How sports affects our brain

The life of a modern person is very different from the life of his ancestors. Previously, people had to do physical work every day — hunting, sowing, and harvesting, performing heavy manipulations in factories and plants, and so on. Currently, people's lives have changed dramatically and continue to rapidly develop towards the comprehensive automation of processes around. Many have switched to communication from home.

All these conditions inevitably lead to the fact that people begin to move less — there is no need for survival, and not everyone has their own desire to get up and go in for sports. However, sport is extremely important, and in this article, we will discuss how different types of exercise affect our brains.

Increased blood flow

Physical activity (especially running, walking, cycling, etc.) increases blood flow to the brain due to the fact that a person begins to breathe deeper and the heart works more actively.

Thanks to the flow of blood, nerve cells receive additional nutrition, as a result of which memory improves, thinking becomes clearer, and attention is sharp and focused. It is not for nothing that a healthy lifestyle and regular jogging have long been promoted among successful people from the IT field — after them, a person becomes more efficient in intellectual work.

Developing willpower

Of course, daily training requires certain willpower from a person. It is necessary day after day to tune in to some physical efforts, to spend energy and time on them. This practice develops a sense of conscious control over one's life and, a person, automatically becomes more volitional in other areas.

At the physical level, it works in the following way. In the front of the brain is the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for willpower. During training, neural connections strengthened in it, and every day the signals in them begin to pass faster and easier.

Increased brain volume

In addition to the development of neural connections in the prefrontal cortex, physical activity, and the brain also connected by the fact that the amount of gray matter increases during sports. Gray matter is not only responsible for blood pressure and heart rate, but also forms a number of important cognitive functions — empathy, the ability to make rational decisions, motivation.

Stimulating BDNF Protein Production

The BDNF protein is responsible for the activation and proper functioning of nerve cells; at the beginning of the twentieth century, an experiment confirmed the direct connection between physical activity and how quickly our body produced this protein.

Improving vision and hearing

In addition to developing cognitive abilities, the brain is also responsible for simpler functions, in particular, vision and hearing. During training, the production of glutamic acid increases, which is directly involved in the processing of information received through the senses.

So, physical activity develops not only muscles — we looked at how sports improve brain function. In order to competently organize your classes, you can turn to the wellness coach Nika Helga, who has been researching and promoting healthy lifestyles for many years.

Daily Celestial Team

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