Exercising maintains brain health

Brain Activity and Learning

An explanation for this effect is remarkable in the impact on brain activity. Studies conducted found specific patterns of brain activity associated with exercise. The affected area of the brain was the prefrontal cortex, which is located in the anterior part of the brain. This area works on problem solving and complex thinking, which may explain the mechanisms of how physical exercise affects learning ability.

Brain Zones

During one of the tests conducted by the researchers of the Medical College of Georgia observed the effects of aerobic exercise on the cognitive function of overweight and sedentary children. After 15 weeks of regular exercise, the test scores improved markedly in the interim results.

	The results of the tests support the idea that students should have enough time to play sports during class days.

Sports are an integral part of our training in childhood and youth and that is why we talk about physical education. They are also often well into adult life, part of our leisure, our social life, our integration into the community. Participating in some sport and recreational activities with a component of intense exercise is good for any child including those who have an autism spectrum disorder.

Research on physical exercise has shown us that sport decreases stress, improves overall health, increases motor skills, and helps develop individual virtues (self-confidence, discipline, responsibility, work by objectives) and social virtues ( communication, companionship, coordinated work).

Physical Exercise and Creativity

Another effect of exercise on the brain consists in the capacity for creativity. Studies conducted in 2005 found that aerobic exercise increased the creativity potential of students by participating in activities of moderate intensity. The effects also persisted for two hours after exercise, adding that physical activity provides health benefits.

Exercise and Brain

The study also found similar health benefits with college-age students, supporting the argument that physical exercise can benefit brain function regardless of a person's age.

The lack of physical activity can have multiple harmful effects, especially when mixed with an inappropriate diet, so acquiring the habit of exercise is the cheapest investment we can make to take care of our health.

Physical Exercise and Stress

Another benefit of physical exercise is the effects on stress control. When you are stressed, it may be difficult to concentrate on what you are doing. Exercise can help relieve stress, which can improve your ability to function better. Increased circulation and exercise provides distraction, so it may be the key to improving the ability to concentrate.

Studies on Benefits of Physical Exercise for Memory

Until recently it was believed that cognitive and cerebral changes related to age were completely unavoidable. This vision has changed with different scientific studies that have shown that brains of advanced age can show positive changes in response to exercise, diet, and social and environmental stimuli. In the cognitive aspect, better performance has been demonstrated in tests that require a mental solution of simple arithmetic problems, the use of immediate memory or reaction time.

The first thing that comes to mind when we talk about sports, are those in which physical force is used such as football, swimming or basketball among others. Keep in mind that there are other sports that use mental and non-physical skills and are known as mental sports. Among these are several very popular games such as chess and bridge, both included by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on its list of recognized mental sports. In addition, we can find more strategy sports such as ladies, go and Chinese chess recognized as mental sports by the International Mental Sports Association (IMSA) that organized the World Men's Sports Games just after the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and in Lille (France) in the summer of 2012.

Why are strategy games so important?

Many of the strategy games could be recognized as mental sports, whether or not they are recognized by an institution or organization as in the cases mentioned above. The use of these games and applications similar to those of Cognifit, provides many advantages and benefits, for example mental training, which helps to work memory through the memorization of patterns that are repeated in the game.

They also help to encourage attention, observation of details and concentration in order to achieve success and win the game in the most efficient and fastest way possible. In the case of chess, the journalist specializing in this mental sport and coach of children and teachers, Leontxo García, said in 2013 that "develops twenty-five qualities: memory, concentration, logical reasoning, scientific thinking, ..., sportsmanship, cold blood, compliance of the rules, respect to the opponent, spatial vision, combativeness and desire to learn ", skills present in many of these strategy games and qualities present in Olympic philosophy, such as respect for the opponent and ambition to learn and excel.

Mental games that improve your mental abilities

Thanks to neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to create synaptic connections through continuous learning, we can adapt our brain to new rules of different mental skill games. In addition, a very fashionable notion in these years such as emotional intelligence would be present in many of these games; according to Salovey and Mayer this "consists of the ability to manage feelings and emotions, discriminate between them and use this knowledge to direct their own thoughts and actions", therefore, it is a concept that is unconsciously applied in games such as poker, Chinese chess, checkers and even blackjack in all its versions such as American, the Spanish version of 21 or the European version available not only in physical casinos or in complicated games rooms, but in online portals such as Betway Casino.

Among the most important strategy games, there is chess, very popular in Spain since tournaments are held in different Spanish cities. Chess, according to Leontxo García, develops five of the eight intelligences of Howard Garner and are Linguistics, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Intrapersonal and Interpersonal. He also found that neurologists believe that playing this game delays brain aging and could prevent Alzheimer's.

Other games of mental ability are bridge, a card game of two pairs of players, which is recognized by the IOC. The Go, born more than 2500 years ago in China, is a strategy game based on a board and two players similar to chess, but with only 2 types of figures. The ladies, similar in design to the Go but much simpler in practice and Chinese chess, which like Western chess has different figures whose movements differ from the rest and is played between two people.

Actively playing this type of mental sports or mental skill games, which you probably did not know, help us to exercise our brain and thus train it in tasks such as data analysis, to keep it in shape, as if it were physical exercise.

"We know that reaction time slows down with age, but activity is a great modifier," Kramer said.
Therefore, exercise is medicine, what are you waiting for to practice it?