Who Needs Exercise?

Exercise is for everyone! It should be individualized, meaning everyone starts at their current fitness level. Exercise offers a wide range of benefits, including reducing insulin resistance, inflammation, and improving cardiovascular health. It's also one of the best remedies for depression, stress, insomnia, and anxiety.

What Kind of Exercise is Best?

• Focus on Enjoyment: Keep your exercise routine joyful, relaxed, yet purposeful.

• Aerobic Exercise: Older adults with higher cardiorespiratory fitness tend to have better overall brain volume preservation. Aerobic exercise increases blood flow and boosts brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that stimulates the production of new brain cells and strengthens existing ones. Walking is an excellent form of aerobic exercise that naturally incorporates strength training. As you get stronger, consider increasing your walking speed or adding short bursts of jogging or sprinting.

• Strength Training: Include exercises like push-ups, weightlifting, core strengthening exercises, and squats in your routine. Loss of lean muscle mass is typical with aging and is correlated with cognitive decline. Strength training helps prevent this loss, improves brain function, slows aging, and prevents brain atrophy. Studies show that adults who strength train have enhanced long-term memory, fewer white matter lesions in the brain, improved gait, and can perform daily tasks more easily. Muscle mass in the legs has also been linked to better cognitive function and overall brain structure in older adults.

• High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): HIIT involves short bursts of intense activity followed by periods of rest. Research suggests that very vigorous exercise can benefit your brain as much as your body. A study published in Neuroscience Letters found that high-intensity interval training was linked to both higher BDNF levels and improvements in cognitive functioning. BDNF is involved in brain cell survival and repair, mood regulation, and cognitive functions like learning and memory; low levels of BDNF have been associated with depression.

Incorporate Movement Throughout Your Day:

For optimal health, keep moving throughout the day. Here are some ideas:

• Combine Exercise with Cognitive Training: During your daily walk, challenge yourself by saying the alphabet backwards, counting backwards by various intervals (5s, 6s, etc.), or memorizing scripture verses.

When to Exercise:

• Schedule Dedicated Exercise Time: Set aside a specific time for exercise, but avoid doing it within 2 hours of bedtime.

• Incorporate Informal Exercise: Look for opportunities to increase your activity level throughout the day. Embrace chores like yard work (pulling weeds, sweeping, raking), which can keep you active and strong. Even household chores like carrying laundry, bending over to clean, or mopping can help maintain muscle strength.

Where to Exercise:

Exercise can be done anywhere, everywhere, or even in special places. Spending time in nature is beneficial for your brain. It's been shown to boost creativity, problem-solving skills, sharpen mental focus, and minimize rumination. The beauty of nature can also instill a sense of wonder and create a feeling of connection and compassion towards others.

Brain Exercises

Stay Mentally Engaged:

Challenge yourself with activities you find enjoyable, such as:

1. Reading: Newspapers, books.

2. Puzzles: Crosswords.

3. Music: Play a musical instrument.

4. Education: Take a class, pursue ongoing learning.

5. Languages: Learn a new language.

6. Memory: Memorize scriptures or poems.

Tips for Brain Training:

• Learn Something New: Take up a new hobby like a foreign language, musical instrument, painting, or even just reading the newspaper or a good book. Consider signing up for a class and scheduling regular practice sessions for the greatest benefit. The more novel, complex, and challenging the activity, the better for your brain.

• Raise the Bar: If you're not interested in something new, challenge your brain by improving your existing skills. For example, learn a new piece of music or improve your favorite one if you play the piano. Aim to lower your handicap if you're a golfer.

• Practice Memorization: Start small, then progress to more complex tasks like memorizing the 50 U.S. state capitals. Create rhymes or patterns to strengthen memory connections. Memorize Bible text or poems.

• Enjoy Puzzles & Games: Brain teasers, strategy games, and riddles offer a great mental workout. Do crossword puzzles, play board games, cards, or word and number games like Scrabble or Sudoku.

• Practice the 5 W's: Observe and report like a detective. Keep a "Who, What, Where, When, and Why" list of your daily experiences. Capturing visual details keeps your neurons firing.

• Step Outside Your Comfort Zone: Take a new route, eat with your non-dominant hand, rearrange your computer files. Varying your habits regularly creates new brain pathways.

Benefits of Brain Training:

People who consistently learn new things and challenge their brains are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and dementia. It's truly "use it or lose it." Studies show that even a few sessions of mental training can improve cognitive function in daily activities, with benefits lasting for years. Activities that involve multiple tasks, communication, interaction, and organization offer the greatest protection. Set aside time each day to stimulate your brain!

Building Better habits for a Better Brain

Week 1. Reduce sitting time by increasing outdoor time - Plant something, improve your yard, walk at the beach etc..  Create an exercise time in your daily routine before 6 PM

Week  2. Avoid Refined Vegetable oils, Substitute extra virgin Olive oil. Eat nuts, blue berries, greens daily. Supplements as listed. 

Week 3. Begin a walking program 4 days per week. Begin strength training 3 days per week.  Create a time for memorizing scripture, poetry or other brain memory program such as relearning a language that you learned in school.  It needs to start easy and be enjoyable.