Aerobic exercise cognitive fitness

Exercise reshapes the brain in ways that sharpen thinking in the short term and guard against cognitive decline later in life. Aerobic exercise in particular improves mental processing speed, auditory and visual attention, and motor control. Research also shows it strengthens executive function. These gains may flow from the improvements in heart and circulatory fitness that aerobic activity delivers.

Exercise brings a remarkable range of whole-body benefits, and many of them also defend brain health. Aerobic exercise, for instance:

Encourages new nerve cells to grow within the brain

Reduces the risk of high blood pressure and boosts blood flow to the brain

Heightens the brain's capacity to build new connections as you learn

Ramps up the release of neurotransmitters that support brain function.

Scientists keep exploring how exercise alters the brain. Among their findings:

Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise three days a week appeared to enlarge the hippocampus - the brain region tied to memory and learning - by 2%. A gain of that size can offset roughly one to two years of age-related brain change.

Adults ages 65 and older with no genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's disease who exercised four times a week faced about half the dementia risk of their sedentary peers.

Healthy but inactive middle-aged adults who walked briskly for 45 minutes, five times a week, showed meaningful gains in attention and working memory compared with a control group. The walkers also improved in verbal fluency and mental processing speed.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advise one of the following weekly totals of aerobic activity:

150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (such as brisk walking)

75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise (such as jogging or swimming laps)

An equivalent mix of moderate and vigorous exercise.

Muscle-strengthening work matters too: include activities such as lifting weights or using resistance bands that engage all major muscle groups on two or more days a week. Weight training also helps prevent or manage diabetes.