2887: You Need An Exercise Routine For Your Brain by Tyler Tervooren of Riskology

[00:00:00] Überlass deine gesunde Ernährung und die Gains nicht nur deinem Bauchgefühl. Denn bei der Ernährung gaukelt uns unser innerer Schweinehund manchmal ganz schön was vor. Sag stattdessen Hallo zu deinem neuen Coach, Yasio. Yasio ist die meistgenutzte Ernährungs-App Europas, made in Germany. Egal ob Massephase oder ein bisschen Abnehmen, tracke Kalorien, Proteine, Carbs, Fette, Bewegung und Intervallfasten. Und mit den Tasty-Rezepten bist du ready für deine Ziele. Let's go! Lade die Yasio-App jetzt herunter.

[00:00:30] This is Optimal Health Daily. You Need an Exercise Routine For Your Brain by Tyler Tervooren of Riskology.co. And I'm Dr. Neal, your host and narrator. Hey there, happy Sunday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily or OHD, where I read to you from some of the most popular health and fitness blogs online. All right, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:00:57] You Need an Exercise Routine For Your Brain by Tyler Tervooren of Riskology.co. More than 1,000 retired workers, all aged 75 or above, stood in line. They were about to sit down to a barrage of tests, judging their memory and thinking skills. The tests were grueling, and it was only the beginning.

[00:01:17] For eight years, these retirees would line up every 18 months for the same battery of tests and evaluations, almost as if they were migratory birds following their instincts. But they weren't compelled to subject themselves to the draining tasks and judgments. No, they volunteered, and for good reason. The brains of these older men and women held the answer to a question neuroscience researchers believed they could unlock.

[00:01:45] Does a life of stressful and demanding work actually make you mentally healthy? After eight years of tireless study, sifting through mountains of data and controlling for every possible variable, they had their answer.

[00:01:59] Your life of constant stressors that require fast thinking, prioritizing, and decision-making, the things you complain leave you exhausted every day after work, are actually making your brain stronger and preparing it for top performance for years to come. If you ever worry about the stress and constant juggling of priorities in your life, that's probably good. You don't want it to become unhealthy, but you don't want to eliminate it either.

[00:02:27] Your difficult work, the things you struggle with but are proud to accomplish, are actually keeping you healthy for a lifetime. Why difficult work makes you stronger When you go to the gym, your muscles get bigger and your body grows stronger. Everyone knows this, and the path to creating physical health is well established, even if we struggle to follow it. If you do it regularly, you can expect to enjoy a capable body as you grow old. It makes sense intuitively that the same would be true of your mind.

[00:02:57] Exercise it regularly, and it ought to also grow stronger and sharper. While the analogy rings true, most health advice you read today suggests the opposite. Don't overdo it at work. Lower your stress. Regularly take your mind off the hard things. It's good advice. Too much stress is terrible for you, but it doesn't tell the whole story. What the eight-year study by neuroscientists at the University of Lipsig found

[00:03:24] is that forcing your brain to work on difficult problems and juggle a variety of tasks when done with care really is akin to lifting weights with your brain. The men and women they studied were given the same mental agility tests year after year, and, without a bias for race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and a myriad of other potential confounding variables, those who spent their days exercising their brains performed measurably better.

[00:03:51] We know hard work leads to accomplishment. We know it leads to a healthier mind with more longevity, too. The question is, what can you do to maximize the benefits of your difficult work? How to strengthen your mind every day. If it isn't obvious by now, the answer to maxing out your brain's performance abilities for the rest of your life lies in how you exercise it, just like your body.

[00:04:16] That means building a brain exercise routine will probably be successful if it mirrors the most successful ways to create any other routine. In the beginning, that means creating a schedule you stick to until you've formed a habit. Then, working to merge it into every aspect of your daily life. Here are a few ways you can maximize the exercise your brain is getting in the different areas of your life. At work Attack your big challenges first.

[00:04:44] Don't waste your mornings with routine, repetitive tasks. Instead, tackle your legacy work. Finding time to work on all the other things will also help you refine your executive functions. At home Don't sit and watch TV at the end of the day. Instead, train yourself to take on more challenging hobbies. Do a crossword puzzle. Play Sudoku. Make home improvement plans. These are the things that keep your brain healthy. And in relationships,

[00:05:12] don't shy away from difficult conversations with your partner or friends. Tackling them together will improve the performance of your brain and probably of your relationship too. Discuss big ideas and how to bring them to life. Just like lifting weights, growth happens when you push yourself a little further than you thought you could. Watch your stress levels and keep them in check. But don't shy away from big challenges. The science says the more you take on, the longer you'll get to enjoy them.

[00:05:45] You just listened to the post titled, You Need an Exercise Routine for Your Brain by Tyler Tervorin of Riskology.co. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. The evidence today's author, Tyler, presented about mental stress was so refreshing. It flipped the way we think about mental stress on its head. No pun intended. Tyler basically encouraged us to reframe this stress into something positive.

[00:06:13] Basically, instead of viewing these daily stressors as something negative, if we can remind ourselves that these responsibilities and tasks may actually be good for the long-term health of the brain, it will improve our long-term health. In fact, Dr. Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist, has spent years studying this approach to stress. Meaning, seeing stress as something positive, as a way for us to push ourselves beyond our limits,

[00:06:40] can neutralize the negative effects stress has on our health and overall well-being. So, just as today's author, Tyler, said in today's post, don't shy away from stress. Instead, try and lean into it and remind ourselves that it's going to make us better and stronger in the long run. All right, that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing this show and listening every day. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend,

[00:07:07] and I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.