Reason No. 858 to work those Badasses into high gear: It will make you smarter. I'm not just talking about that feeling of alertness or the "runner's high" you get right after a good workout. It's more than that.
Exercise actually grows your brain. How Badass is THAT?! I mean, every time we take a Spinning class or go for a long run or kick butt on kickboxing, we are making ourselves not just stronger but more genius! And in the grand scheme of things, that's a better motivator to me than any number on the scale.
The research on exercise's affects on our brains is laid out in Dr. John J. Raney's relatively new book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. A Badass friend and fellow fitness devotee gave it to me a few weeks ago, and I couldn't put it down.
Spark affirms, in so many ways, what I suspected about exercise and how it affects my thinking. It affirmed what I see in older friends and aging relatives who stay active, and how much more alert and bright they seem compared to older acquaintances who give in to the rocking chair and Father Time.
Spark details many scientific studies and research findings about how exercise affects mood, learning capacity, and our enthusiasm for life -- but in interesting anecdotes, not dry scientist-speak. Still, I know the Badass Fitness Army is pressed for time, so I'll break down the highlights.
The next time you want to skip a workout, consider the following:
- Exercise boosts the fertilizer in our brains: It elevates levels of a protein in the brain called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which author Ratey aptly calls "Miracle Grow for the brain." When you move your muscles, you send hormones into the brain, and there they mix with BDNF. That process boosts brain cell growth, mood and learning.
- Exercise makes us not just smart, but happy smart: Those hormones released during exercise include seratonin, the mood booster; dopamine, which improves learning and attention span; and norephinephrine, which affects attention, motivation and arousal (Yep. You read right, Badasses. Better sex...)
- Exercise improves memory and capacity for learning: A 2007 German study found that people learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster after exercise than they did before exercise, and the higher rate of learning correlates with higher levels of BDNF in the participants after exercise. Those who exercised at higher intensities showed even greater gains. Remember that the next time you ponder whether to pick up your pace or add tension to that elliptical trainer!
- Exercise improves our children's school performance: The California Department of Education for the past five years has found that students with higher fitness scores also have higher test scores.
- Exercise reduces anxiety and depression: Dr. Ratey has been able to take many of his patients off medication, or reduced it, after they started exercising regularly. Example: A 1999 Duke University study divided 156 depression patients into three groups. One took just Zoloft, one just exercised. The other did a combo of drug and exercise. All three groups showed a marked drop in depression, meaning the exercise was just as effective as the Zoloft.
- Regular exercise keeps our minds young: A 2001 Quebec study of over 4,100 elderly men and women found that women over 65 who did more exercise were 50 percent less likely to develop dementia than their inactive elderly counterparts.
So what are you waiting for? Let the healthy of your brain motivate you, not the scale or the image you think you want based on all those unrealistic magazines. Because guess what? As you keep exercising in hopes of getting smarter and performing better in all aspects of work, life, and play, an amazing thing will happen.
Your jeans will get looser. The scale will start dropping. You'll find muscles you forgot you had. And one day, you'll wake up and realize that you are ...a head-turning, SmartAss Badass!
So get your Badasses to a treadmill, to a bike trail, to a long running route! Take a kickboxing class, a step class -- whatever you prefer. Get your sweat on, and do it regularly. The benefits are too Badass to ignore. Just ask your brain.
Coming tomorrow: Navigating the calorie and junk food temptations of airports, road trips and other travel minefields.
