Exercising for Brain Power

Throughout time working out has been thought to only help you with physical benefits. Like staying in shape and being healthy. What if I told you there are not only physical benefits from working out but cognitive mental acuity. Leading to a healthier mindset and mental health. Working out can actually help you alter the way you approach obstacles. It also can help you from getting mental disorders.

People are probably wondering how physical activity could help you psychologically. Well there have been multiple studies over the past couple of years that show exercising is very beneficial in that aspect. When you work out there is a part in your brain called the cerebral cortex. That is the part of the brain that helps you think and learn. Working out helps strengthen that part of your brain. When that part of the brain is strengthened then it lowers the probability of getting a mental disorder. This is a great way for people who have mental disorders to try and get rid of it. Or if people who want to prevent mental disorders can lower their chances. 

There are studies that prove people who work out have a faster cognitive processing. This means that those individuals process thoughts and ideas quicker than one you do not indulge in physical activity. In the article “Reviewing on physical exercise and cognitive function” it states,“This demonstrates that participating in physical exercise programs exerts benefits in the physical and psychological spheres, and it is probable that physically active individuals have a faster cognitive processing.” Faster cognitive processing can lead to better mental health and meaningful thoughts. It is not too late to speed up your cognitive processing though. One can start working out today and  will see benefits in the next coming weeks and the long run. 

Participating in physical exercise can lower your risk of getting attacked by mental disorders. In recent analysis found physical activity has a significant increase in cognitive performance in elderly who have a cognitive deficit. This proves that exercising is an important factor in protecting cognitive decline.  

When trying to attempt to strengthen and fasten cognitive processes it depends on your workouts. Doing simple workouts is ok but not great. Try not doing lazy exercises because it could lessen your cognitive. This is because you are taking easy ways out. When doing exercises make sure it is helping you physically and mentally. If you go too hard though it could lessen your cognitive ability because it causes too much fatigue. This is only for a few minutes though. This makes cognitive processes speed up a ton. In a study made by our group, 23 healthy women aged from 60 to 70 years were submitted to 60 minutes jogging 3 times a week, and as complementary activity, they were submitted to stretching and flexibility exercises. After 6 months training, it was found an improvement in the attention, memory, agility, and in the mood pattern in 17 sedentary women. This shows that more than half of the participants had not only physical benefits but cognitive benefits. 

Working out is a great way to improve your mental. People work out to relieve stress because it is better than eating a bunch of junk food or being lazy. If one is lazy and does not have that motivation to really do anything, exercising is a great way to get out of that. It is doing something you do not want which ultimately changes your mindset. When you do not want to do something but you end up doing it. After finishing it one feels amazing. This is because working out is not something easy. This can totally change the way you start approaching opportunities in life.

People mentally are unorganized and lack a schedule in their daily life. Working out is a great way to get a person mentally straight. Meaning when you work out it is a part of your day to day schedule. So when someone is planning their schedule for the week or for the next day you have to plan your day around working out. This makes one day a lot more organized. It also helps strengthen your mind because one completes everything in the day needed to be successful. This then leads to the person being stress free. This is all by just working out for a total of forty five minutes to an hour. 

Exercising is a huge part of a steady lifestyle. Exercising also gives you an enormous sense of well being. If you cultivate a healthy exercise routine then this will improve your mental health. Working out helps people that are depressed and have anxiety make it go away or help control it. When exercising you are usually doing it for close to an hour or even more. This helps clear you mind or even expand what you are stressed about. This is great because it solves your problem and can even help find why you are stressed. “The Health Benefits of Exercise” states, “ Exercise has been proven to be effective for some people in treating and/or managing depression and anxiety.” There is a chemical in your body called cortisol which is basically “the stress hormone.” Exercise wears this chemical down which makes a person more relaxed after a workout.

In Conclusion, working out should not only be thought out to be great for your physical body but a huge part of keeping your mental health together. When people think of working out they only think about the physical part of it. People should understand that it can help you on a deeper level. Like cognitive mental acuity is also important when working out because it can improve how fast you think.

Exercising has more benefits than just working out like cognitive mental acuity. When exercising multiple times a week it will increase the way your brain processes. Most of the time people workout to either get big or lose weight. People also just work out to stay in shape and feel good. Working out is not just that though. It can actually benefit the way your brain processes.When exercising most people do not understand that it is strengthening their brain. A person goes into the gym and does a set of dumbbell curls. Most likely that person will do eight to ten reps of the three sets. Then move onto a next set of arm exercises because dumbbell curls are an arm workout specifically for the bicep. Little do they know that it strengthens their brain. This is helping the brain have a set routine and makes a person more determined in life outside of working out.

This is where the cognitive part of working out comes into play. Most of the time working out is looked at as being hard. There are tons of people who do not work out because they believe it is too difficult and are lazy. A recent study that came out, “The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that evolved most recently, and it can be exquisitely sensitive to even temporary everyday anxieties and worries. When things are going well, the prefrontal cortex acts as a control center that keeps our baser emotions and impulses in check.” The prefrontal cortex which is basically the cognitive control center that makes a person want to do difficult tasks. A great example of strengthening this part of the brain is exercising. Exercising everyday can help make this part of the brain better. The effect of this is that it can help in day to day scenarios. People do not really like doing things that they do not like and exercising can get a person to do uncomfortable things.

The brain’s cognitive processing can actually be sped up by working out. Working out can make the brain’s cognitive processing faster and sharp. Cognitive processing is, “Cognitive function or cognitive functional system is understood as the phases in the information process, such as perception, learning, memory, attention, readiness, reasoning power, and problem solving.” The effect of this is great because a person can process thoughts and ideas faster. This can also affect how aware a person can be. While running fast on a treadmill or lifting weights this is actually helping your cognitive processing by 10 times the amount if you were just going day to day. There is little to no risk to increase cognitive function by working out. Instead of surgeries or medicines, exercising is a great way because it helps one stay in shape.

On the other hand, exercising can actually help your brain stay organized. People you exercise every week understand that they need to make a mental schedule on when they are going to work out. If working out five times a week there needs to be at least forty five minutes to an hour of your day. Now a person builds around that and has a much more organized schedule. This helps anxiety and makes the brain a lot more clearer. A lot of people have anxiety because they are unorganized and do not have a routine. Exercising can benefit someone who needs the organization mentally.  

Many people think that exercising is only for physical attributes. When in reality it is not there is more than just exercising to make your body look good. It is like the saying “Look good,feel good”. When you work out you are both physically making the body better and mentally making the brain stronger. A person’s mental state is very important because it can help you live a longer and better life.There are many people who suffer from mental illnesses. Exercising can help benefit from having them. This is because exercising is beneficial for having a healthy brain.  

There is more to exercising than just physical aspects of it. It can help strengthen the brain’s cognitive function and decrease mental illness. When exercising multiple times a week it can help speed up your cognitive processing and also help you stay mentally organized.

Exercising throughout many years is viewed as a way to be in shape physically. This can be completed by lifting weights or some type of cardio. Exercising though is extremely great for your physical health but working out can actually benefit a human mentally. Even though working out is great for physical health. People could look at it in a different manner and try to get their mental strength. Many people probably argue this and believe exercising only helps people physically.  

The argument is that exercising can only benefit people in a physical way. This is definitely true to their point: working out is very beneficial to having a physically healthy lifestyle. But that is not the only thing that can be improved when working out. All it takes is a little bit of altering. One mental benefit is brain boost. Brain boost helps how fast you think. This is for things to help you process thoughts quicker and smoother. This also helps strengthen your memory. In a Waldern University study, “Studies on mice and humans indicate that cardiovascular exercise creates new brain cells, a process called neurogenesis and improves overall brain performance.” The study helps so that cardio not only improves your cardiovascular system but helps the brain. Doing workouts in a certain order can help your brain with memory. This is because having a set schedule in your workout helps the person remember what they have to accomplish during that workout. Leading to a person having better memory throughout the regular day.

Many people say that exercising does not do anything for a person’s mental health. This can be found untrue though. Something that people deal with mentally is depression and anxiety. This can be reduced by working out. There are studies that show that lifting a few weights a day or every other day can reduce your anxiety. Some people will tell you that is not true and it can not happen. But in a Waldern university study working out can actually help make someone happier. For example, “Exercise is a scientifically proven mood booster, decreasing symptoms of both depression and anxiety. Physical activity kicks up endorphin levels, the body’s famous “feel good” chemical produced by the brain and spinal cord that produces feelings of happiness and euphoria.” This informs the people that exercise releases endorphins that decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety. Even doctors recommend trying to workout before they give the patient medicines. This means why people say that exercising can not help someone’s mental health. They can get questions because there has been study behind it. There are doctors that are out there that study and recommend physical exercise to improve mental health like depression and anxiety.

Another mental benefit of exercising is decreased stress. Tons of people deal with stress throughout their lives. People try and make exercising out to be something it is not. Exercising is extremely beneficial to decrease personal stress. Even though stress is a mental issue and working out is a physical act. It can help relieve your stress and even get rid of it. By just increasing your heart rate in any workout that a person is completing. This can help reverse self-induced brain damage of stress. In a study, “which not only improve cognition and mood but improve thinking clouded by stressful events. Exercise also forces the body’s central and sympathetic nervous systems to communicate with one another, improving the body’s overall ability to respond to stress.” This shows that exercising pretty much gets the brain to start going. This then leads to the reduction of stress that a person is enduring. The argument that physical exercise only benefits humans with their physical body can be proven. That this is not true and that it can benefit the person’s mental stress that everyone deals with. 

Many people argue that exercising can only benefit humans physically. Yes physical exercise does indeed benefit physical health and is needed for day to day life. This can be proven to be not true. With the information stated above like depression and stress but reduced by working out helps further the point. This also helps people strengthen the brain with brain boost, that helps memory and cognitive function. The information given helps prove the point that exercising can benefit people mentally.

References

Walden University. (2016, November 18). 5 mental benefits of exercise. Walden University. https://www.waldenu.edu/online-bachelors-programs/bs-in-psychology/resource/five-mental-benefits-of-exercise

Pani, J., Marzi, C., Stensvold, D., Wisløff, U., Håberg, A. K., & Diciotti, S. (2022). Longitudinal study of the effect of a 5-year exercise intervention on structural brain complexity in older adults. A Generation 100 substudy. NeuroImage, 256(119226), 119226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119226

How physical activity improves mental health. (2022, December 29). Community Health of Central Washington – Community Health of Central Washington; Community Health of Central Washington. https://www.chcw.org/behavioral-health-how-physical-activity-improves-mental-health/

Antunes, H. K. M., Santos, R. F., Cassilhas, R., Santos, R. V. T., Bueno, O. F. A., & Mello, M. T. de. (2006). Exercício físico e função cognitiva: uma revisão. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Do Esporte, 12(2), 108–114. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1517-86922006000200011

Arnsten, A., Mazure, C. M., & Sinha, R. (2012). This is Your Brain in Meltdown. Scientific American, 306(4), 48–53. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0412-48

The health benefits of exercise. (n.d.). Siegeljcc.org. Retrieved March 12, 2024, from https://www.siegeljcc.org/blog/2022/01/24/fitness/the-health-benefits-of-exercise/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAw6yuBhDrARIsACf94RVfxkOef7Re9OWXbnKX7fVv5lXoK1jJz4yYpHwc-5ngSR9XeQq6lq4aAtY2EALw_wcB

Antunes, H. K. M., Santos, R. F., Cassilhas, R., Santos, R. V. T., Bueno, O. F. A., & Mello, M. T. de. (2006). Exercício físico e função cognitiva: uma revisão. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Do Esporte, 12(2), 108–114. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1517-86922006000200011