It’s no secret that the brain and body are deeply connected, and we already know that exercising regularly can do so much for our mental health and overall mood. Now we’re learning just how important exercise can be—even in small amounts—to support brain health, including better thinking, information processing, decision-making, and memory.
The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health recently published a study revealing that getting moderate to vigorous exercise can help improve cognition and memory. Over 4,400 participants in the U.K. took part in the study for researchers to analyze various movement behaviors, such as sedentary behavior, moderate and vigorous physical activity, light-intensity physical activity, and sleep, to understand how each impacts cognition (brain functions such as memory and problem-solving skills).
The results showed that those who performed moderate to vigorous exercise for even less than 10 minutes showed greater brain benefits than those who took part in light exercise, sleeping, or sitting.
The research concludes that forgoing any moderate and vigorous physical activity can negatively impact cognition and suggests that replacing some sedentary time and low-intensity movement with more physically demanding and intense exercise is a smart habit to support a healthy brain. Since you can’t swap out your nightly sleep routine (and no one is asking you to!), researchers are likely referring to stationary behaviors like sitting down for long periods of time with out any physical breaks.
Although this study doesn’t name one type of exercise that’s better than others, moderately intense activities include those that increase your heart rate and breathing, without totally wiping you out; meanwhile, vigorous or high-intensity exercise boosts your heart rate even more and has you working at (or close to) maximum effort. Some examples of both can include anything from a brisk walk around the neighborhood, a vigorous hike in the woods, a HIIT workout, a run on the treadmill, dance-cardio class, or jumping rope. Increasing your heart rate with higher intensity activity promotes increased blood flow to the brain and a cognitive boost.
Exercise that is mentally engaging and keeps you present, especially that requires you to pay attention and follow certain steps (think: aerobics, dance, yoga, and tai chi) can also help “workout” the brain even more, since you’re actively thinking about what you’re doing—demanding even more from your brain.
