Before you start studying or tackling a big project for work, consider hitting the gym or going for a brisk walk. In addition to being good for your health in general, research shows that it can actually help with cognition. And with exam week coming up or a deadline looming at work, anything that can give your brain a boost is probably welcome.
How Exercise Makes You Smarter and a Better Student
There’s no shortage of solid, peer-reviewed research on the effects of exercise on cognition, going back decades. The exact reasons why exercise helps thinking aren’t fully understood, but a 2018 review in Frontiers in Psychology discusses evidence that it can increase blood flow to the brain, boost levels of certain neurotransmitters, and boost your sense of control and self-worth.
Another review, from 2013, notes that “more active” individuals are better able to pay attention to their surroundings and process information more quickly. Exercise can even change our brains in the long term; the 2018 review concluded that “chronic aerobic exercise is associated with robust structural and functional neuroplastic changes, with improvements in cognitive function.”
The research is pro-exercise in all forms, but focuses on acute aerobic exercise, or the kind of exercise that gets you moving a lot and gets your heart rate up. A "single bout" of this kind of exercise is linked to improved cognitive function, the researchers report in Frontiers.
