When I hear “aerobics,” I think Richard Simmons.
Maybe it’s because of the memories I have as a 6-year-old watching my mom’s “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” VHS tape, using Coca-Cola cans as weights. But Simmons was actually quite the colorful energy behind our culture’s fitness craze toward the end of the 1970s.
It was around this decade that intentional physical activity within the general population became heavily endorsed. The last time this was the case was when humans were required to hunt and gather for their most basic survival. But Simmons and the rest of the fitness pioneers were on to something. They recognized an element in human beings that has existed since the beginning — the need for physical exertion.
While the majority of us have been educated on the basic physical effects of exercise, such as a healthier heart, we are not as acquainted with the mental.
But when you engage your body in just 30 minutes of activity on most days of the week, there is a boost in a multitude of chemicals from which you reap positive benefits in cognition and mood. One example: It had long been taught that once a brain cell died, it was a continuing slope downward. Not only is that now disproved, but it is now demonstrated that aerobic activity increases two chemicals whose primary purposes are to create new neurons, especially in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. These areas are responsible for learning/memory and planning/judgment, respectively. But here is the caveat — new cells die within a few weeks unless stimulated. The quick lesson here is to hit the gym, then the library!
In other words, participating in something intellectually stimulating after an aerobic activity will keep these new cells flourishing.