How Different Types of Exercise Affect Our Brain

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Exercise helps us maintain not only physical health, but also mental health. We will tell you what types of activity improve memory and concentration and why the brain will thank you for a combination of different types of training.

Brain and exercise: a direct relationship

To build muscle, you need to pull iron. Yoga develops flexibility and helps you relax. Running eliminates those extra centimeters at the waist and is one of the fastest ways to tighten your body and lose weight. Various fitness areas help us to become healthy and focused, create a perfect body. They are like an energy bomb and lift your spirits.

Thanks to the latest research, we can develop the brain in the desired direction as well as the body. Different physical exercises affect not only the body but also the brain in different ways: each of them activates a specific area.

Physical activity makes us more intelligent, delays the approach of senile dementia, and helps fight depression and Parkinson's disease. This is due to the fact that blood, saturated with oxygen, hormones and nutrients, reaches the brain faster. All this makes it as healthy, effective and strong as the heart and lungs.

Scientists decided to find out which areas of the brain are influenced by high-intensity interval, aerobic and strength training, yoga, and other sets of exercises.

Does it make sense to speed up or, on the contrary, is it better to slow down? Go to the gym for strength training or do yoga? It all depends on the goal you are pursuing: to become more focused before an exam or a difficult job, to relax or quit smoking.

Effects of exercise on memory and executive function

Aerobic exercise

Conjectures about the effects of specific types of exercise on the brain came from experiments in rodents 15 years ago. Scientists have found that in mice that actively spin the wheel, new neurons are formed in the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for memory. Exercise forced hippocampal neurons to pump out a special protein called brain neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which promotes the formation of new neurons. The experimental mice had improved memory during the experiment, which made it easier for them to navigate the maze.

This research was soon carried over to humans.

Seniors who performed aerobic exercise three times a week for a year had improved memory. Their blood had a higher level of BDNF protein, and more active formation of new neurons was observed in the hippocampus.

The conclusion that running and aerobic activity can help fight senile dementia and prevent Alzheimer's disease is good news. The search for other treatments and preventions for many cognitive impairments has progressed rather slowly, and existing drugs have had unpleasant side effects.

Strength exercises

Teresa Liu-Ambrose from the University of British Columbia (Canada) decided to go further and expand on this topic in more detail. She wanted to find out exactly which areas of the brain are affected by certain exercises, and looked for ways to slow the development of dementia in people with cognitive impairments. In the process, Teresa Lu-Ambrose became particularly interested in the impact of strength training.

To test her idea, Teresa Lu-Ambrose conducted a study in 86 women with mild cognitive impairment and compared the effects of aerobic exercise with strength training. Teresa assessed their effects on memory and executive function, which involve complex thought processes (reasoning, planning, problem solving, and multitasking).

One group of subjects did strength training twice a week for an hour, while the second group walked at a brisk pace, which provided sufficient stress. The control group did only stretching.

After six months of training, members of the strength training and brisk walking groups experienced an improvement in spatial memory - the ability to remember their environment and their place in it.

Each exercise had its own beneficial effects.

Members of the strength training group experienced significant improvements in executive function. They also performed better on associative memory tests, which are commonly used to link beliefs and circumstances to one another.

People who performed aerobic exercise significantly improved their verbal memory, ability to remember and find the right words.

Subjects who only stretched showed no improvement in memory or executive function.

Combining different types of activity

If the benefits of strength training and aerobic exercise differ, what if you combine the two?

To tackle this problem, Willem Bossers of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands divided 109 people with dementia into three groups. One group went for 30-minute brisk walks four times a week. The combination group hiked for half an hour twice a week. In addition, people from this group came to strength training twice a week. The control group had no training.

After nine weeks, Bozers conducted a comprehensive test that measured the participants' problem-solving ability, inhibition (inhibition), and processing speed. After processing the results, he found that the combination group performed better than the aerobic and control groups.

The study suggests that going for a walk is not enough to improve cognitive health in older adults. They need to add a couple of strength training to their schedule.

Improving concentration of attention

The benefits of exercising extend not only to those with problems, but also to healthy adults. After experimenting with healthy older women for a year, Teresa Lu-Ambroz found that strength training at least once a week led to significant improvements in executive function. Balancing exercises and simply toning exercises did not have such an effect.

Combining strength training with aerobic training is ideal, as weight training releases insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), a growth hormone that is produced in the liver. It is known for its influence on the communication between brain cells and promotes the formation of new neurons.

In addition, aerobic exercise increases the production of the protein BDNF, and strength training decreases levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that increases in the brains of older people with dementia.

By combining strength and aerobic training, you have a powerful neurobiological cocktail. Unfortunately, research has yet to determine the duration of the health benefits of exercise, but it is clear enough that older adults must exercise to maintain mental health.

Other research shows how different exercises affect a child's development and abilities. For example, if you want your child to focus for at least an hour, it is best to let him run a couple of laps. Walking for 20 minutes has an immediate positive effect on children's attention and executive function. Running and dancing have about the same impact. Walking at a brisk pace can also help focus on the task for hyperactive ADHD children.

Exercises that are aimed at developing a specific skill (for example, coordination of movements) impair attention. A large number of rules and specific exercises can be too difficult for children, especially before tests or in situations that require concentration. However, these exercises have a positive effect on the development of concentration in the long term.

Maria Chiara Gallotta, from the University of Rome, Italy, found that games with complex coordination, such as basketball or volleyball, help children perform better on tests that require concentration.

The cerebellum is a part of the brain that is not only responsible for coordinating movements, regulating balance and muscle tone. He also takes part in concentration. Practicing complex movements activates the cerebellum, which, by interacting with the frontal lobe, increases attention.

Moreover, children involved in sports have larger hippocampus and basal ganglia than inactive children. These children are more attentive. The basal ganglia are a group of structures that play an important role in movement and purposeful behavior (turning thoughts into actions). They interact with the prefrontal cortex and influence attention, inhibition, and executive control by helping people switch between the two tasks.

Adults can also benefit from challenging athletic tasks. Studies in Germany have shown an increase in the basal volume of the ganglia after coordination exercises such as maintaining balance and synchronizing the movements of the arms and legs. The same effect was observed when working with ropes and balls.

Synchronization exercises improve the visual-spatial processing of information, which is necessary to determine distance in the mind. For example, it can be an estimate of the time it takes to cross the road before the red light turns on.

Another explanation comes from studies by Tracy Alloway and Rose Alloway at the University of North Florida (USA).

Scientists have found that a couple of hours of activities such as climbing trees, balancing on a bar or running barefoot have a significant impact on working memory.

Working memory is responsible for the ability to hold information in the head and manipulate it at the same time. It processes the information and decides what is important, while ignoring what is not relevant to the work you are currently doing. RAM affects almost everything you do.

What's so special about tree climbing or balancing on a bar? The researchers found that only a combination of two different activities produced positive results. Both options in this case include a sense of proprioception (sensation of the position of parts of one's own body relative to each other and in space).

There must also be one more element - calculating the distance to the next point, navigation or movement in space. A positive effect will be given by the exercise in which you need to simultaneously move and think about where and how to do it.

Appetite control

One of the latest fashion sports trends is high intensity interval training (HIIT), which involves alternating high intensity and low intensity exercise. These short workouts offer the same benefits as longer workouts that are more familiar to you.

Interval training has its advantage: short bursts of activity reduce hunger.

To test the effect of interval training on appetite, scientists from the University of Western Australia invited overweight men to participate in an experiment. The researchers asked the subjects to ride a bike for 30 minutes for three days. The intensity of the training had to be different each time. On the fourth day, the subjects rested.

It turned out that after the most intense workout and during the remaining time before bedtime, men ate less than usual. What's more, their appetite for the next few days was half as much as on the days following moderate-intensity training and after a day of rest.

One explanation for this phenomenon may be that exercise lowers levels of ghrelin, the hormone of hunger. It is responsible for communicating with the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates the feeling of satiety and reports when the stomach is empty. As soon as the stomach is full, the production of ghrelin stops, the feeling of hunger disappears. After high-intensity training, the level of ghrelin in the body was the lowest.

Outcomes

So what is worth remembering from this mass of research for those looking to pump their brains through exercise?

• Running and aerobic activity help fight senile dementia and prevent Alzheimer's disease, improve verbal memory, the ability to remember and find the right words.
• Strength training has a positive effect on the executive functions of the brain, that is, the planning and regulation of conscious actions.
• Games with complex coordination of movements help children to concentrate better.
• Interval training can help you control your appetite.
• The greatest positive effects on the brain can be achieved by combining different types of activity, such as aerobic and strength training.