Can Aerobics Make You Smarter?

[nemorathwald]

This article in Men's Health points to studies linking 30 minutes of aerobic excercise three times a week to mental performance. This is the first time in my life I've ever been seriously tempted to excercise. I doubt that thirty minutes of jogging would cause me very much discomfort; that's point one. If I got an .MP3 player and listened to podcasts (and especially a voice recorder with clip microphone), I could avoid the boredom that has always deterred me from excercising; that's point two. But as with any endeavor, it's not the cost but the benefit that entices, and in this case that's now point three. I have no shortage of ideas, only a shortage of time in which to implement them, but this article describes how that ratio is somehow paradoxically improved by spending a little time on cardio. The description of excercise as making me less distracted is tantalizing. I've never sat there thinking "if only I were more intelligent and creative," but hey, I don't think there's too much of a good thing where these are concerned. What more might I acheive? I certainly don't need to get smarter, but I might benefit from being more "focused" or perhaps even more "driven." Is excercise the key to fame and fortune? I'm sure I can get an OK pair of tennis shoes and a sweatsuit at the thrift store. Hmmm... maybe I'll do this.

Comments

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

"finding something active you actually enjoy is usually the only way you'll stick with regular exercise."

If so, that's a problem. I've examined many candidates and haven't found one yet. I was kind of hinging the entire plan on multi-tasking something else that I enjoy.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

That helps, too. I like walking on the treadmill and reading a magazine, or walking with my husband and talking, or doing the walk somewhere pretty so I can nature-watch as well.

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

You can make it "enjoyable" by tying it to something else that you actually find enjoyable, especially if you limit the times you do the actually-enjoyable thing to the times you exercise.

I started mall walking in the winter when taking the dog to the park just stopped being feasible. I took along my MP3 player, loaded with good songs I hadn't heard in a while, and it was actually kinda fun. Then I burned some CDs for the car that had a lot of those songs on it, and I walk a lot less. It's not that walking has become more boring (cuz let's face it, it was pretty boring to start with), it's that the one thing I looked forward to about walking is no longer special to walking.