Smart moves

Smart moves
It won’t surprise fitness freaks to learn that aerobic does more than raise the heart rate: it lifts and builds confidence. But many brain researchers believe that something else happens, too. Just as exercise makes the bones, muscles, heart, and lungs stronger, researchers think that it also strengthens important parts of the brain.
Research suggests that aerobic exercise helps you learn new things and remember old information better. Aerobic exercise sends more blood to the brain and it also feeds the brain with substances that develop new nerve connections. If the exercise has complicated movements like dance steps or basketball moves, the brain produces even more nerve connections the more connections, the better the brain can process all kinds of information.
Scientists still don’t fully understand the relationship between exercise and brain power. For the moment, people just have to trust that exercise is helping them to learn or remember. Scientific research clearly shows, however, that three or more workouts a week are good for you.
A study in the journal of the American medical association, for example, shows that walking for 45 minutes five times a week helps your live longer. So don’t be a couch potato. Get out there and do something!