• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

How do I start a brain fitness program?

January 4, 2007 by Caroline Latham

Computer ClassroomHere is ques­tion six of 25 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions. To down­load the com­plete ver­sion, please click here.

Ques­tion:
How do I start a brain fit­ness program?

Key Points:

  • Any activ­i­ty that requires you to use your brain in new, chal­leng­ing ways helps your brain.
  • Recre­ation­al activ­i­ties like bridge, chess, puz­zles, sudoku, var­i­ous class­es, read­ing, and sports are all bet­ter than pas­sive­ly watch­ing television.
  • Add a com­put­er­ized brain fit­ness pro­gram to get a com­plete men­tal work­out on a reg­u­lar basis.

Answer:
Do some­thing. Any­thing. Essen­tial­ly, doing any­thing is bet­ter than noth­ing. So, if you enjoy play­ing strat­e­gy games like bridge and chess, then great – keep doing it. You’re work­ing your spa­tial, mem­o­ry, and plan­ning skills, among oth­ers. Much like phys­i­cal fit­ness, if you do some­thing you enjoy, you’re more like­ly to stick with it over time. Find activ­i­ties that use your brain and fit into your life.

The draw­back to rely­ing on social and recre­ation­al activ­i­ties for your brain exer­cise is that they tend to be incom­plete. For a more struc­tured and com­pre­hen­sive men­tal work­out, try a com­put­er-based pro­gram. These pro­grams have the abil­i­ty to assess your abil­i­ties at the start and cre­ate a reg­i­men that will improve both your strengths and weak­ness­es. The pro­grams also adapt to your per­for­mance to keep on chal­leng­ing you over time.

Phys­i­cal exer­cise and good nutri­tion will sup­port your com­mit­ment to brain health. Pas­sive activ­i­ties like tele­vi­sion watch­ing will do very lit­tle to improve and stim­u­late your brain. And chron­ic stress will actu­al­ly dam­age your brain.

Use “down” time to take a much-need­ed break. If you find your­self with ten min­utes in the show­er, in your car, on a walk, or even at your desk, try paus­ing to focus on your breath­ing and sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly relax­ing all your mus­cles. Con­tin­ued ele­vat­ed stress lev­els can actu­al­ly kill your brain cells, as well as cause oth­er phys­i­cal ail­ments. There­fore, just a few min­utes of relax­ation on a reg­u­lar basis will go a long way to improv­ing both your brain and over­all fitness.

Con­clu­sion:
You must use your brain in order to improve it. Dai­ly life can pro­vide plen­ty of plea­sur­able chal­lenges to work your mind, but be sure to seek out a diverse pro­gram that includes nov­el­ty, vari­ety, and stretch­ing practice.

Fur­ther Reading

  • Gamon D. and Brag­don A. Build­ing Men­tal Mus­cle: Con­di­tion­ing Exer­cis­es for the Six Intel­li­gence Zones (Walk­er & Com­pa­ny; 2003). ISBN: 0802776698
  • De Bono, Edward. Six Think­ing Hats (Back Bay Books; 1999). ISBN: 0316178314
  • Mah­ncke HW, Con­nor BB, Appel­man J, et al. Mem­o­ry enhance­ment in healthy old­er adults using a brain plas­tic­i­ty-based train­ing pro­gram: a ran­dom­ized, con­trolled study. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2006;103:12523–8.
  • Scarmeas N, Stern Y. Cog­ni­tive reserve and lifestyle. J Clin Exp Neu­ropsy­chol. 2003;25:625–33.
  • Willis SL, Tennst­edt SL, Mar­siske M, et al. Long-term effects of cog­ni­tive train­ing on every­day func­tion­al out­comes in old­er adults. JAMA. 2006;296:2805–14.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: Brain-Fitness, Brain-health, Brain-Training, Casual-Games, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive-Training, Executive-Functions, Health & Wellness, Neuropsychology, Serious-Games, Stress, the-wisdom-paradox

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Head Coach says

    January 4, 2007 at 3:00

    When try­ing to change my behav­ior I find it help­ful to think about the changes need­ed in oth­er areas of my life that will increase the prob­a­bil­i­ty of long-term success.

    I have found that my dai­ly behav­ior is a func­tion of the neur­al paths that I have devel­oped over time through inter­ac­tion with my envi­ron­ment. In essence, I cre­ate an “ecosystem” that sup­ports my auto­mat­ic behav­iors that I have estab­lished over the years. As I start to mod­i­fy my neur­al paths through train­ing, both my envi­ron­ment and my auto­mat­ic behav­iors can inter­fere with my fit­ness pro­gram. How­ev­er, even a slight decrease in the forces restrain­ing my train­ing pro­gram increas­es the prob­a­bil­i­ty that my fit­ness pro­gram will be main­tained over time.

  2. Alvaro says

    January 5, 2007 at 9:01

    Neal: very wise words. Thanks!

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 35,221 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy