Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

Nothing helps me tackle a tough programming problem like a nice, long bike ride. Is it grueling at times? Of course. Are my legs burning by the end? Usually. But, hard physical activity is the perfect way to clear my mind.

Plus, the fact that your body will go to shit if you don't exercise. Before I started lifting weights approx 10 years ago, I had back aches from sitting in an office chair all day. After regular, challenging, weight training, those problems vanished. Why? Because my muscles are strong now.

If you don't use your muscles, they soon because worthless, and painful. It's amazing how much stronger you get in a short amount of time as a beginner in weight training.

You don't like exercising? Boo hoo, no one does. I'd much rather eat pizza and drink beer than put 30 miles on my bike. But, I know it's important, so I suck it up and go. Even when I absolutely don't want to.

You could say the same about getting people to save for retirement, but then we tried making 401k plans opt-out and participation increased. We can dramatically change behavior simply by changing the default.

Sometimes there are obvious ways to do this--check here if you don't want to be an organ donor, click this link if you don't want half this raise/starting salary to automatically go into your 401k--and sometimes it's a lot trickier, but it still seems worth investigating in those cases.

It's not obvious how to make exercising opt-out, but I'm skeptical of any claims that we can't non-coercively change behavior until we investigate it a lot and fail consistently.

Some companies provide on-site gyms. Some have secure bike parking + showers. Some provide free or subsidized membership to nearby gyms (if simply subsidized, it could be made opt-out). Even something as simple as providing standing desks could make a difference.

Sure, they're all adults, but their behavior is still shaped more by culture and environment than thoughtful, conscious decisions. Why do I give the government an interest-free loan instead of minimizing my withholding and put it into an interest-bearing account? I know I have the fiscal discipline to benefit from this, but it's weird and not default, so I don't.

Trivial inconveniences are incredibly effective in changing behaviors. In many cases, we can adjust those inconveniences.

Why shouldn't it, assuming you're trying to conduct serious discourse? I find it to be a huge issue in my life, trying to communicate with people who make unverifiable or false claims is a huge waste of time, not to mention that somehow those falsehoods will be carried on from person to person.

"I cannot do it (excuses excuses I know) if there is no purpose. Exercise sake I find the most boring thing in the world and just don't do it although I know I should."

You owe it to your friends and neighbors.

Never mind the health benefits or nicer looks or fitting into smaller clothes - you owe it to everyone around you to be able to:

- run for help

- carry a body

- move debris or pull a hose or help push a car

- (etc.)

If you have any expectation at all of being taken seriously and held as an equal by the people around you, this is the minimum set of capabilities.

I started exercising when I was working full time and going to school part time. It was a lot of work and it was very stressful because neither work or school knew (or cared) about the different demands they would place on my time, so I spent most of my time putting out a fire in one part of my life knowing that another was building somewhere else.

I contrasted two semesters, one where I would tell myself "I don't have time to go to the gym, I need to stay at home and do this problem set" and another where I would tell myself basically the opposite, "I don't have time to NOT go to the gym." What I noticed was that the semesters where I made more of an effort (3-4 times a week) to go to the gym, my grades were better.

Over the years I've found that exercise sharpens the time you have left over. So sure, you spend an extra hour a day exercising but the other 23 hours are just better - you're more alert, you think better, you have more energy, you sleep better, you're less irritable.

You do you, but what I found works for me is working out in the morning. On good days, I get to the pool at 0630 and swim for 40 minutes, then go to work. As a bonus life hack, I've discovered that this combines your post-workout stupor with your early-morning-coffee stupor so you get all the stupor out of the way in the morning while you're checking e-mail and no one else is doing anything anyway.

Do this 3-4 times a week for a few months and see how you feel at the end of it.