A Simple Way to Boost Your Brain

Want a bigger brain?

A new study out of Washington University School of Medicine found that more physical activity correlated with larger brain size in healthy adults 🧠

This was based on MRI brain scans of 10,125 men and women (average age 53). The more days they exercised, the larger their brains were in key areas.

Most of the study participants exercised 4 days per week, but the researchers said that even small amounts of exercise (like walking 4000 steps per day) were beneficial.

We don’t always see the results of our efforts immediately, but taking care of our health will pay off in the long run 👟

Reference

Raji CA, Meysami S, Hashemi S, et al. Exercise-Related Physical Activity Relates to Brain Volumes in 10,125 Individuals. J Alzheimers Dis. Published online December 7, 2023. [link]

12 Indoor Exercises for Winter

12 Indoor Exercises to Avoid the Cold 🥶

Movement is essential to health! If you don’t want to brave the cold and don’t have a gym membership, here are some things that anybody can do in their own living room:

🔹 Jump Rope

🔹 Push-Ups

🔹 Jumping Jacks

🔹 Squats

🔹 Run in Place

🔹 Free Weights

🔹 Skip

🔹 Dance

🔹 Stretch

🔹 Shake

🔹 Yoga

🔹 Push-Ups

Health is not hard. You just have to commit.

You've got this! 🙌

How to Get Out of a Funk!

Can movement shift your mindset?

For sure!

💃Break out of a mental funk by turning on some music and dancing it out

🏃 Shift negative thinking with a good workout or run

🏋️‍♂️ Push yourself a little extra hard to train your brain you really can change

We love to compartmentalize our health—thinking that physical health is separate from mental health—when actually they are intimately and intricately connected.

Comment below and tell me your favorite way to get moving! ⤵️

Exercise & Stress: Good or Bad?

Should I exercise when I’m stressed?

There are a lot of mixed messages out there, so let’s look at some facts. 

Intense exercise causes a temporary increase in stress hormones BUT:

✅ The cortisol spike during intense exercise reduces the cortisol response to subsequent stressors in life AND

✅ Exercise releases endorphins, which naturally combat stress AND

✅ Regular exercise over time supports a healthy cortisol rhythm. 

Some exercises, like yoga and tai chi, combat stress by putting the nervous system into a more parasympathetic state.  

So, for most people, exercise helps to combat stress. 

Exercise only becomes a problem when it’s extreme and intense—particularly in people who are already stressed by other things in life. 

It’s all about looking at the big picture! 

Morning vs. Evening Exercise: New Research

Does it matter when you exercise?

It’s always great when we can work smarter and not harder to reach the same goal, right?

When it comes to exercise, we know that physical activity reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but here’s a new study that looks at whether it matters what time of day we exercise.

After looking at data from 93,000+ healthy adults (from the UK Biobank), the results showed…

✅ Morning & afternoon physical activity were associated with a 9%-10% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

❌ Evening physical activity was not associated with a lower diabetes risk.

I’m not suggesting you ditch your evening walk, but this study suggests we get the most bang for our buck when we move our bodies earlier in the day.

What’s your exercise preference—early or late?

Reference

Tian C, Bürki C, Westerman KE, Patel CJ. Association between timing and consistency of physical activity and type 2 diabetes: a cohort study on participants of the UK Biobank [published online ahead of print, 2023 Sep 20]. Diabetologia. 2023. [link]