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What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter?
- trapper 17y agoI would wager that a "fit" worker is more productive than a sedentary worker, even taking into account the time for training.
- randallsquared 17y agoThat 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).
- abas 17y agoBeing 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.
- zargon 17y agoBeing fat does mean you aren't fit. Being thin is necessary but not sufficient for physical fitness.
- jyellin 17y agoI suppose that the first step to "getting fit", or in other words living a wellness oriented lifestyle, is to actually define what this means to you in your world. My belief is that "change" starts from within, which means that you can eat all of the right food and exercise on a consistent basis, and still not be "well." The change that I was referring to is the space between your eyes, controlling how you think, also known as tangebalizing (I made this word up) your thoughts. Can you imagine having the literally controlling how you think and how you perceive a situation? Because you can and the first step to eliciting change is realizing that you were born with all of the tools to evoke this type of result...
- TrevorJ 17y agoI am not sure why you are being down voted, unless people are equating this with being able to 'think' your reality into existence. We can't magically effect the world around us with our thoughts, but it is the thoughts that control the actions we take, so in a very real sense it does need to start from the mind.
- jyellin 17y agoI was slightly confused as well...and I appreciate your support!
- dimas 17y agoI agree that thoughts cannot control the world with our thoughts, however keep in mind that Since the early 1930's, psychologists have known that the brain emits electromagnetic waves . There is no scientific evidence that it has any impact on materialistic outcome but there is no evidence that it does not either. I know it is totally unscientific and I would say more philosophical thinking but there is a possibility that someday we will discover that our thought might have some impact on the outer world. This is one of the main concept that new age philosophy manipulates. Also our thoughts not only control our action as far as our body goes but also effect biochemistry of our brain that might affect how our body reacts to it. For example depressing thought might lead to certain physiological disorders.
- randallsquared 17y agoThere is no scientific evidence that it has any impact on materialistic outcome but there is no evidence that it does not either. Absence of evidence is evidence of absence, especially if you have a cottage industry devoted to looking for evidence, fruitlessly.
- dimas 17y agoMany discovered facts that are known today did not have any evidence years ago what does not indicate its absence today. Absence of results of searching industries is not an indicator thus it takes many years and many intermediate discoveries before some hypothesize are proven. Keeping mind open to possibilities is the engine of progress and discovery.
- randallsquared 17y agoWell, not being fat doesn't mean you are fit, but being fat is certainly incompatible with being fit. I speak as a fat guy who's probably less unfit than 95% of people at my weight (over 320 lbs): I'm still not "fit".
- abas 17y agoI guess it depends on how fitness is defined. I would say a person can definitely have good cardiovascular fitness while being fat. They could also have strong muscles, low blood pressure, low cholesterol, normal glucose levels and generally be healthy. I would describe that as being fit. Seems like weight should be considered one indicator of fitness but not the most important one.
- SwellJoe 17y agoIs it wrong that I chuckled at this revelation that gives new meaning to your nick, "randallsquared"?
- randallsquared 17y agoHeh. People used to spontaneously call me that when I was a kid (due to my name "Randall Randall" rather than my size, I expect), and it's way easier to google for. :)
- SwellJoe 17y agomy name "Randall Randall" I'm not sure if that's cruelty or awesome on the part of your parents. I'm leaning towards awesome.
- ojbyrne 17y agoCurious if you've read Catch-22. One of my favorite characters in the book was called "Major Major" (and of course his rank was Major). At some point they managed to get a 4th one on the end too.
- 17y ago
- myth_drannon 17y ago"Mens sana in corpore sano" - a healthy mind in a healthy body
- c00p3r 17y agoDifferent. Literally.
- Novash 17y agoPlay Go, Chess, Sudoku and Dual-N Back. Learn another language. Learn to play an instrument. All this can make you 'smarter'.
- mediaman 17y agoInterestingly, 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.
- Novash 17y agoIf 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).
- logicalmind 17y agoBased on your theory, Usain Bolt must be extremely intelligent.
- cruise02 17y agoThat conclusion really doesn't follow from the stated proposition. The proposition is that doing sprints will make you smarter than you are now, not that it will make you smarter than someone else who doesn't do them. The only conclusion about Usain Bolt that you can reach from the stated proposition is that he's now smarter than he was before he started sprinting. </pedantry>
- 17y ago
- latortuga 17y agoIt 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 17y agoThe 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".
- dpapathanasiou 17y agoI'm surprised the article didn't mention martial arts training: it's terrific for improving mental relaxation and awareness.
- SwellJoe 17y agoIt 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.
- dpapathanasiou 17y agoIt would also likely be difficult to get mice to do martial arts. Cute.
- figital 17y agoI'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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_gym
- gibsonf1 17y agoP90x 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 17y agoCan 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 17y 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 17y agoMy 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.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]