Stand Up for Thinking

STAND UP FOR THINKING

Eating well is extremely important for the brain, but it’s not enough by itself. If you want the thinking machine perched on your shoulders to come anywhere near its potential, then you need to get moving. Harrison draws on research linking exercise to benefits for mood, thinking and brain health across age groups.3 He also describes research on exercise and the growth of new brain cells. According to John Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the brain benefits from physical activity primarily because of the increased blood flow that comes with doing things like walking, running, swimming, and cycling.4 In the same way that exercise stimulates blood flow and delivers nutrients to muscles, it does so for the brain. Just think of your brain as a three-pound vampire: it needs a steady supply of blood to live.

If you spend most of your waking hours on couches, car seats and office chairs, look for manageable opportunities to move. Stand rather than sit when possible and move rather than be still when possible. Choose movement that suits your abilities and circumstances; sweating is not the test of whether it counts.

Harrison estimates that our lineage spent the last 99.999 percent of its existence on its feet and active. We walked and we ran, probably several miles per day. You are stuck with a body and brain that do not respond well to inactivity. Homo sapiens evolved on the go. We are not lichens or sloths. Virtually every one of your ancestors over the last few million years at least spent their days walking rather than sitting. This means the human brain evolved inside of mobile bodies. That history helps explain the appeal of building movement into the day, though it does not establish a single best posture or activity for everyone.

As with nutrition, there is no reason to feel the need to become obsessive about physical activity. If you want to run marathons and lift small cars, go for it. But don’t be discouraged if things like glacier climbing and triathlons don’t appeal to you. Harrison’s example is twenty minutes of moderate activity six or seven times per week, combined with good eating habits. The point is to make regular movement manageable. It can be walking, running, swimming, cycling, or maybe a mix of those and others. Just find what works for you and get busy. Try to include at least a couple of weekly weight-training sessions, too. And don’t forget to eat well.

Time and energy can be real obstacles to regular exercise. My life is just way too busy and hectic for me to find twenty minutes a day to improve my life. I’m so tired after thinking all day at school and work that I don’t have any energy left to exercise in order to become more energetic and a better thinker. Harrison suggests looking for time within existing routines. He cites an estimate that the average American spends nearly forty hours per week watching television.5 That’s like a full-time job by itself. Compared to that, walking or running and lifting weights for a total of just 140 minutes or so per week, barely more than two hours, is not a very big sacrifice of time and effort, especially when you consider the huge payoffs. You don’t have to train like a professional athlete. Try an activity that fits your abilities and schedule, perhaps during a thirty-minute episode of your favorite TV show. The useful question is what movement you can comfortably build into the day.

The case for physical activity includes young students. According to a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report about young students in school, there is “substantial evidence that physical activity can help improve academic achievement, including grades and standardized test scores.”6 Researchers have also found that the benefits of physical activity for young students include “enhanced concentration and attention as well as improved classroom behavior.” These findings give schools a reason to make room for physical activity alongside classroom work.

Just like it is with eating well, being physically active shouldn’t be thought of as a burden. Try to make it fun, or at least as tolerable as you can. Then, before you know it, physical activity will turn into a habit. Exercising has been a part of my life for so many years, for example, that I’m hopelessly hooked. It’s just part of who I am and what I do. I begin to feel terrible if I go more than three or four days without running or lifting weights. I also draw on some of the amazing research that has come from brain science for additional motivation and reassurance. For example, when I was in my twenties, I would skip working out if I couldn’t find the time or couldn’t summon up the energy for an epic workout that left me feeling like I had summited Everest. Now, however, thanks to science, I know that even just twenty minutes of walking or slow running helps my brain and body in numerous ways, so it’s well worth it. Doing something is better than doing nothing. I have even taken to standing as much as possible when I write and read because it turns out that sitting for hours is bad for long-term health.7 Brain scientist John Medina, author of Brain Rules, was so impressed by the research on the relationship between standing/moving and brain fitness that he put a treadmill in his office and attached his laptop to it so that he could work and walk at the same time.8 He says it took no more than about fifteen minutes for him to adapt to typing and mouse clicking while walking. This might seem crazy to some, but it makes sense. Remember, we evolved to be upright and active, not planted in chairs twelve hours per day. Medina envisions a total revolution in the offices and classrooms of the future if society ever catches up to the science. “If you wanted to create an education environment that was directly opposed to what the brain is good at doing,” he explains, “you probably would design something like the classroom. If you wanted to create a business environment that was directly opposed to what the brain is good at doing, you probably would design something like a cubicle.”9 I’d welcome offices and classrooms that make movement easier.

Gretchen Reynolds, author of The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer, noticed that all the brain scientists she interviewed while writing her book had at least one thing in common: “Every researcher I spoke with on this topic exercises. Some run. Some walk. There are a few bike racers. Tennis is popular, too. But none are sedentary. They know too much.”10 I’m not surprised by that at all. Learning about that research has given me another reason to keep moving. For the record, I wrote the last several paragraphs while standing.