What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/what-sort-of-exercise-can-make-you-smarter/?hp

by robg • 17 years ago

66 58 17 years ago

well.blogs.nytimes.com

trapper• 17 years ago

I would wager that a "fit" worker is more productive than a sedentary worker, even taking into account the time for training.

randallsquared6• 17 years ago

That depends strongly on the amount of time it takes for getting fit, doesn't it? In my experience in Basic for the Army, even very high levels of exercise do not prevent one from putting on fat ("Oh, just eat as much as you want; they'll work it off you!", I was told. I believed them. I shouldn't have).

abas2• 17 years ago

Being fat doesn't mean you aren't fit.

I've been thin my whole life, but am working to get fit now after a year or two of largely sedentary existence and it is making a big difference for me.

myth_drannon• 17 years ago

"Mens sana in corpore sano" - a healthy mind in a healthy body

c00p3r• 17 years ago

Different. Literally.

Novash4• 17 years ago

Play Go, Chess, Sudoku and Dual-N Back. Learn another language. Learn to play an instrument. All this can make you 'smarter'.

mediaman2• 17 years ago

Interestingly, I remember one study that tested the effects of "brain games" versus exercise on the mental cognition of people as they age. The result of the study surprised me because it indicated that brain games do not seem to have a significant impact on the prevention of cognitive decline among the aged, but aerobic exercise did -- which, in some sense, aligns with this article.

Apologies in advance because I am having trouble finding the citation.

Edit: based on some searching, it appears that mental exercise does enhance neurological function among seniors. However, aerobic exercise has an equal or greater impact. I suspect combining both would be the best.

Novash4• 17 years ago

If you want to do an interesting experience, doing sprints teach your brain to think faster (because it has to keep up with the information of your steps).

andreyf• 17 years ago

Wow! That is interesting. Would love to see that citation there... was this it?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/01/010117074808.ht...

amichail2• 17 years ago

Bilingualism has a major disadvantage:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=648393

biohacker422• 17 years ago

I wouldn't call that major

tel• 17 years ago

Not quite. I would argue the total opposite in fact.

The cited study postulates in the discussion that Tip of Tongue events come from simple reduced frequency of use in any given word stemming from a much larger lexicon. There's no evidence at all suggest that there's actually a neurological disadvantage to bilingualism.

Also, it seems pretty counterintuitive to think that practice in an entirely new cognitive arena, something like a new language, could do anything but improve your ability to process language. If there's a paper out there I'd love to read it.

latortuga• 17 years ago

It would seem that the last sentence of the article isn't substantiated by the study and sounds rather off the cuff. I wish they wouldn't make a sweeping generalization based on a specific study or two; the human body just isn't that simple.

xiaoma• 17 years ago

The last sentence of the article is a direct quotation from Chauying J. Jen (任卓穎), the co-author of the research. It's very doubtful that Jen's analysis of the results of his own study are "off the cuff".

dpapathanasiou2• 17 years ago

I'm surprised the article didn't mention martial arts training: it's terrific for improving mental relaxation and awareness.

SwellJoe3• 17 years ago

It didn't mention it because the study wasn't about martial arts. It would also likely be difficult to get mice to do martial arts.

dpapathanasiou2• 17 years ago

It would also likely be difficult to get mice to do martial arts.

Cute.

figital• 17 years ago

I've tried Brain Gym a few times with a licensed instructor and found it to be quite helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_gym

gibsonf1• 17 years ago

P90x has given me amazing results both mentally and physically, so I think the article is right on. (The program is split between muscle building and aerobics, including Kenpo and Yoga as well as good old push ups and pull ups and dumbbells, etc.)

jpwagner• 17 years ago

Can they show that it was because of the "exercise" and not the adrenaline rush of being forced to move your body torturously and indefinitely by a power much greater than you? among other possibilities...

kingkongrevenge• 17 years ago

> Jen says researchers suspect that treadmill running is more intense and leads to improvements in muscle aerobic capacity, and this increased aerobic capacity, in turn, affects the brain more than the wheel jogging.

So the subjects didn't know how to lift and the researchers didn't know how to instruct the subjects to lift. The suggestion that a proper 20 minute lifting session would be less intense than 20 minutes on a treadmill is ridiculous. Done correctly lifting will leave you gasping for air.

donw• 17 years ago

My vote is for rock climbing. A lot of tech people do it, and it takes serious problem-solving skills. Figuring out how to contort your body to be able to extend your reach that last inch towards the next hold, and how to position yourself to move after that, takes a lot of thinking.

Plus, it's an amazing whole-body workout.

What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter?

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