Following a healthy diet and a regular exercise can keep your body strong. Physical activities can also help boost brain health, according to Dr. Ronald Tarrel, a neurologist specializing in stroke and neurocritical care at the Noran Neurological Clinic.

Regular Exercise Is Good For Your Brain And Body

Dr. Tarrel, always advises his patients to exercise because it is the most universal medicine for any health problem. A regular exercise can strengthen your bones, muscles, and joints thus helping your body move better physically. Moreover, exercise can also help regulate body functions such as glucose, insulin, and blood pressure.

Unfortunately, not everyone knows that regular exercise can do wonders on the body. It can significantly boost your brain health in four ways.

It Can Make Your Brain Stronger

New brain cells are created by the human brain through the process called neurogenesis. Exercise is needed for this process since physical activity helps “increase neurons’ creation, resistance to damage, and survival.” A regular exercise can strengthen your brain more.

It Can Boost Your Mood

Your brain chemistry can possibly be affected by physical activities. During work-out, endorphins are released by your body. Endorphins are the “feel goods” chemicals that can help trigger positive feelings. Also, exercising helps release serotonin, a neurotransmitter that functions as a natural antidepressant.

Your mood can be improved by both endorphins and serotonin. That’s why, whenever you feel anxious or stressed, physical exercise can help you relax.

It Can Improve Learning And Memory

Since physical activity can increase your heart rate, it can help improve the flow of blood and nutrients to your brain. Blood flow and nutrients are both considered as the main factors for boosting learning, memory, and the ability for abstract reasoning.

According to research, exercising can help increase the actual size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is responsible for verbal memory and learning.

It Can Enhance Your Attention Span And Focus

Exercise can be a form of “moving meditation,” which can help you have an easier time concentrating on a particular task. It can also help you deal with daily stressors. For instance, you can do some yoga poses, swim a couple of laps in the pool, or bike for several times to forget your day’s irritations and simply concentrate on your body’s movement.

Through moving meditation, you can forget daily stressors, become calmer, and more level-headed, thereby making you more focused at work.

In general, your brain benefits from anything that is good for your heart. The benefits of regular exercise for both your mind and body can be reaped no matter what your age is.

It was concluded by Dr. Tarrel that you can boost your brain health even if you just stick to activities that you enjoy. However, you can also try out a new activity if you want to make your routine more challenging. He further added that activities such as martial arts, rock climbing, or ballroom dancing will have a greater impact on cognitive functions (e.g., thinking, reasoning, and remembering) over just exercise or mental tasks.

Exercise Tips For Brain Health

If you want to start exercising to boost your brain function, you can follow some of the guidelines below:

Strength Training

Strength training, like lifting weights or resistance training helps strengthen your bones and build muscles. Moreover, it can also boost your mood, and improve brain power, and enhance concentration.

Aerobic Exercise

Regular endurance exercises, such as swimming, biking, and running can help improve heart health, promote new brain cell growth, and preserve existing brain cells.

Flexibility

Your flexibility will gradually diminish as you age. By improving your flexibility, you can have more energy, improve your posture, and minimize your risk of injury. To help you stay more flexible, you can try activities like stretching, yoga or Taichi.

Balance

As you age, your balance will steadily decline, however you can remedy this with balance training. Balance training will help you prevent fall and improve your overall movements. Some training you can try to include simple exercises such as standing on one foot or walking backward.