It is my strong belief that it is virtually impossible to achieve
optimal health without some type of regular exercise program..
As you age, there is the potential for your brain function
to steadily decline, leaving you confused and unable to care
for yourself. However, your lifestyle, and specifically your
dedication to regular exercise, can do wonders to keep your
brain in top form, even later in life.
Impressive Brain Benefits from Exercise
In the latest pair of studies to document the positive effects
that physical exercise has on brain function, it was found that
performing moderate exercise, such as aerobics, tai chi ki gong
and strength training during midlife lead to a 39 percent decreased
risk of developing mild cognitive impairment.
Moderate exercise late in life was associated with a 32 percent
lower risk.
The second study even found that high-intensity aerobic exercise
for six months was enough to improve brain function in those
already suffering from mild cognitive impairment -- without
the extra cost and dangerous side effects that occur when drugs
are used instead. The authors stated:
"Six months of a behavioral intervention involving regular
intervals of increased heart rate was sufficient to improve
cognitive performance for an at-risk group without the cost
and adverse effects associated with most pharmaceutical therapies."
These are impressive results, considering that mild cognitive
impairment affects about 20 percent of people over 70, according
to the American College of Physicians. This condition often
causes memory problems and blips in language, reasoning, judgment,
and even reading and writing.
Mild cognitive impairment is often described as a transitory
phase between normal brain function and more serious problems
like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. While 1 percent
to 2 percent of people develop dementia, this rate rises to
10-15 percent among those with mild cognitive impairment.
So the more you can do to keep your brain functioning at its
peak, and avoid any type of cognitive impairment whatsoever,
the better off you will be.
How Does Exercise Protect Your Brain?
Exercise encourages your brain to work at optimum capacity
by causing your nerve cells to multiply, strengthening their
interconnections and protecting them from damage.
Lab tests on animals have shown that during exercise, their
nerve cells release proteins known as neurotrophic factors.
One in particular, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor
or BDNF, triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural
health. Further, exercise provides protective effects to your
brain through:
* The production of nerve-protecting compounds
* Greater blood flow to your brain
* Improved development and survival of neurons
* Decreased risk of heart and blood vessel diseases
A regular exercise program can also slow the development of
Alzheimer's disease by altering the way damaging proteins reside
in your brain. In animal studies, significantly fewer damaging
plaques and fewer bits of beta-amyloid peptides, associated
with Alzheimer's, were found in mice that exercised.
Four Principles of Exercise
Your body is an efficient machine, and if you do the same
type of exercise day after day, you’ll become quite good
at it. However, when exercise becomes easy to complete, it’s
a sign you need to work a little harder and give your body a
new challenge.
So when you’re planning your exercise routine, make
sure it incorporates the following types of exercise:
1. Aerobic: Jogging and walking fast are
all examples of aerobic exercise. As you get your heart pumping,
the amount of oxygen in your blood improves, and endorphins,
which act as natural painkillers, increase. Meanwhile, aerobic
exercise activates your immune system, helps your heart pump
blood more efficiently, and increases your stamina over time.
2. Interval (Anaerobic) Training: Research
is showing that the BEST way to condition your heart and burn
fat is NOT to jog or walk steadily for an hour. Instead, it’s
to alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle
recovery periods. That is one of the primary reasons I am so
fond of the Classic Martial Art exercises.
This type of exercise, known as interval training or burst
type training, can dramatically improve your cardiovascular
fitness and fat-burning capabilities.
Another major benefit of this approach is that it radically
decreases the amount of time you spend exercising, while giving
you even more benefits. For example, intermittent sprinting
produces high levels of chemical compounds called catecholamines,
which allow more fat to be burned from under your skin within
the exercising muscles. The resulting increase in fat oxidation
increases weight loss. So, short bursts of activity done at
a very high intensity can help you reach your optimal weight
and level of fitness, in a shorter amount of time.
3 . Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise
program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that
you're really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular
exercise program.
You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight
should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12
repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions.
It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups
every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair
and rebuild.
4. Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles
located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group
of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your
entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support
your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and
help you gain greater balance and stability.
Our exercise programs are great for strengthening your core
muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal
trainer.
You might be aware that we offer Ki Gong - Tai Chi classes
to round up your physical and mental training and find the correct
counter balance to your stress.
Focusing on your breath and mindfulness along with increasing
your flexibility is an important element of total fitness.
Is Staying Motivated an Issue for You?
More than half of U.S. adults don’t get the recommended
amount of exercise, and one out of four don’t exercise
at all.
The most common reason why people say they don’t exercise?
A lack of time.
Unfortunately, not enough people are willing to arrange their
schedules around exercise, and this is due to something much
deeper than time management -- it’s due to psychological
resistance.
No matter what reason you have for not exercising –
feeling it’s too hard, getting bored with your routine,
not knowing where to start – you can help yourself get
into a more positive frame of mind by giving the Ki Gong - Tai
Chi a try. It can help you remove the negative emotional blocks
that are preventing you from successfully implementing your
program.
Further, instead of focusing on the negatives, like the work
and the time it takes to stay active, focus on how great you’ll
feel once exercise becomes a regular part of your life.
In case you weren’t aware, exercise does far more than
just assist in weight loss. I’m going to list some of
the many, many things exercise can do for your mind and body.
Go ahead and print this list out, send it to your exercise
buddy or take it with you to our dojang (Martial Arts Academy).
Then, whenever you’re thinking of quitting, take a look.
These benefits are just too good to pass up.
1.Improve your brainpower
2.Lower your blood pressure
3.Fight off a cold
4.Manage arthritis
5.Lower your risk of heart disease
6.Cure insomnia
7.Fight depression
8.Lower your risk of diabetes and reverse pre-diabetes
9.Build strong bones
10.Lose weight
11.Reduce your risk of cancer
12.Boost your IQ and think better
13.Relieve chronic knee pain
14.Increase your energy levels
15.Slow down your aging process
Get Started - your body and mind will thank you and start taking
control over your life.
