The Magic Pill for the Brain: Exercise
The Magic Pill for the Brain: Exercise
If the big pharmaceutical company can create a pill that can do everything exercise does for the brain, they would be trillionaires.
Also I would probably be out of a job....
In order for us to learn about the effects of exercise on the brain, we must first understand why we have brains.
Some may say that the role of the brain is to solve complex problems, to think, or to create art.
However, several scientists, as well as Neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert, after years of study, have taken a new focus on the brain’s purpose. Their research shows something more defining about the brain's purpose; that the brain’s major function is to initiate and regulate movement..
In a Ted Talk, Wolpert explained that “we have a brain for one reason and one reason only, and that is to produce adaptable and complex movement.”
You move in order to procure food, to run away from predators, to find a mate etc..
Wolpert uses the example of a sea squirt to show us what he means.
Early in life the sea squirt has a nervous system and uses it to move around to find a suitable rock to attach itself to.
Once it does, the sea squirt proceeds to digest its central nervous system / brain for energy, since movement is no longer necessary for its survival. There the sea squirt stays for the rest of its life.
I know it might be hard to relate our “complex” life to the life of a sea squirt, but our lives are scarily similar. Initially, life from kindergarten to college is kind of crazy, with lot’s of new and memorable moments and experiences. We learn how to walk, communicate, prioritize, compete, survive, we learn about love, pain, and much more. But slowly, after finding a stable job, settling down with a significant other, we don’t prioritize movement or our health as much, because most things in life are already procured or within arms reach.
Now that we are more aware of the purpose of the brain, let's move on to the benefits exercise has on the brain.
Disclaimer: most of the information below is based on my experience working with clients, and research from different neuroscientist.
“In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul, and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection.“
Plato
Stress:
Stress is the body \ mind reaction to any changes in the environment.
The body’s evolutionary reaction to stress is the “flight or fight'' response. This dates back to the time when food was scarce and danger was in every corner, which triggered the body to build up a burst of energy, waiting to be used to fight or escape the danger. Although this response to stress / danger is still a very active part of our nature, most people today live relatively comfortable, sedentary lives. Exercise, which could be the easiest and best way to release “stress energy build-up,” is often taken as an imposition and resisted, or relegated to a short-lived New Years Resolution. This imposing energy accumulation gets progressively greater and greater after every stressful situation, if it has not been released. After stressful events, your body also demands food that is high in sugars and fats to basically replenish more energy to storage to respond to the next potential stressful fight or flight event. Thus the body slowly builds and stores fat, which can potentially make its way into the heart and the arteries, possibly leading to heart attacks.
I have a new client who can provide an example of what exercise can do. She was happy to let me share some of her story. She is a tall 5’10, massage therapist, and house wife, in her 40s. She moved here with her 3 daughters and husband, so definitely a busy lady.
She wanted to get in shape, because it has been awhile since she’s exercised.(For most people, that’s the first thing they tell me.) We went through the surface level stuff: her weight, goals, and how many days a week she would like to exercise.
After that, we can dig deeper to kind of bring the whole story together. I found out she was only sleeping 4 hours a day max, and she even wakes up in the middle of that.
So Insomnia? What from? Are the kids keeping her up?
No
It is because her mom is in the hospital with cancer, and her 6 brothers rely on her to communicate with mom, because it's probably too painful for them. So her stress level is like 14/10!
That’s some heavy stuff! ( Often people feel like they need an objective ear to talk to, so I become a sort of personal therapist sometimes, as well as a personal trainer.) I truly like to help, and it gives me ideas about how to personalize programs to be more beneficial for certain clients.
She said this has been going on for about a year and a half now. I asked her “how are you still functioning?” She said “honestly, I don’t know. My husband asked the same thing, and I think the things keeping me going right now are my kids.”
That day, when she first walked in, she gave me an impression of a positive and talkative person.
However, now I realize that’s probably the energized front she puts on for the kids. But underneath, she was like a functioning zombie.
I figured that a simple workout, would be helpful. We went through the routine of squats, deadlift, push ups and row. It was a nice workout and nothing too strenuous. I prescribed for her to just do a daily walk, because it might clear her head, but I was not expecting too much.
Three days later. We got on a call and she seemed a little different, so I asked her “How have you been feeling?” She said “You know what? I’m doing really good. I walked today and the day before. For the first time, I slept for 8 hours, straight through. My daughters and husband were actually happier than I was that I managed to finally get some rest. They told me I better keep doing what I'm doing!”
It was so satisfying to me, to see another client follow through, however difficult it was for her, and to achieve positive results. And with her family support, I knew she would be alright.
Although I have been a trainer for years, studying new, and reaffirming information, is exciting in itself. But seeing the benefits, when applied to the workouts of my clients, who are now using exercise (“movement therapy”), feels to me like a real breakthrough, especially for those who may need an emotional boost to reach their goals. It makes me all the more proud and happy that I chose my path as a physical trainer.
Learning
Everybody is constantly learning, whether you are a college student, a parent, or a newly hired business manager. Throughout time, we humans have had to learn many things to survive. It is not as physically challenging anymore, but our society has a high requirement for intelligence. Funny thing is, we are so focused on education from the neck up, that we neglect one of the main reasons we have a brain in the first place: to move.
A 2007 study, stated that students were able to learn their vocabulary 20% faster after an intense bout of exercise, vs those that didn’t exercise.
The California Department of Education has consistently shown that students with higher test scores tend to have a high fitness score. Based on their 2002 graphs, I saw almost a 50% better test score between those that are physically fit, than those that are not.
The brain is like this big tree, with branches and leaves extending throughout the whole body. Exercise and movement help the brain develop these branches further, and create more and stronger connections with your thoughts and emotions.
Anxiety:
A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
The main difference between anxiety and stress, is that anxiety is typically of internal origin, vs. stress, which has an external cause (fight with friends, marital problem, job loss etc..)
Everybody experiences some sort of anxiety in their life: from thoughts of failure, inadequacy, or shame. For example: three months ago, after I wasn’t going to the gym due to Covid 19, I finally had a chance to go back (with a mask), and it was a little nerve racking, even though I’ve been lifting for over 10 years. I was over - thinking about how people perceive me, how I might not be lifting as much anymore, and all those little self - conscious thoughts. But, as I continued to go, day by day, just doing the best I could, the feeling started to subside. Just as anxiety can feed on itself, so can courage build and rebuild. Each of us builds the environment that we want to live in.
In 2004, researcher, Joshua Broman-Fulks, conducted a study on how exercise affects anxiety. He theorized that when people increase their heart rate, and breathing in the setting of exercise, the body and mind normalizes this physical arousal, creating comfort, and decreasing the perception that it is an anxiety attack. He took 54 inactive college students with high levels of anxiety disorder, and put them into two exercise groups. Both groups were assigned six, 20 minute, exercise sessions. per week, over two weeks.
Group 1: run on the treadmill at an intensity of 60% - 90% of max heart rate.
Group 2: walk on the treadmill at an intensity of 50% of max heart rate.
Conclusion: Both groups had a reduction in anxiety sensitivity, however, high intensity exercise worked more quickly and effectively. Also, only the high intensity group reported feeling less afraid of the physical symptoms of anxiety.
The Take Away
In the book, Spark there are another 5 benefits of exercise on the brain, which we won’t be able to cover here, but feel free to ask me, or check out the book yourself, if you wish to learn more. The topics include Depression, Attention Deficit, Addiction, Hormonal Changes, and Aging.
People are always saying they don’t have the time to exercise, and the irony is, that if they only did 20 minutes of movement a day, they would feel less harried (feeling strained as a result of having demands persistently made on one). We are all built to move, and hopefully, after reading this blog, you will find the fire to start.
Everybody is different, some people might need a little more motivation and if you do need that then I would be most happy to help you out. As you can see, I do have some experience helping people get through their emotional setback and it can happen for you too!
Broman-Fulks JJ;Berman ME;Rabian BA;Webster. “Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Anxiety Sensitivity.” Behaviour Research and Therapy, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14975776/.
Ratey, John J. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Hachette Book Group, 2013.
Winter, Bernward. "High Impact Running Improves Learning". Neurobiology Of Learning And Memory, 2007, doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2006.11.003. Accessed 11 Dec 2020.