There is an overwhelming mountain of evidence to support the proposition that exercise is good for you. You can build strength and endurance with strenuous exercise. Depending on what you want the exercise to do for you, one form of exercise may be better than another.
For example, if your goal is to have the body of a Greek god or Mr. Universe contest winner, you will probably need to hit the gym for a couple of hours at least three times a week, working with the free weights, bar bells, and Nautilus machines.
If, on the other hand, your goal is to optimize your cardiovascular fitness, you should engage in activities that get you breathing hard. These might include running, swimming, fast break basketball, or cross-country skiing. High cardiovascular fitness will improve your overall health, resistance to disease, and endurance. It will make you physically stronger. Recent research has discovered that it can also make your mentally stronger. It can cause important components of your brain to grow.
The January 2020 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings contains a paper by Katharina Wittfeld and colleagues from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases titled Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Gray Matter Volume in the Temporal, Frontal, and Cerebellar Regions in the General Population. The paper describes a study of 2,103 adults between 21 and 84 years of age. The participants were tested for cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and detailed MRI scans of their brains were made. CRF affects the circulatory and respiratory systems’ ability to deliver oxygen during physical activity. The results of the study are interesting.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) fifty million people worldwide are affected by dementia. Physical inactivity has been identified as one of seven risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. Such inactivity leads to low CRF and is also associated with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, depression, and cancer mortality.
Wow! What a list of things to be avoided at all costs. There is plenty of reason here to maintain a high level of CRF, even if doing so did not make you smarter. However, the MRI scans that were done in this study showed an unanticipated effect. People with a higher level of CRF showed increases in brain volume in important areas of the brain. Greater gray matter volumes were measured in the hippocampus/parahippocampus, the temporal gyrus, the fusiform gyrus, the cingulate cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex, the cerebellum, the left caudate nucleus, and the left thalamus. These areas have various functions, including memory, stress regulation, decision making, face recognition, as well as emotional and reward-based behaviors.
It appears that cardiorespiratory fitness does more than just enable you to run faster and longer. It also helps your ability to think and may stave off any tendency for you to slip into dementia as you age.
BIO:
Allen G. Taylor is a 40-year veteran of the computer industry and the author of over 40 books, including Develop Microsoft HoloLens Apps Now, Get Fit with Apple Watch, Cruise for Free, SQL For Dummies, 9thEdition, Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies, Database Development For Dummies, Access Power Programming with VBA, and SQL All-In-One For Dummies, Third Edition. He lectures internationally on astronomy, databases, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He also teaches database development and Crystal Reports through a leading online education provider. For the latest news on Allen’s activities, check out his blog at wwwallengtaylor.com or contact him at allen.taylor@ieee.org.