Exercise for brain health: insights from experts

If you have clients who have been diagnosed with or are concerned about cognitive decline, it is essential that you have the right skills to design fitness experiences that focus not only on physical health, but also on brain health. By incorporating memory exercises, movement-based games, and coaching strategies for brain health, you can help clients move with purpose.

This is why ACE is so proud to… Alzheimer’s Fitness Specialist Programto enable you to do so design programs and lead practice sessions clients who are experiencing cognitive decline or simply want to do everything they can grow older with strength and self-confidence. Us too wanted to provide practical tools, not just theory, which is why this program is available memory exercises, based on movement games and brain-healthy coaching strategies that position you and your clients for long-term success.

Jonathan Ross, the creator and instructor of the Alzheimer’s Fitness Specialist Program, is a several Personal trainer of the year Winner of the prizeinternational presenter and advocate for brain fitness, known for translating neuroscience into stimulating workouts through his Function intensity program. He is one old ACE partner and has worked togethered with us on countless articles, webinars And programs.

Here, Jonathan answers Important questions about how exercise affects brain health and how to integrate exercise in a positive way influence cognitive health in your clients’ trainingS.

How can exercise and exercise support brain health? Please address those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as clients who are simply concerned about their cognitive health.

Physiologically, exercise increases blood flow to the brain, and this improves both fuel supply and the removal of waste products. Movement also requires processing sensory input from the outside world, deciding what to do about it, and then doing it.

More specifically, research shows that exercise improves the function of both immune system cells in the hippocampus called microglia and cells called neurovascular astrCytes (NVAs) that improve the function of the blood–brain barrier.

These benefits arise independently of a focus on prevention or disease management.

Are there specific types of physical activity that provide greater cognitive benefits?

In general, contracting muscles produce numerous myokines, small sequences of amino acids that regulate various metabolic processes and allow muscles to communicate with other organs and body systems.

The type of exercise determines which myokines are produced (and there is significant overlap in many exercise modalities). If people can potentially do something, then we need to train for it. This means strength and aerobic training, sometimes adding elements such as reactivity, coordination and balance.

Additionally, modalities such as high-intensity interval training (HIIT), for example, improve processing speed and attention.

The most important conclusion: all exercises are good for the brain, but integrated cognitive and physical fitness is better. For example, trail running is better for your brain than running on the treadmill. Placing each step on a unique surface under varying conditions requires more processing of sensory input and decisions about how exactly to move with each step taken.

Do clients concerned about brain health need to exercise extra every week or can cognitive fitness be integrated into what they already do? If the latter, can you offer strategies to do this?

No extra practice is needed! Cognitive fitness not only can, but should be integrated into some of the existing exercise activities.

Some simple examples:

• Usage two exercises with different repetitions and alternating them: Dumbbell SWhat And Sholder PRes (using dumbbells)

  • Perform 3 reps of the squat for each rep of the shoulder press, which requires more attention and use of short-term memory. (This also provides appropriately challenging resistance for the relatively stronger leg muscles, which will perform more reps.)
  • Perform the two exercises using a sequential countdown pattern of 4-3-2-1, i.e. 4 of each, then 3 of each, etc. You conclude that you have completed 10 reps of each. This can be done by counting down from 5 to 1 (for 15 total reps), or many other combinations of numbers.

• Count reps by 3 or 7 seconds (harder) or 2 or 5 seconds (easier).

IMPORTANT: Not only is extra exercise not necessary, but neither is people need high-tech equipment or boutique studios dedicated to brain fitness. Those are nice bells and whistles, but cost is a barrier to accessing these options, meaning they will never be a viable solution for the masses.

What inspired you to create the Alzheimer’s and Brain Fitness Specialist Course and what do you hope sports professionals will take away from this course and apply in their work?

Most neurodegenerative diseases are caused – and preventable – by lifestyle factors within the scope of practice of exercise professionals and health coaches: physical activity, exercise, nutrition, stress management, sleep and social connection.

Second, presenting an exercise and movement model that is, by design, interactive and reactive makes for a more enjoyable experience. Research shows that people work harder without reporting a subjective increase in intensity. In other words, the extra effort doesn’t feel so heavy.

The population is growing older and this cohort has both the resources – in terms of time and money – and the motivation to improve brain function now and prevent disease later. This is a great opportunity for professionals to make money by changing lives by changing people’s minds about exercise.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about this topic that we haven’t covered yet?

For most of human history, we had to solve problems directly related to survival in a variable and often threatening environment. This required us to think and move at the same time. Modern life is about sitting still and thinking, thinking, thinking all day at work and then moving, often turning off our brains and doing routine, non-involving exercises. We have separated thinking from moving, and we are suffering because of it.

Two final thoughts: Integrating physical and cognitive fitness can also improve one’s attitudes and feelings about exercise. This makes long-term treatment compliance much more likely and easier to achieve. And for anyone providing care to someone with a cognitive condition, the interactive strategies discussed in the course provide the same benefits, while also introducing some much-needed lightness and fun to the caregiver-patient interaction.