imagine you are offered to give up 30 minutesof your morning time in exchange for free a magic pill. the pill improves your learning capabilityreduce your anxiety and stress improves your mood and motivation and generally it makesyou a better version of yourself for the rest of the day. so would you take that offer? well what i just described is the reason whyyou should exercise. when you think of exercising the first thingsthat comes to your mind are the benefits or maybe losing weight or having a healthierheart.
but the real benefits of exercise happen inthe brain. so what is the brain for anyway? you may think it's about solving math problemsor creating a new smartphone app that will make you are millionaire. but neuroscientist daniel wolpert says thatour brain is for one thing only: to produce adaptable and complex movement. thats it! the koala is a great example. in the past it had a much bigger brain butonce it adapted it’s digestive system to derive all the energy it needs from eucalyptusleaves, it didn’t had to move as much, less
movement meant less brain activity and itsbrain shrunk. studies has shown that there is a very powerfulconnection between the brain and movement. a big brain is needed to facilitate complexmovements, and executing such movements and getting your heart rate up enhances your brainpower. exercise has been shown to help people betterdeal with stress and anxiety, improved mood, focus and motivation. a 2007 study has shown that exercise alsoprimes the brain to learn faster. subjects who did high intensity training beforehandwere able to learn vocabulary 20% faster than those who remained sedentary.
this phenomenon is due to a protein calledbrain derived neurotrophic factor or bdnf for short. bdnf helps to support the survival of existingneurons, and encourages the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses. in the brain, it is active in the hippocampus,cortex, and basal forebrain—areas vital to learning, memory, and higher thinking. a 2013 study showed that only 20 to 40 minutesof aerobic exercise increased the bdnf in the blood by around 32%. so the reason why exercise is a key triggerfor all kinds of positive effects in the brain,
particularly learning, is because movementsignals to the brain that something important is happening. maybe not in modern times, but in the pastthe reason to move was for the sake of survival. you move to escape a predator, to find bettershelter, hunt for food et cetera. and while moving its in your best interestto remember the lay of the land so you don't get lost and you can locate forageable foodagain. when attacked by a predator you better remember which path was most efficient to escape, so you can prevent yourself frombecoming a tigers meal the next time. when you are sitting on your couch watchingtelevision you signal your brain that nothing
important is happening and it's time for rest. exercise also affects the areas of the brainresponsible for motivation and action. the reward center is one of the most importantareas in the brain. dopamine is a key player in the reward system. from evolutionary perspective dopamine isreleased when we expect some kind of reward, it makes us want to do stuff, and it reassuresus that the thing we did was worth doing. so if your reward center is not working properly,you might have hard time to get things done. if your brain doesn’t expect reward andfulfilment from something it won't justify doing it.
there are pills that can help with this, butyou don't have to buy any kind of drugs to get your reward system going. studies show that exercise boost motivationby increasing dopamine storage and increasing the creation of dopamine receptors in thereward center. it might not make you stay up all night ina studying frenzy like adderall, but it will give you more willpower and focus to do thoselittle things that don't usually feel rewarding. but even though your reward center might beworking just fine, you are feeling great, and you are satisfied with your ability tolearn, you can still improve all of these areas.
when you exercise you might not feel a drasticchange all of a sudden, but later on you will look back and notice the difference in learningspeed, mood, focus and you will get more things done. now that you know all the benefits of exercise,it's up to you whether or not you will take the magic pill and improve your life or youwill stay the same and get the same results you've always had. anyway if you want to learn how muscles workand actually grow when exercising you should go over to my friend at food for thought andwatch his video on this topic! and if you don't want to miss my upcomingvideos make sure to subscribe.
anyway thanks for watching and i'll see younext time.
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