Brain Power Exercise You Can Do Now

Want to lose 3 pounds right now?  Stop using your brain power.   Your mind weighs approximately 3 pounds and if you don’t use it, you lose it. Well maybe not the weight, but its amazing ability to help you move, to think and remember. Most of us have it backwards.  We age and therefore stop moving. It’s more like, stop exercising and you age.  If you could hear your body-mind talk, the conversation would go something like this, “Get a move on and stimulate my brain power cells to grow, connect and keep me young.”

Contrary to age old beliefs, aging does not have to come with loss of memory, mental decline and decreased brain power.  Scientists now believe that decreased mental capacity comes from diminished stimulation to the brain. 

A healthy neuron is linked to literally tens of thousands of other neurons, creating a  hundred trillion connections – each with the ability to perform 200 calculations per second! But neurons don’t only connect with other neurons, they connect with muscles at a little meeting place called the neuromuscular junction and this is vital to your ability to move.  The great news is you can stimulate fresh neurons in old age because brains have what is called ‘plasticity,’ the ability to change, to grow and to adapt to the challenges you feed it.  Mental decline due to age usually is often a result of physical inactivity and a lack of mental stimulation.

The word exercise means to ward off.  How appropriate:  because when you exercise, your blood circulation increases: sending more oxygen and brain feeding blood sugar (glucose) to your brain. This results in a domino effect of increasing blood vessels in your brain. Your choice of exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous.  Although one that is specifically designed for the brain will give you better results.  Studies have shown that people who are reasonably active have a significant advantage regarding memory over people who are sedentary.  Occupational therapists (therapists who specialize in improving people’s function) have also studied specific exercises to find that certain type of exercises increased both brain functioning and decreased brain attack by 57%. 

Specific exercises have even shown to be successful as a preventative measure to Alzheimer’s. Even more interesting is that couch potatoes are twice as likely to develop dementia.  In order to reap the benefits of increased brain power, mental alertness, and neuron growth, you need to unlock the door to exercise - period.  Open your mind and give yourself the opportunity.  You are what you believe to yourself to be.  No matter what your age or your fitness level.   Whether you are 40 or 70:   prevention is the doorway to a healthy mind. I just gave you the key.  Take Charge and be Healthwise, Exercise.

Kick and Scream Your Way to a Younger Body

So you're older now and here's what you can expect.

It's harder to work off that spare tire.   You're hair thins and then falls out, muscles weaken from disuse, vision becomes blurred, hearing is diminished, balance is off center, bones thin, joints become arthritic and your skin gets wrinkles. Whew! I think I'll just go back to bed.

Now not so fast. All is not lost, at least not yet. There is nothing we can do about getting older, but there is plenty you can do about aging. Getting older doesn't mean we can't age without kicking and screaming the whole way.

Here's what I propose you get yourself used to. Exercise, some kind of exercise, every day. Now if you're thinking, "But I've never exercised a day in my life, why start now?"  Go look in the mirror. Compare that image to the old photo of you at the beach 20 years ago. Yeah, I know. This only happens to other people. Sorry, it's happened to you.  But exercise is not just about looks, it's about staying healthy and functionally fit.  

Exercise and proper care of your skin can significantly reduce and slow down the aging process inside and out. Let's take a look under the microscope & see what's going on inside you and every human being that's getting older.

You've got chromosomes with genes in them. On the ends of these gene strands are what's called telomeres (DNA). These little telomeres act just like those plastic wraps, or caps, around the ends of your shoelaces. As we age the telomeres deteriorate and the shoelaces (chromosomes) begins to fray and come apart as they continually replicate themselves.

During cell division, enzymes that duplicate the chromosome and its DNA cannot continue their duplication all the way to the end of the chromosome. If cells divided without telomeres, they would lose the ends of their chromosomes, and the necessary information they contain. The telomeres are disposable buffers blocking the ends of the chromosomes and are consumed during cell division and replenished by an enzyme called telomerase. When this happens some of the DNA is lost and genes deteriorate which promotes the symptoms of aging.

There is no known way to reverse this process but there are many ways to fight it. Five small meals a day instead of three big ones. If you're not a construction worker, don't eat like one. Keep it light and low cal. Perform weight bearing exercises, start light and work your way up to heavier loads. No matter what your age is your muscles will respond to lifting weights, period. Exercising helps to maintain hormonal balance. All the hormones flowing through your blood increase and help your organs operate to their best ability. It's like putting high test gas in your bloodstream; you'll run like a top.

Thirty minutes a day of exercise is enough to get your hormones pumping. It's also very important to stretch after exercise of any type. Keeping the range of motion in your arms and legs are what help you keep doing the things you love most. Applying skin care products to your face and body will keep your skin smooth and clear. This is good advice for men too.

All this sounds like a bunch of extra work but the payoff at the end of the day is you'll sleep like a baby. Say goodbye to insomnia and any other sleep disorders you may have. Want to know why? Because you're going to be pooped! But you'll wake up with more energy, a younger body and a sharper mind. That's something that no pill on earth can offer.

Copyright © 2011 Functional Fitness starring Suzanne Andrews