Category: Resources

The idea of exercise as a tool for brain development should be very attractive to anyone involved in education. A simple way to benefit from this idea is to use exercise as a “primer” to enhance your brain’s ability to function. This is such a simple concept, yet it is rarely utilized in our busy world.
Over the past decade, neuroscientists have made significant gains in their understanding of brain development and function, with the most exciting research done in the area of neuroplasticity. Based on this research, we now understand that the brain has the ability to change itself through the growth of new neuronal structures.
In his bestselling book, Brain Rules, Dr. John Medina lists 12 rules that explain how brains really work. I am particularly interested in rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power. Dr. Medina’s book explains that exercise will stimulate the birth of additional neurons in the hippocampus of the brain, and that this neuronal growth creates a positive environment for your brain development.

Dr. John Ratey, the author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, has further explored these concepts in an experimental environment, testing children’s cognitive abilities with and without exercise. Based on these findings, Dr. Ratey believes that exercise prior to learning or testing is an effective way to optimize the functioning of the neurons in your brain.
Exercise has also demonstrated a positive influence in the prevention of cognitive decline in older populations. University of Illinois neuroscience professor Arthur F. Kramer, in his meta-analysis looking at exercise and the aging brain, concluded that “the benefits of physical exercise or physical activities promote brain and cognitive vitality well into older adulthood.”
Based on this research, we can safely say that, in addition to the many health benefits we already know about exercise, brain development can be enhanced by exercise. For these, and many other obvious reasons, it’s very discouraging to witness the continued decrease in the physical activity levels of children, both in and outside of school.
Currently, the public school systems in Canada offer physical education classes one to two hours per week, for most grades. In many high schools there is no requirement for physical activity. Our growing problem with childhood obesity supports the idea that children are becoming less active.
Inactivity in children is not only negative from a physical health perspective, but I believe it could also have a detrimental impact on students’ learning and overall brain development. Our growing population of inactive and obese children will not reach their physical or intellectual potential if they remain inactive throughout their formative years.
This is a major problem that parents, teachers and all levels of government cannot ignore. I have been involved with many discussions around these issues, but I have yet to see effective solutions. Obesity is still increasing in our country.

The idea of exercise as a tool for brain development should be very attractive to anyone involved in education. A practical solution would be to start each school day with 30 minutes of supervised physical activity. Teachers and students could participate together. This would allow everyone to start their day with enhanced brain function. A brisk walk through the neighbourhood or laps around the school would be enough exercise to provide significant benefits. It is quite possible you would be able to recruit a few parent volunteers to help supervise the students. I am sure most adults would benefit from an extra 30 minutes of activity a day.
I have a couple of ideas to help get you started with your brain development: The next time you have a very important meeting that requires quick thinking and active listening, head out for a brisk walk 10 minutes before the meeting, or climb some stairs, or (if you have a private office) try some standing squats alternating with wall push-ups.
If you are a student, try exercising prior to your exams and important lectures. If you are a writer or journalist, try exercising right before you sit down to formulate your latest ideas. Finally, if you are a parent and you have something important to discuss with your children, ask them to take a walk with you in a quiet place where you can share ideas, enjoy nature and build some mental strength. The research shows they might actually be listening and absorbing the information more effectively.
The message is simple: do some exercise and build your brain!

There are two main divisions to our nervous system: the sympathetic and parasympathetic. There is also a third known as the enteric system, but for clarity’s sake, we’ll leave that division out of this conversation.

Fight or Flight? Or Rest and Digest?

Our sympathetic nervous system is our “fight or flight” response, which is the predominant neural output when we exercise or feel stress at work. The sympathetic response can accelerate heart rate, increase muscular tone, decrease motility of the gastrointestinal tract, and increase sweating and blood pressure, as well as secretion of the hormone known as adrenaline (to name a few). An instance of increased sympathetic output means redirecting blood from our abdomen and organs out to the peripheral muscles and skin—whereas the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for our “rest and digest” response.
An increase in the parasympathetic response will have the opposite effects, where muscles relax, heart rate and blood pressure decrease, and gastrointestinal tract motility increases and triggers the release of digestive juices/enzymes. Basically, blood returns to the abdomen to allow for proper functioning of the GI tract and visceral organs.

From Troglodytes to Cosmopolites

The sympathetic response, ie. fight or flight, was a necessary adaptation to human evolution. If our ancestors came across a bear or a tiger in the wild, they would need a fast response to deliver blood to their peripheral muscles and increase their cardiac output, so that they could either run away or fight for survival. Fortunately for us Torontonians, having an interaction with large wild animals that can easily kill us isn’t a reality. However, just because we now live in an industrialized society doesn’t mean that we aren’t affected by an increased sympathetic response.

 
Our society has made survival a lot easier due to modern healthcare and plumbing, but life has certainly become far more complicated than ever before. Between mortgage payments, paying off student loans, deadlines at work, tending to children or parents, et cetera, life has become far more mentally and emotionally complex. This sympathetic stress response in our body is the exact same as the stress response we would have trying to survive in the wild. Although none of the examples listed require physical work, the mental strains of these examples have physical manifestations.

De-stress for Success

In my daily practice, I consistently see personal training clients and osteopathic patients who are seemingly “stuck” in the sympathetic stress response. The byproduct of this is weight gain and/or extreme difficulty losing weight, high blood pressure and heart rate, difficulty digesting a variety of foods, constipation or diarrhea, insomnia, hormonal fluctuations and more. The good news is the human body has all the built-in remedies it needs to self-heal and self-regulate; sometimes it just needs a bump in the right direction.
All of the stress responses listed above can be improved by daily exercise, meditation, avoidance of sugars and heavily refined or processed foods, and avoiding sitting for extended periods of time. On top of these healthy lifestyle changes, an occasional tune-up from a skilled manual therapist will also help to decrease the sympathetic response and increase parasympathetic output.

When it comes to our health, there is no magic pill that will cure all ailments, but there are some manual manipulations that can be done to promote calming of the nervous system and improved quality of sleep. In doing so, the body can process and begin healing the ailments produced by the stress response so many of us suffer from.