Brain and Exercise: Increase your Awareness with daily Aerobic Exercise.
Exercise is the essential anti-depressant to add to our daily repertoire.
The primary reason is that it makes us feel good while we burn off our stress and welcome a boost of endorphins into our system.
There are several reasons why it is not only good for us but also great for our brains!
Healthy Brain Function sets us up for life; as we master our minds, we can re-create our reality.
We are born to Move
In today's society, we spend most of our time sitting at the desk or lying on the couch. We are so concentrated on escaping our realities through tech or heavily focused on our gadgets due to work demands that we have removed movement from our lives!
Humans have evolved as hunter-gatherers. Our Ancestors walked an average of 5-10 miles to eat, so it was natural for us to move to seek food and shelter.
This is a complete mismatch between our lifestyle and our genes.
A Gene Change Revolution
Due to our comfortable lifestyles, we have seen a rise in several diseases that could have been avoided if we moved more and sat less.
65% of Americans are Overweight, and 10% have type 2 Diabetes.
We are killing ourselves with poor activity and poor nutrition.
Our brains are suffering the most. Inactivity is killing our brains and physically shrinking them. - Yes, our brains shrink if we do not move.
Brain Function Importance
We require our Brain to develop ideas and analyze different situations.
As Mobile creatures, we need our Brain to perform complex motor movements.
The less complex our moves become, the less effort our Brain requires.
The Brain is a muscle; it is not a fixed organ, and like any muscle, it requires constant Work to maintain its strength, function and capability. The Brain is adaptable, increasing or decreasing in size like any other muscle.
Exercise for a Healthy Brain
Suppose you are unhappy, feeling low, foggy, confused, or have any symptoms of low brain activity. In that case, physical Exercise is the best thing you can do for your Brain.
In particular, high-intensity interval training, an aerobic exercise, is best.
Strength training and powerlifting are excellent but do not impact brain chemistry as much as cardiovascular Exercise.
High-intensity aerobic Exercise increases your heart rate to 80% of its maximum beats per minute.
So, including this type of activity in your workout regime, even 10 - 15 minutes before your strength training routine, is a great way to increase metabolic and heart rates.
The Brain benefits.
The Brain Benefits of aerobic Exercise are that you can prevent your Brain from shrinking!
Expect to learn and absorb new information more readily and substantially expand your creative power and imagination.
Studies have shown that students with higher fitness scores also have higher test scores.
Exercise also decreases depression, relieves stress, and helps prevent cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease.
To all my Women! If we exercise regularly, we can expect to have fewer mood swings. If we are in a particular mood, hitting the gym, going for that run, or doing a high-intensity sport will banish that mood from Tuesday to Monday!
As a result, we can expect fewer mood swings with regular Exercise.
The AntiDepressent pill of the century in art form. I consider exercise an art, as it requires complete trust in your body to know what it needs in the moment to feel great!
Unfortunately, it requires effort, and this is not as appealing to most populations as a prescription drug is. - Mood Killer, I know!
Exercise and Brain Psychology and its Chemistry
Exercise is one of the best treatments for a lot of psychiatric problems.
Exercise increases serotonin levels in the Brain, the chemical that makes us happy. It also increases norepinephrine, boosting our motivation and drive, and dopamine, a neurotransmitter that provides a feeling of reward and accomplishment.
These neurotransmitters highly affect our thoughts and emotions and need to be balanced.
Drug Prescriptions that solely increase neurotransmitters and do not work on waking up the receptors, which provide a natural catalyst conversion towards its end factor, can leave you with many side effects.
Not only this, but it numbs the body's natural receptors, which know how to create these conversions towards neurotransmitter end factors naturally.
Exercise increases and balances the neurotransmitters in your Brain. The body always knows what to do to return to homeostasis, especially when you provide it with natural tools.
Exercise Improves Learning
Overall, Exercise has the most profound effect on learning; the front of the Brain fires signals about what you read and listen to, and how much of it you soak up has a lot to do with whether there is a proper balance of neurochemicals and growth factors to bind neurons together.
If you have had 30 minutes of Exercise this morning, you are in the right frame of mind to sit still and focus on your tasks ahead. Your Brain is far more equipped to remember every task accomplished, information learned, and the ability to stay present throughout.
A 2007 study showed that people learn 20 % faster when they exercise than when they live sedentary lifestyles.
A protein called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) - nourishes brain cells and makes them grow, acting as a brain fertilizer.
A 2013 study showed that just 20 - 40 minutes of aerobic Exercise increased BDNF in the blood by 32%
This makes perfect sense when it comes to our evolution as a species.
Exercise and Human Evolution
If we look at our Ancestors, we need the ability to learn for the sake of survival, to find food and shelter, or to remember which animals to avoid.
When we moved back then, something important was going on. We were present in our bodies; we always focused on finding our next meal and a safe place to sleep and rest.
Our Brains often fire up when we have to escape from a predator. Our fight-or-flight receptors release adrenaline, which tests our instincts to find our path, avoid getting lost, or escape a dangerous situation.
We still use this ancient mechanism in our daily routine, except that we have evolved and made our lives a lot more comfortable, especially in the West.
In several eastern countries, we still see this ancient mechanism of walking or being on foot to retrieve food or complete chores and tasks as a regular way of living. These populations are known to be healthier and have less obesity than the Western population.
So as far as our Brain, if we are not moving, there is no reason to learn or remember anything.
The Daily Optimal Amount to Exercise
The optimal amount of Exercise per day seems to be 20 - 40 minutes of high-intensity aerobic Exercise with complex movements.
The effects for some people last all day, but the average seems to be 2-4 hours.
Suppose you break this up into segments, for example, 20 minutes in the morning of Core Exercises and four 5-minute split segments throughout the day. In that case, you will dramatically extend your benefits in time management, learning, focus, concentration, and motivation to tackle more self-development goals and tasks!
"Personally, during my weeks off of strength training and building muscle, I enjoy 20-30 minute morning workouts of Yoga, Animal Flow, High-Aerobic Exercise, or Sport and then two 10-minute split segments of Core Exercises, Plyometrics, or High-Intensity Interval Workout."
If you live a relatively sedentary lifestyle, you may need to work up to these times.
Forty minutes of Exercise per day is recommended, but it is not a requirement. You are encouraged to start slowly and work on what feels best for you and your schedule.
If you are lost and do not know where to start.
Purchase my Full Body Balance Program, where you can access five quick workouts at home or the gym.
You can find this Program on my App!
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