A Surprising Exercise for the Brain

As we get older, the concern for neurological issues often becomes heightened. You might feel a little brain fog creeping in or you start to feel like your reaction time is slower or delayed. Often we try to mitigate these changes by doing more puzzles or reading more books! While these aren’t bad ways to engage the brain, there are some more literal exercises that give the brain a surprising power boost. You might say, “Of course! We already know that running, swimming and almost all aerobics exercises are good for mental health.” But did you know about squats? Squats, the joint stabilizing, glute-building workout that’s been shown to help almost every area of the body is now thought to also aid in stretching the capabilities of the brain!

Squatting causes a sort of famine-and-plenty, back-and-forth effect on blood flow through the brain and this variance is responsible for a measurable improvement in functioning. While something like a brisk walk might increase blood flow and boost memory functions within the brain, squats actually cause the brain to release all the chemicals responsible for learning and growth. 

Research has shown that squatting is one of the best exercises for reducing your risk of Alzheimer and dementia and improving your overall cognitive health. The best part about this is that squats are an exercise that the majority of people can do! Every age group can build up the strength to do squats. Even if you aren’t as strong as you used to be or are recovering from an injury, there are a number of variations and even assisted versions of the squat to make it useful for a wide range of people!

Squats range from the basic squat to versions that incorporate jumps or kicks or props. The traditional squat where you stand with your legs about shoulder width apart, your toes pointed slightly outward and your arms either relaxed or clasped in front of you and dip down like you are about to sit in an invisible chair, is just the start. The key to the foundational squat is to keep your back in a neutral position (not exaggeratedly arched or anything) and you knees apart and squeeze those glutes on the way up. You can go all the way down almost into the “egg” yoga position or stop when your thighs are parallel to the ground. This is what you would call a bodyweight squat but you can add to the difficulty level by grabbing some weights, increasing the load on your limbs. You can find squats that are challenging for literally any level of fitness. Take it slow at first and have fun with it! Make sure you are warming up and stretching out. Always practice good form, even if you have to go very slowly and enjoy the brain boosting power of squats!

Resource: 

Types of Squats - Heathline

Can squatting boost your brain power? - BBC REEL

Do Squats Every Day And See What Happens To Your Body 9 Reasons why you need to do squats 

https://youtu.be/c8Q8AyFjWZM 

https://www.healthline.com/health/squat-variations#bodyweight-squats 

Water, Water, Everywhere and Still You Do Not Drink?

We see the necessity of water in the world around us daily. Trees and crops need water to grow. Rain replenishes the streams and streams feed the biggest and smallest creatures in our environment. We see what happens when there is a drought like what the west coast is currently experiencing. Less life, limited life, death. Why then do many of us imagine the case will be any different if we deprive our own bodies of water? 

Water is needed for nearly all the essential functions of the body. You’ve likely heard that over 60% of the body itself is made up of water. Did you also know that your blood is more than 90% water? Meaning the highway by which every system in your body receives nutrients and takes out the trash is, almost entirely, water. Imagine for a moment attempting to wash a dirty car without water. You could scrub away and even apply soap but without water, you’d still have a mess. Your body is essentially the same way. Your major organs, such as the kidneys, liver, colon and skin work pretty hard to get rid of trash whether it’s through defecation or sweating. Garbage that yields no nutrients to the body and could actually be quite harmful if it hung around is ejected through one mechanism or another and all of it requires a good deal of water. This built in detoxification system that runs on water is really the baseline of every gimmicky “detox” plan you might see. Before one spends a ton on a special pill or powder to cleanse one’s body of toxins, one might try simply increasing one’s daily water intake for a month instead. You might be surprised at the difference just that small change can make. There is no magic amount of water intake that everyone should drink but a good starting point is your weight in ounces divided by 2. So for example, if you weigh 150 lbs, that would be 150/2 = 75 ounces of water. It’s also important that a person pair an increase in water intake with a balanced diet so that they maintain the level of nutrients they need as they increase their body’s ability to use them. 

There are also a number of additional factors that could determine how much water you drink. Exercise requires more water as sweating, one of those very important toxin-flushing systems we mentioned, also dehydrates you. So, if you sweat for a while, you need to replace the water lost. The same is true of crying, bathroom use and even bleeding. Certain foods can also require more water to process or cause you to flush water from your system faster. American culture has readily incorporated a coffee habit into common, daily life. You may have heard that coffee is a diuretic, albeit a relatively mild one. That said, coffee, while a liquid, may actually increase your overall need to drink water as you excrete fluids more often. These dietary and lifestyle adjustments are usually pretty minimal but if you find them overwhelming, regularly consuming the recommended amount of water for the day is an excellent beginning! 

Below are a few links regarding the importance of water consumption if you’d like some additional reading. Later, we will talk about water quality here in the U.S. and if it’s still a relevant issue today!

Medical New Today Article

Additional Reading