One thing is indisputable – sports and exercise promote physical fitness in young and old. But is there also a connection between physical activity and brain performance? Medical evidence shows that physical activity has a positive effect not only on physical agility, but also on mental flexibility.
Sports keep the brain fit – at any age.
Developing creative ideas, cramming vocabulary, thinking through complex issues – it could all be so much easier if you only knew how. Exercise can make a decisive contribution here, because the combination of movement and sporting activity increases the brain‘s memory and concentration capacity. Numerous studies in this context also prove that cramming is much more efficient when you’re moving than when you’re sitting or in a comfortable, motionless position on the couch or at your desk.
Medical background
During exercise, the human nervous system increasingly produces neurotransmitters that are necessary for all memory and learning processes. These so-called neurotransmitters enable knowledge to be stored and linked in memory. Any form of exercise helps to promote blood flow to the brain. In this way, our brain is simultaneously supplied with oxygen, so that the ability to concentrate and remember increases decisively even with little physical exercise.
Train your Brain
Even moderate movements, such as going for a walk, provide an increased production of neurotransmitters and help our brain to do its job. So you don’t have to do “competitive sports” because thinking and memory performance already benefit from a moderate exercise program.
Even a low load of 25 watts on a bicycle ergometer, which corresponds to slow cycling on a flat track, increases blood flow to various brain regions by up to 20 percent (Hollmann 2004, Herholz 1987). Moderate movements of the fingers, such as typing on the computer keyboard, increase blood flow to brain cells by about 25 percent (Löllgen, Hollmann 2002).
Prof. Dr. Henner Ertel from the Society for Rational Psychology in Munich also does not believe in the traditional model of concentrated sitting still, as we know it from school and university. In his research, he was able to demonstrate that graduates of a learning program who simultaneously exercised on a bicycle ergometer were able to increase their intelligence quotient from an average of 99 points to 128 points after three quarters of a year.
Conclusion
For young people, but also for older people, exercise can thus decisively improve memory performance. Regular exercise significantly slows the aging process of the brain. Studies even show that women and men over 65 were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease if you exercised at least 15 to 30 minutes three times a week.
Whether cramming vocabulary or repeating theoretical content, sitting still and cramming is not as efficient as the combination of exercise and cramming. In particular, sports with a rhythmic movement pattern, such as cycling, running, dancing or gymnastics, are especially likely to increase learning ability, memory performance and creativity by up to 40 percent – at any age.
