A Motivational Post for Exercise Procrastinators

I’m not an athlete. I don’t wake up in the morning itching to run, or skip to aerobics class at the Y. I exercise regularly on the best treadmills, but it’s almost always driven by guilt and anxiety. If I don’t go, I’ll get fat. I’ll have less energy. I’ll die young. This kind of thinking isn’t a great motivator, they say. So today I’m trying a re-framing tactic: learning more about how, exactly, exercise can boost brain power.(Caveat up front: Some studies have found that exercise does not improve cognition. I will be conveniently ignoring those in this post and in life.)The mental benefits of exercise begin while you’re doing it and continue in the hours afterward. Take two studies from the mid-90s that tested volunteers before, during, and after moderate-intensity stints on an exercise bike. In one study, students watched a screen while biking. The screen showed a square filling up with a color, and the volunteers’ task was to push a joystick button as soon as the square was full. Reaction times were significantly faster while biking than at rest.Read more at...Only Human, May 2013.