4 Surprising Ways Exercise Alters Your Brain
We all know that exercise and physical activity in general, are fantastic when it comes to improving our physical health. Exercise not only assists with the loss of excess body fat, it also helps to reduce blood pressure, strengthen the heart, improve lung capacity, balance your hormones, and much more besides.
Yes, it’s obvious that exercise is very important from a physical standpoint, but what about a psychological perspective? Well, it turns out that exercise doesn’t just improve physical health, it’s also fantastic at boosting a person’s mental health as well.
Exercise offers a wide range of cognitive health benefits for the brain and mind, and can alter our brain chemistry in a plethora of different ways.
Ever wondered what happens in our brain when we exercise? Here’s a look at 4 surprising ways in which exercise alters our brain.
Exercise Allows You to Experience More Joy
One of the best ways in which exercise can affect our brains, is down to the fact that it enables the brain to experience more joy.
Exercise helps provide a kick to the brain’s reward centres, where we anticipate and experience happiness and joy. The more exercise we do, the more this helps to re-train the brain, enabling it to experience more joy and happiness.
Exercise not only helps to produce feelings of happiness through the release of endorphins such as dopamine, it also makes the brain more sensitive to these endorphins, and heightens the brain’s pleasure responses. Basically, exercise not only helps us to feel happier, but it also makes it easier for us to feel happy and experience joy.
Exercise Boosts Focus and Concentration
Another way in which exercise can affect the brain is down to how it helps to enhance levels of focus and concentration.
Numerous studies have found that exercise can help to increase reaction times while simultaneously enhancing levels of focus and concentration. This effect happens virtually right away, and can last for as long as 2 hours after a workout.
Experts also believe that exercise can provide long-term increases in our levels of focus and concentration, meaning that exercise can increase cognitive focus and boost concentration levels years down the line.
Exercise Can Improve Memory
Not only does exercise help improve your mood and enhance your levels of focus and concentration, it can also improve your memory.
Regular exercise helps to boost parts of the brain and molecular targets including BDNF, or brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This growth factor enables the synthesis of new synapses which assist with memory and learning within the brain.
The more BDNF you produce, the greater your memory will be. Exercise enables you to boost the amount of BDNF you produce, which means that by exercising you are also helping to improve your memory. Decades down the line, you’ll be so glad that you did.
Exercise Boosts Mental Health
Not only does exercise help to improve your mood, it can also potentially help to improve your mental health.
Exercise helps to reduce the impact of stress on the body, reducing the number of stress receptors in the brain. This means that the brain is less susceptible to the effects of stress, thereby reducing the impact of potential stress triggers.
Not only that, but exercise also triggers the production of neurotransmitters and endorphins such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine. These neurotransmitters have been found to reduce levels of stress and anxiety and can help you to relax.
Add to this, the fact that exercise also assists with a good night’s sleep, and it’s easy to see why so many people swear by regular exercise as a way of improving their mental health.