Follow @ThisOldBrain on Twitter Subscribe to This Old Brain via RSS Email View Mike Kirkeberg LinkedIn Profile View Mike Kirkeberg

What Do You Want from Physical Brain Exercises?

by Mike Kirkeberg

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Exercise for Brain Health

What is efficient exercise?

What is effective exercise?

First, you have to answer this question — What do you want from exercise?

I know you get it. Exercise can help you live better, smarter and healthier, maybe even longer. You have internalized the idea that your brain will fare better if you exercise.� So away you go.

You are ready …. You are set ….. Now what?

What exercises stretch your brain creatively?

Now, that’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.

Your brain craves challenge.� Like a muscle, it needs to be used.� When you train your body, your muscles get stronger, more toned, and if you want, bigger.� Then something happens and you stop.� Many believe that when you build your muscles and then quit, they turn to fat.� No, the just begin to fade.

Your brain, like those muscles atrophy from lack of challenge.� I was going to say lack of use, but we all use our brains.� But how can we use them better?

My heroes are, have always been, those men and women who go against the grain. � In movies, I often root for the outlaw; while not Hannibal Lecter,� definitely Robin Hood.

Think More, Think Better, Think Differently

Iconoclasts, breakers of idols. Gregory Berns, in his seminal book, Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently, argues that we all have the ability, often even the desire to be that exciting outsider, the one doing the thing that everyone else says can’t be done.

Berns tells us that one of the first obstacles to becoming that person is perception.� One of the behaviors that, to some degree we all fall into is categorizing things. Our brain, as it wisely and necessarily conserves energy – the brain uses 20% of the energy we take in – uses our perception to find shortcuts to make its, thus our, job easier. Over time as we ‘learn’ the ropes of living, we begin to put things in categories, become ruled by rules and routines.

Seeking Mindful Movement

It’s easy to fall into following a mindless pattern.

My better half says she knows she should start exercisingbut needs a program to follow. And then she makes a good point; I often wonder how many people would like to start an exercise regimen and don’t know where to begin.

She needs a program that’ll work for her because what she knows about exercising is lifting a little dumbell about 20 times. An artist, she works with her hands and is a creative. She realizes she needs to keep both her brain and her body working at top form.

What exercises work best for both?� What do you want to accomplish? That’s probably a better question.

Any exercise that you do, particularly those aerobic heart pumpers, will assist your brain to grow.

But what if you want more than growth?� What if you want more creativity, flexibility, and complexity as part of brain improvement?� What then?

Exercise Ideas

Over the next week, I am going to throw out some ideas.� The approach I am looking for is how to change your brain as well as make it “bigger and stronger.”

A quick list of what we will be looking at?