A 'thoughtful' workout goes beyond physical benefits
Running and lifting weights might be a crucial step in helping your body delay the effects of aging, but those exercises may be only part of the story.
Philip Tomporowski, co-author and professor of kinesiology in the UGA College of Education, and Caterina Pesce of the University of Rome in Italy, researched more than 70 reviews of previous studies comparing the benefits of exercise alone with the benefits of exercise plus some type of cognitive component. They found more improvement among participants when exercise was paired with some type of skill than with exercise alone.
“Right now the recommendation is that you have to do an aerobic activity three days a week, and you want to improve your physical fitness because that changes your brain,” Tomporowski said. “But the data is suggesting that may not be sufficient. There are more and more studies out there that suggests that it takes more than mindlessly exercising on a bicycle or a treadmill.”