Sprinting Jump Starts Your Brain
by Looking for an immediate way to help your brain? Sprinting is favored over low intensity walking or jogging and has long term positive effects, too.
Looking for the best aerobic exercise to help your brain. Sprint. Speed up your low intensity walk or jog on the treadmill. You get an immediate surge in brain capacity. Have a problem you need to work out, getting ready to give a presentation at work, or a tough test to pass, then sprint on the treadmill, elliptical, bike, outside, or punch the kickboxing bag at a fast pace.
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A major public health priority is to explore brain function in order to prevent the coming epidemic of dementia and the personality changes, loss of memory, confusion and loss of physical function that 24·3 million people are suffering from now, (one new case every 7 seconds) and estimated to increase to 81·1 million by 2040. (1) “Exercise ensures successful brain function” through “regulation of growth factors and reduction of peripheral and central risk factors, like diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.” (2)
Physical exercise increases brain function and lowers the risk of dementia. 2/3 of people don’t exercise at all and for those who do, the best aerobic exercise for short term brain function is to sprint. Immediately after sprinting, you are 20% better at learning compared to low intensity aerobic running. BDNF neurotrophic factors increase as well, and dopamine and epinephrine increased in the intermediate and long-term, suggesting that sprinting is a strong mediator for optimal brain function.(3) BDNF neurotrophic factors have a protective role against toxicity (4) and are important for long-term memory. (5) Dopamine and epinephrine are neurotransmitters important for a variety of tasks in the brain.
Long term benefits of exercise for the brain are well established, however this article is translating a very specific result, namely that sprinting has an immediate, significant positive effect on the brain. A sprint or an interval consists of speeding up for 30 seconds or a minute, then slowing down for a rest, then speeding up again. Do it until you are tired, but even just one will jump start your brain. Can’t get outside or to the gym, stuck in your office, then try running in place fast, or shadow box, or play air guitar. Those brief and fast movements send send a positive stream of biochemicals to your brain.
(1) The Lancet, December 2005
(2) Trends in Neurosciences, September 2007
(3) Neurobiology of Learning and Memory May 2007
(4) Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences May 2008
(5) Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. Feb 2008
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