Exercise Makes You Smarter

Aside from feeling more alive, I always feel sharper when I exercise regularly.

It turns out that there’s science behind this.

Exercise is of the most dramatic ways to get smarter.

In Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, Dr. John Medina says that aerobic exercise is one of the best ways to boost your brain.

Key Takeaways

Here are the key points:

Exercise makes you smarter. Exercisers outperform couch-potatoes in terms of problem-solving, long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and abstract thinking. Check out the Chart – Exercise and Cognition (Sedentary vs. Exercise).
Exercise is the independent variable that improves your brain function. When you exercise regularly, your brain function goes up. When you stop exercising regularly, it goes down. Check out the Chart – Exercise as Independent Variable
Exercise needs to be aerobic. You need to do a minimum of 20 minutes, twice a week — toning or just lifting weights doesn’t do it. Check out the Chart – Executive Function (Aerobic vs. Toning).

Why does exercise improve your cognition?

According to Dr. Medina, there are two key reasons:

It increases oxygen flow (and this reduces brain-bound free radicals)
It increases your neurons’ creation, survival and resistance to damage and stress.

To get smarter, the minimum you need for an extreme benefit is 20 minutes, twice a week.

The data behind his story is amazing.

Dr. Medina uses data-driven decisions to find out what works–What really, really works.

You can see some of his amazing data in his book and in his videos.

If you want to work on your smarts, work on your body.

Working on your body, is working on your mind.