Why Your Brain Loves an Active Lifestyle

When you exercise, you’re not just exercising your muscles. Did you know your brain is involved in almost everything you do when you exercise? From balancing and coordinating your movements to learning a new exercise, controlling your breathing and deciding how much effort to put in, your brain and body are in constant communication.

Research into exercise and brain health has grown considerably over the last few years and while there is still plenty we don’t know, evidence increasingly supports physical activity as an important part of healthy ageing and maintaining cognitive health.

So, why does your brain love an active lifestyle?

Exercise supports healthy blood flow to your brain

Let’s start with something fundamental: your brain needs a constant supply of oxygen and nutrients, and healthy blood vessels are essential for delivering them. We often associate better circulation and cardiovascular health with activities like running, cycling or swimming, but strength straining specifically plays an important part.

When you lift weights, your muscles need more oxygen and nutrients to meet the demands of the exercise. Your heart rate increases, blood flow rises and your cardiovascular system has to work alongside your muscles to support that effort. The benefits aren’t limited to what happens during your workout. Regular strength training can contribute to better cardiovascular health over time, including improvements in blood pressure and blood vessel function. These are important because the health of your heart and blood vessels is closely connected to the health of your brain.

While lifting weights is usually associated with building stronger muscles and bones, by supporting your cardiovascular and metabolic health, strength training can also contribute to the wider picture of keeping your brain healthy as you age.

Your brain likes variety and challenge

One of the reasons I was first drawn to strength training is that it doesn’t just involve your muscles – it involves learning too. Think about learning a language, an instrument or a new hobby. At first, you have to concentrate, but with practice it becomes more familiar.

Exercise can work in a similar way. When you learn a new movement, your brain is busy:

• working out where your body is and how it needs to move
• coordinating your muscles
• helping you balance and maintain your posture
• controlling the movement
• adapting as you practise or try different variations

That’s one of the reasons we include variety in Caroline’s Circuits. Familiar exercises help you build confidence, while different movements and variations give your brain and body new challenges to work through.

This becomes particularly valuable as we get older. Strength training gives us regular opportunities to practise balance, coordination, body awareness and movement control – all things we rely on in everyday life.

What is your brain doing during different exercises?

Changing your stance, moving your weight, balancing on one leg or lifting a weight overhead all require slightly different combinations of balance, coordination and body awareness. Here’s a look at what your brain is doing behind the scenes as you move.

• Squats: Your brain is coordinating your hips, knees, ankles and core while helping you balance, control your posture and keep track of your body position as you move up and down.
• Lunges: Your feet are in different positions and each leg has a different job, so your brain has to manage balance, coordination and body position in a different way.
• Single-leg deadlifts: Take away the support of one leg and there’s an even greater balance challenge. Your brain uses proprioception (awareness of where your body is in space) and makes constant small adjustments to help keep you stable.
• Step-ups: Your brain has to judge the height and position of the step, coordinate where you place your foot, shift your weight onto one leg and maintain your balance as you move up and down.
• Overhead presses: Here, your brain is coordinating your shoulders and arms while also organising your core and other stabilising muscles to keep the rest of your body controlled as the weight travels overhead.
• Rows: Your brain coordinates your arms, shoulders and shoulder blades while maintaining the position of your torso and controlling the weight through the movement.
• Farmer’s carries: There’s a lot to coordinate. Your brain is managing your walking pattern while you grip the weights, maintain your posture, stabilise your core and respond to small changes in balance with every step.

The exercise may change, but the principle is the same: your muscles are doing the work, while your brain is constantly coordinating how that work gets done.

Your brain benefits from the bigger picture too

Looking after your brain isn’t just about what happens during your workout. An active lifestyle often brings other habits with it that support both physical and brain health. Exercise can influence chemicals involved in mood and wellbeing, help us manage stress and support better sleep. Eating a varied, balanced diet provides the nutrients and energy our brain and body need, while staying socially connected, getting outdoors and making time to recover all contribute to the bigger picture. There isn’t one exercise, food or habit that keeps your brain healthy – it’s the combination of regular movement, good nutrition, sleep, stress management and staying engaged with life that matters.

What does this mean for Alzheimer’s and dementia?

Whenever we talk about brain health, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are naturally part of the wider conversation. While this can be a sensitive topic, what we do know is that physical activity is one of several modifiable lifestyle factors associated with dementia risk. Regular physical activity forms part of wider recommendations for supporting brain health as we age. Exercise can also provide important physical and functional benefits for people already living with dementia, when it is appropriate for their individual abilities and circumstances.

We can’t control everything about how our bodies and brains change as we get older, but there are positive things we can do:

• We can move.
• We can build strength.
• We can look after our heart.
• We can challenge ourselves.
• We can keep learning.
• And we can make movement something we enjoy as we age!

Read more about physical exercise and Alzheimer’s here.

A Final Thought

We often think about exercise in terms of what we can see – stronger muscles, better balance or being able to do more. But it’s so much more than that! Every time you move, practise a skill, challenge yourself or learn something new, your brain is part of that experience too.

We can’t control every aspect of ageing, and there are no guarantees when it comes to our health. But we can keep giving our bodies and brains reasons to stay active, engaged and challenged.

As always, any questions please do get in touch. 

Caroline x