, especially in today’s society where lifestyles are becoming more sedentary.
Alvaro Pascial-Leone, a neurology professor at the Harvard Medical School, delves into the neurology of the brain in this video. He mentions that parts of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus are stimulated by exercise and help to keep cognition sharp.
Exercise should be done regularly and it may be easier for you to commit to it in the long run if it’s an activity that you enjoy! Kneading bread, Zoom workouts with your friends or even vacuuming your entire house can be easy ways to integrate some movement into your life. Exercise doesn’t always have to be intense running or powerlifting. Anything to keep your heart pumping can be great for a clear and focused mind.
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