In the last blog I mentioned that including some tempo in your physical activities, whatever that might be – walking, running, biking, swimming, lifting weights at the gym or something entirely different – can positively affect your ability to structure your thinking, which can lead to improved memory. I also mentioned that you might be able to improve thinking flexibility, which allows you to switch between tasks, to transfer your learning and to think creatively. Finally, your ability to process information quickly and efficiently may also improve from training in this way. So today I want to look at how this actually occurs. I think it is always nice to know how to improve, but in my experience, understanding the mechanism of improvement is firstly more rewarding and secondly can give that additional push to try something new.
While there are a number of different mechanisms that have been proposed to lead to improved thinking ability following faster efforts of physical activity, the majority of good findings from human studies show that increased blood flow to the brain is part of the puzzle. In particular, there is improved blood flow to the frontal lobe, or the part of the brain behind your forehead. This part of the brain is crucial in coordinating your thinking, in rational thinking, impulse control and many other important functions. Sounds familiar?
Interestingly, at the time of, and in a short period immediately after high intensity exercise, there is a decrease in blood flow to the brain. This can be seen with new ways of taking images of the brain’s pliability (MRE). This makes intuitive sense: If you think about challenging the muscles that propel you, as well as your heart and lungs in a fast interval, then your body is best served by increasing blood flow there rather than to your brain. Once the blood is no longer required in the muscles because you have slowed down your heart and breathing rate and have recovered, there is an increase in blood flow to the brain. This is particularly the case for the frontal lobe and the hippocampus, a region of the brain important for memory.
In addition, bouts of intense exercise challenge the blood vessels to remain elastic in the long term. Moreover, the body reacts to increased blood flow in growing many tiny branches off the main blood vessels. This leads to greater delivery of oxygen to greater portions of the brain, thereby improved thinking ability in a time window way beyond the time immediately after exercise. This may also be why bouts of intense exercise can (after an important recovery period) give the brain a boost following the type of stroke that results from a disruption of blood flow to the brain.
In a nutshell, after bouts of moving fast, there is increased blood flow to many areas of the brain. This means that apart from holding promise for physical fitness, moving faster even for very short amounts of time can make you think faster, improve thinking flexibility and memory. Woohoo, way to go!
If you are keen to learn more about how adding some tempo to your physical and mental activity can benefit you, follow me or subscribe to the blogpost. To work with me one-on-one to apply some of these principles to your own life and movement, message me for a free call. I look forward to hearing from you.
References (for the extra keen)
Hugues et al. (2021)
Kendall et al. (2021)
McIlvain et al. (2024)
Renke et al. (2022)