Which Type of Exercise Is Best for the Brain?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/which-type-of-exercise-is-best-for-the-brain/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

by acdanger • 10 years ago

229 117 10 years ago

well.blogs.nytimes.com

jpeg_hero• 10 years ago

Not sure if the rat weight training routine was effective enough to test the hypothesis.

brahmwg• 10 years ago

There is a theory that distance running is intimately related to humans evolution and their brain development. The human foot is beautifully engineered to be used for long distance running, to help absorb the impact and transfer the force into our Achilles and larger glute muscles. The fact that we have feet designed to run for a long time, have the nifty ability to sweat (unlike our prey at the time who needs to stop and pant to cool off), and are social creatures leads some to believe that we were persistent hunters, akin to a pack of wild dogs; ideally chasing down our prey as a group during the hottest part of the day when the animal would have most difficulty cooling off. Some believe the introduction of animal protein into our diet also helped trigger brain growth. So some combination of sociability, persistent running, and animal protein helped accelerate human brain growth back in the day.

Recommend reading Born to Run or watching the Ted talk by the author for those interested.[1]

[1]https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_mcdougall_are_we_born_...

dschiptsov2• 10 years ago

High altitude trekking in mountains is even better than long distance running, at least in terms of breathing and sweating.)

The crucial difference is in variety of breathing patterns on a trail - it changes with a terrain, in contrast to steady breath while running on a flat surface.

I do both - moderate distance running (10-15km) and up to 6000m trekking as a guide.

http://karma-engineering.com/

saiya-jin2• 10 years ago

actually high altitude might be damaging the brain quite a bit, albeit 6000m is not really that bad (but it depends on person)

VeejayRampay• 10 years ago

Even better, The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease by Pr Daniel Lieberman of Harvard. An invaluable resource.

ahelwer3• 10 years ago

beautifully engineered
designed

Evolution does not work this way. It does not engineer or design. If you are an atheist you cannot coherently say there is a design for anything in the human body. I think the language used here is important, especially when used as the basis for an argument of what activities or exercises we ought to do.

losingthefight• 10 years ago

Unless he isn't an atheist? Plenty of theists can hold to evolutionary views or intelligent design.

Further, the language choice could be colloquial in which case he wasn't trying to make a theological statement; rather, op used common phrases to convey the relevant thought. not sure we need to push a worldview here...

Terr_• 10 years ago

And a body of water does not "want" to flow to a local minima, but personification is a damn useful rhetorical device anyway.

choosername• 10 years ago

I didn't downvote but I wouldn't be so sure either. Design as a figure of speach can mean a lot and, baring the discussion about determination and free will, creating and making can feel very passive. Intent is often open ended.

freshhawk• 10 years ago

It's standard to refer to the outcomes of evolution as having been designed by evolution, with no one assuming that requires a "designer". Perhaps it's just easier to say than "emergent design", but it also communicates more about how evolution actually works via this metaphor. The system as a whole designs complex solutions to problems, without self awareness, that's the amazing discovery.

For what it's worth the entire field is fine with this language and no one takes it assume any superstitious beliefs.

crimsonalucard2• 10 years ago

things can be beautifully engineered and designed by a process called natural selection.

when the word design or engineered is employed it does not always mean designed by a God.

akuma73• 10 years ago

That is interesting, but the rats in this study don't have as well engineered feet as humans and don't sweat either.

spectrum• 10 years ago

"In this compelling clip, we see a tribesman runner pursue his prey through the most harsh conditions in a gruelling eight hour chase" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o

kazinator7• 10 years ago

The human foot is beautifully engineered to be used for long distance running, to help absorb the impact and transfer the force into our Achilles and larger glute muscles.

The foot is terribly engineered and suffers from injuries.

Human bones are frail; you have only 25% of the bone density of a gorilla or chimp. Hence the stress fractures.

The big, protruding heel of the human foot is completely counterproductive for running. It helps us stand on two legs and walk. Humans have to consciously learn a proper technique for running to avoid misusing the heel. Doing "what comes naturally" is just horrible.

By contrast, an animal doesn't have to study running technique. A cheetah doesn't have to think "Gee, I'm doing this wrong according to some pages I Googled; I should change my form so that my center of gravity is rather such and such, and my footstrike is altered in such and such a way."

We can't even stand up when we are born and have to learn how to walk, which usually takes place more than a whopping year after birth.

The sheer thickness of the meat and fat on the lower leg of a human tells you that we have evolved away from running. Running requires a stick-like lower appendage, with all the muscle higher up.

et13372• 10 years ago

As a minimalist runner, this comment seems all wrong to me.

If we grew up barefoot or wearing huaraches, we wouldn't have to "learn" how to forefoot strike. Thick-soled shoes mess up our running instincts.

Running requires a stick-like lower appendage, with all the muscle higher up.

It's different with bipeds, yeah? Lots of shock-absorbing magic has to happen in the lower leg.

WalterSear2• 10 years ago

The big, protruding heel of the human foot is completely counterproductive for running. It helps us stand on two legs and walk. Humans have to consciously learn a proper technique for running to avoid misusing the heel. Doing "what comes naturally" is just horrible.

"Doing what comes naturally" after being trained and conditioned from childhood to ambulate in shoes is a far cry from what actually comes naturally.

gamblor956• 10 years ago

The big, protruding heel of the human foot is completely counterproductive for running.

The heel does not protrude when running.

Humans have to consciously learn a proper technique for running to avoid misusing the heel. Doing "what comes naturally" is just horrible.

Children, when running, do not land on their heels. Heel-landing is a learned development caused by heel-heavy shoes. Children land on the front/middle of their feet.

Cheetahs do have to think about how to run. Have you ever seen cheetah cubs?

I should change my form so that my center of gravity is rather such and such, and my footstrike is altered in such and such a way."

Try running without shoes. You'll learn very quickly, without google, not to land on your heels. It's the same way that animals like cheetahs learn to run-by doing.

The sheer thickness of the meat and fat on the lower leg of a human tells you that we have evolved away from running. Running requires a stick-like lower appendage, with all the muscle higher up.

Every claim in that paragraph is wrong.

thesz2• 10 years ago

Cheetah goes barefoot from day 0. Chimps and gorillas do physical exercise from day 0.

Resistance exercise can make your bones at least 50% more dense and, given that single hip can withstand one metric ton of load, makes your bones more than adequate.

If you go barefoot from day 0, you'd learn proper run technique from day 0. Or, if you have massive body like me, you have to learn proper run technique to just run. And you, just like me, will do that in one day.

Having our posture to be very different from other animals, we have to have different muscle groups trained (thick meat). For example, the more upright position of animal, the more thick gluteus maximus is - for horse it is very small, for chimp it can be seen as just small and it is very thick for humans. So, as upright walking humans, we have to have different legs from all other animals. And different running technique.

shas3• 10 years ago

There's a bit of naturalist fallacy there. Evolution optimizes for rates of success far below what we desire for comfortable living today. For instance, if 70% of humans were made for hunting and long distance running, that is an evolutionary success- we wouldn't go extinct and the trait, when inheritable may be selected for. But in modern life, if 1000 people take up long distance running, we cannot tolerate 300 suffering from debilitating injuries. Let's start with pre-running apes, assume ability to run results in k% rate of survival over inability to run and assuming these features are heritable, after N generations humans should all be organisms perfected for running. Both k and N should be high for all humans to be perfectly suited for running barefoot today without risk of injury. It will be nice to hear an expert on human evolution chime in here.

The question also remains, can we extrapolate something that gave us evolutionary advantage to help us individually.

crimsonalucard2• 10 years ago

I mostly agree with this theory. But I would argue that this model applies to humans before we migrated out of Africa. Certain human races have dramatically higher athletic performance while others have lower performance. Take the Olympic performance in track and field between Jamaicans and the Chinese.

You will note that despite a targeted program designed to win as many gold medals as possible China did incredibly poorly in track. I would argue that this is evidence for the fact that while the human foot may be vestige designed for long distance running, other factors such as cardiovascular endurance and physical strength have already begun evolving away from this design. The change is so recent that I believe the degree of this divergence depends on your race.

lqdc133• 10 years ago

Wow... Please do not rely on an animal model to make lifestyle choices.

What this article needed to answer the question was IQ tests conducted possibly right after exercise and later in the day for people exercising in specific ways and not exercising at all.

alwaysAttending• 10 years ago

An IQ test wouldn't indicate more neurons.

lqdc133• 10 years ago

They can infer size with fMRI.

The article claims it's good for the brain. What does it mean to be "good for the brain"?

What people want to know is not how many neurons there are but whether cognition gets better. And that is indeed the case:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21282661

papapra4• 10 years ago

Today there is no way to increase your iq. Exercise may improve your attention, emotion regulation, reduce stress.

oh_sigh4• 10 years ago

That is not true at all. There is a very easy way to increase your IQ - just study for IQ tests!

jey• 10 years ago

This is a misunderstanding of the claims in the article. They are claiming that exercise leads to improved brain function over the course of weeks and months, not that being tired right after doing exercise will improve brain function.

lqdc133• 10 years ago

You cannot apply these things to humans from an animal model. Also, if it works over months you'll see it increasing over months according to the procedure I descibed (and that has been previously done on humans in other studies). If there are short term effects, those would also show up.

cylinder• 10 years ago

The best type of exercise is the one you enjoy enough to make routine.

z3t42• 10 years ago

I think that "having fun" stimulates brain growth. And rats really like running on that wheel.

carleverett• 10 years ago

I think you're right.

Also, I think they understated the impact that the stress of the high intensity interval training simulation would have. Imagine being stuck in a room where the floor below you was moving, at random intervals of walking pace and sprinting pace, with no warning. It would be unbelievably stressful.

The psychological impact of that, versus getting the same type of exercise from playing basketball, seems like it would be hugely different.

gertef2• 10 years ago

How would you test this hypothesis? With a non-physical mental stimuation? Multi-colored paper confetti in the cage, or laser-light shows, to give the rats something to play with?

z3t42• 10 years ago

Maybe if you somehow could measure brain activity and hormones.

vinceguidry2• 10 years ago

The conclusions presented by the article gel with my experience. There is nothing like cardio for helping me think better. Anything more intense forces my mind to concentrate on the exercise. Less intense and I don't really get any benefit from the exercise, might as well be sitting or laying down.

When I did HIIT-style cardio, the train of thought would be broken during the intense periods. I found that doing longer periods of less-intense activity was perfect for braining.

varelse2• 10 years ago

And alas we live in an age where we are scored by a cargo-cult process that mostly rewards sitting at a desk for 8-12 hours a day over producing actual results yet it is somehow called "agile."

Evidence: my last job watching the t-crossers and the i-dotters get promoted over the engineers doing the heavy lifting hence why I left.

RDeckard• 10 years ago

What's "a t-crosser and an i-dotter"?

delecti• 10 years ago

Reasonable intensity cardio might facilitate thinking while you're doing it, but which of the three (high, mid, or low intensity) facilitates your average ability to think when you aren't doing it?

I'm not saying that the answer isn't still mid-intensity, just pointing out that you're not answering the same question.

vinceguidry2• 10 years ago

Probably the same. Haven't done anything like a controlled study on it, so it's hard to tell with any kind of rigor.

driverdan• 10 years ago

Since we're discussing anecdotes, here's mine.

I find aerobic exercise / running extremely boring. My ADD kicks in and my mind wanders like crazy. I find it hard to do because it's so boring.

Anaerobic exercise / lifting weights is the opposite. I focus intensely on what I'm doing. I shut out the world. Time flies by. It's like intense meditation for me with the bonus of building muscle.

xiaoma• 10 years ago

This fits very well with my anecdotal observations throughout my own live in years where I've done more or less exercise of different types.

sunsu• 10 years ago

Anecdotal (and risking downvotes), but my opinion: Brazilian Jiujitsu. It's like Chess for the mind while simultaneously getting an incredible workout.

magic_beans• 10 years ago

Could you elaborate on that? Would you say this is true of most martial arts?

mtrycz• 10 years ago

I don't do BJJ, but am familiar with it and have done some judo.

In contrast to stand-up striking arts, you have limited possibilities of movement when "hugging" your opponent on the ground, so you need to do have a strategy, do some planning, and have to adapt rapidly to changing conditions. Like "what move can I do in the current position?", "what moves could my opponent pull off form this position?", "what moves could I do if I changed to this other position?", etc. etc.

I do believe that you won't find any better than anecdotal evidence for this subject, tho. Expecially if you'd need to compare between arts.

atom-morgan• 10 years ago

I am not currently practicing BJJ (did years ago) but I would agree. Constantly tapping to veterans is very humbling and the mental strength it takes to maneuver another human being as they attempt to maneuver you, while you're completely gassed, makes a lot of other tasks seem trivial.

bduerst• 10 years ago

I did both folkstyle and freestyle wrestling for a time (similar), and have used the chess analogy to describe it before. Two equally weighted opponents on a level playing field, with only their limbs as the different pieces to be moved strategically across the board.

hesdeadjim• 10 years ago

I've known too many people who have had serious injuries from this sport. One colleague is now on permanent disability after a concussion he received while wearing headgear and practicing on a mat. Another friend has chronic shoulder issues that he can't seem to heal from after a couple bad rolls with a few overly aggressive sparring partners.

I think for long-term health and overall fitness BJJ is a tough sell for most people.

d0100• 10 years ago

One colleague is now on permanent disability after a concussion he received while wearing headgear

Wrong BJJ... BJJ is just another form of wrestling, and even then, no head gear is used.

sktrdie• 10 years ago

I wonder if there has been any study regarding the head impact involved with running for long periods of time. I've heard for instance the water-skiing can cause minor brain damage because of the constant bumps in the water. I'm curious because I know that running involves a similar kind of minor - although constant - head impact as your body jumps out of each stride. I have no data to back this up so sorry if I'm just blabbering nonsense.

delazeur• 10 years ago

I would imagine there is a step change somewhere in causing brain damage. I.e., if your brain can withstand a 1.5g impact it can withstand any number of 1.5g impacts, but 2g or 3g impacts lead to cumulative damage.

Then again, I don't know what I'm talking, or where running impacts might fall in that spectrum.

known• 10 years ago

Sudoku

illivah• 10 years ago

What exercise is better for improving my cooking skill? What about the exercise that's best for my alcohol consumption?

If you want to improve your brain, it's important to be healthy, I get that. But come on, the point of exercising is to be healthy. Beyond that no exercise is going to improve your brain directly if it doesn't actually use your brain. This whole movement makes me very skeptical.

Joof• 10 years ago

1) cooking new things / practice

2) decrease: any exercise most likely.

   increase: drinking more alcohol in more places to increase tolerance & conditioning.

etrautmann• 10 years ago

This logic isn't quite right though your intuition is easy to understand.

The thought behind these studies is that exercise leads to the release of certain chemicals, in this case BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor) that leads to new neuron growth. This mechanism is a physiologically reasonable way for exercise to improve your brain without directly using/engaging the neural circuits in a way that would modify learning and memory.

elcapitan• 10 years ago

Obviously, rats are not people.

We'll have a separate study for that.

buro9• 10 years ago

One should probably take care of doing the best exercise for the body first.

jvanderbot• 10 years ago

Great. So if you run a lot (long distance cardio), you get a marked increase in new brain cells. What brain cells? The part of the nervous system that regulates (wait for it) breathing and metabolism.

No kidding.

This is like the study [citation missing] that showed a huge increase in brain cell generation for seniors playing wii fit ... in the area of the brain that regulated fine motor skills.

The "Brain" is not a general-purpose computing resource. Until someone can show that these skill-specific increases can translate to IQ or (better) improved long-term creativity and happiness, take them with a grain of salt.

blennon• 10 years ago

I believe you are mistaken.

Adult neurogenesis has only been shown to occur in three brain regions as far as I know: in the hippocampus (declarative memory and learning)[1], the olfactory bulb (smell)[1] and the striatum (procedural memory and learning) [2].

Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) has been linked to exercise. The conceptual leap which requires empirical validation is that exercise induced neurogenesis in the hippocampus indeed has a positive effect on memory. Maybe those experiments exist.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3106107/ [2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24561062

fluidcruft• 10 years ago

The hippocampus regulates breathing and metabolism?

kozikow• 10 years ago

I know a little about neurology, but their study mentioned increase in hippocampus. Hippocampus Wikipedia entry does not mention that it is responsible for breath or metabolism. Some Google searches list different parts of brain responsible for breath[1] and metabolism[2].

1. http://www.interactive-biology.com/107/what-parts-of-the-bra... 2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothalamus

wodenokoto2• 10 years ago

By that logic, shouldn't the other mice have had increase in brain cells to control breathing and metabolism?

andy_ppp• 10 years ago

There is not enough information in the article to make accurate conclusions about changing your exercise regimen.

The fact is that the body adapts to it's environment and that this study is ABOUT RATS you should remain skeptical to its conclusions!

dghughes• 10 years ago

I used to go to a gym in a mall basement and when I went to go home I could never remember where I parked my car.

If I went to the same mall just to shop I had no problem remember where my car was parked.

Kluny2• 10 years ago

Somehow I have trouble equating a rat climbing a wall with a tiny weight attached to its tail, with a human doing heavy weight lifting.

jsprogrammer• 10 years ago

Why do these need to be equated?

Kluny2• 10 years ago

They said that they were testing for the result of "resistance training" in rats. For rats that means climbing a wall with weights tied to their tails.

However, if a human was going to do resistance training, they would probably do it by lifting weights. There are other ways, I suppose, but that's the main one.

Weightlifting, once you get to higher weights, is a pretty cerebral activity that requires perfect form and close attention to training schedule, repetitions, amount of weight, and diet. It's a very different activity from pulling a weight along because it happens to be attached to your ass and you can't escape it.

tanker• 10 years ago

My takeaway is that different types of exercises might have different effects on the brain. Stronger claims must wait.

And I think that is all the study was meant to determine. Based on the findings, I would support more research on the brain's response to exercise.

whelp• 10 years ago

Sleeping is by far the best exercise for the brain.

unixhero• 10 years ago

Jumping from stone to stone (boulders) is supposed to stimulate and train large parts of the brain.

SonicSoul• 10 years ago

And the weight-training rats, although they were much stronger at the end of the experiment than they had been at the start, showed no discernible augmentation of neurogenesis.

This phenomenon was deeply studied and illustrated in the 'Jersey Shore' series documentary

lsdafjklsd• 10 years ago

Reminds me of an episode of Bones:

a: These are what are known as "Guidos.

b: (chuckles) Yeah, Sweetie, I don't think they actually like to be called that.

a: But they do.

a: That's what they call themselves, although interestingly, not all Guidos are of Italian descent.

b: Really?

a: While the styles and mannerisms are based on Italian-American tropes, the Guidos can be of any ethnic background.

a: They gather at the Jersey Shore.

a: The male bonding is near homoerotic.

a: The friends or "bros" are more important to them than family.

b: Right.

b: And how do you know all of this?

a: I stumbled across a compelling documentary about them.

a: The anthropologist in me was fascinated.

robotnik• 10 years ago

Stress can inhibit neurogenesis (among other things) in the hippocampus, as the article states. Is it possible that HIIT was not as beneficial for the rodents, because they were, unlike the moderate exercisers, forced to exercise? Being forced to exercise intensely might have been the real source of stress.

jjallen2• 10 years ago

Having a weight strapped to your tail could definitely be stressful too.

thesz2• 10 years ago

For humans it is different.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3772595/ - brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) serum level increase for what can be considered high intensity exercise.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/723059 - resistance training induce BDNF release, from all of the body. BDNF can cross brain-blood barrier.

Rodents are easy to experiment with, but quite distant from humans in actual metabolism.

bonniemuffin• 10 years ago

This struck me as the most important potential difference -- that the moderate-intensity rats were able to make choices about when and how to exercise, while the HIIT rats had exercise forced upon them.

It reminds me of Rat Park -- when you stress out rats by treating them poorly, all you end up measuring is the effect of misery on rat physiology.

agentgt• 10 years ago

Previous relevant HN post: "Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10594516

IMO I think squats are superior to running for overall health.

jjallen2• 10 years ago

So it turns out different kinds of exercise are more or less beneficial for different parts of our bodies, probably ("probably" because the study was in rats only). I reminded myself while reading that article to remember that what may be best for the brain is not necessarily the best for our cardiovascular systems and others.

personjerry• 10 years ago

How does taking long walks compare to running?

ativzzz• 10 years ago

The article stated that rats who ran more miles had more neurogenesis. So my guess would be walking = less distance than running = less benefit.

But this is too much of a simplification. If you walk a mile in 15 minutes and run a mile in 7.5, is there a difference? Maybe not, but if you run, you can then run two miles in the same 15 minutes and increase your efficiency.

kazinator7• 10 years ago

You wouldn't do interval training without a mileage base. There is no either/or there.

I follow the rule of thumb that no more than 3% of the weekly mileage consists of hard repeats. So for instance a weekly mileage of 30 "buys" about a mile of repeats, which could be, say, 4x400 at the track. Some intermediate percentage of the mileage is tempo running, say 15 to 20%. The rest, easy miles.

This is just the traditional "training pyramid".

joelthelion• 10 years ago

Some people do. Check the "seven minute workout" for an example.

krisroadruck• 10 years ago

Mental exersize?

kmicklas• 10 years ago

I'm skeptical that the "weight training" routine was at all adequate. Climbing a wall with weights attached to you is nothing like a set of heavy squats.

eggy• 10 years ago

I agree. I used to just use free weights for upper body, and only calf raises, and machines for leg presses and quads, but when I started squatting with just a barbell (non-guided), my lower back pain went away, and standing up off the mattress I had on the floor became a breeze. I jump rope and run as well (barefoot or with FiveFingers by Vibram). I find jumping rope to be a great way to get in 20 min. intense cardio to music. My last job was diving and fixing underwater hydraulics and electrical systems, and always walking with about maybe 3 hours sitting at a desk per day. Jumping rope, or the run, made me feel sharp many hours after. Sometimes weights would make me focus, and be very clear, but I tired and became groggy afterwards. I suspect your body takes a hit, and wants you to sleep to repair all the muscle you tore down.

melted• 10 years ago

The best exercise for the brain is the kind you won't give up doing after a month or two.

mannykannot• 10 years ago

If you want exercise that will give you something of a mental workout as well, try orienteering.

Which Type of Exercise Is Best for the Brain?

Related Stories