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Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#101

Post by RaceWon »

partyboat1586 wrote: post #84
markus_zhang wrote: post #34

TBH I really hate physical activity, but I have to do it to keep healthy :(

Here is a list of physical activities to stimulate your memory or imagination. There is more to exercise than the gym. Swimming, Soccer, Rock Climbing, Hiking, Kayaking, Free running, Martial Arts, Fencing, Yoga, Surfing, Dancing (Samba, Ballroom, Contemporary...), Long walks, Cycling. My favourites are cycling because I feel so free and I love the sensation of speed and climbing because I have a natural talent for i…

> Here is a list of physical activities to stimulate your memory or imagination

You can also strap a competition car to your arse, and try to beat the quick peeps at an autocross track.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#102

Post by tkgally »

partyboat1586 wrote: post #84
markus_zhang wrote: post #34

TBH I really hate physical activity, but I have to do it to keep healthy :(

Here is a list of physical activities to stimulate your memory or imagination. There is more to exercise than the gym. Swimming, Soccer, Rock Climbing, Hiking, Kayaking, Free running, Martial Arts, Fencing, Yoga, Surfing, Dancing (Samba, Ballroom, Contemporary...), Long walks, Cycling. My favourites are cycling because I feel so free and I love the sensation of speed and climbing because I have a natural talent for i…

Search for "bodyweight exercise" and you'll find many types of exercise that require little or no equipment, can be done almost anywhere, and provide similar benefits to other physical activities. One I would recommend is Animal Flow, which is just quirky and challenging enough to stay interesting.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#103

Post by [deleted] »

partyboat1586 wrote: post #84
markus_zhang wrote: post #34

TBH I really hate physical activity, but I have to do it to keep healthy :(

Here is a list of physical activities to stimulate your memory or imagination. There is more to exercise than the gym. Swimming, Soccer, Rock Climbing, Hiking, Kayaking, Free running, Martial Arts, Fencing, Yoga, Surfing, Dancing (Samba, Ballroom, Contemporary...), Long walks, Cycling. My favourites are cycling because I feel so free and I love the sensation of speed and climbing because I have a natural talent for i…

[deleted]

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#104

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #96
viburnum wrote: post #48

Is there a scientific way to distinguish evolutionary biology from bourgeois ideology?

Last I checked, Socialists were the ones who tried extremely hard to get everyone to be physically active. It was the Machismo Cuban Revolutionary who fought and won against decadent bourgeois ideology. Not the Sedentary Cuban Revolutionary...

I think it's more complicated than an association with any single broad ideological category. For instance, fascists tend to be very big on promoting physical fitness, presumably because it's a natural nexus between the obsessions with vitality and militarism.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#105

Post by scarecrowbob »

deevolution wrote: post #43

If you're like me an dread the monotony of working out give climbing a try! Every climb is different which keeps the workout fresh and exciting and it works out every core muscle group.

That's not a bad idea at all. I second that idea.

To expand on the idea, I find that the actual "workout" part of climbing is not super effective... I mean, walking/ hiking is a workout too but by itself it's not going to bring about many physiological changes without a lot of additional targeted work. For context, I don't climb "hard"... I lead trad around 5.9+, sport around 11a/b, and was grunting up some WI4 this weekend as a newbie ice climber in Ouray-- I don't boulder outside of a gym if I can avoid it.

I think most people can climb 5.10 outside without changing a lot of fitness... the skills and techniques are so much more important than strength, assuming a basic level of fitness.

What I have found is that I'm a lot more likely to do actual working out when I have a project I'm trying to get strong enough to do.

Additionally, climbing keeps me doing approaches with a pack, and there is fitness that comes with that practice. Or I need to get up hella early, so it often prevents me from drinking. Or I have a reason to fast and keep my weight as low as possible without feeling like I'm jut being neurotic and picky about what I eat.

That is all to say, I've gotten a lot of stoke for working out from climbing, but the climbing itself hasn't been specifically great workout wise.

So maybe this is just a quibble, and not a disagreement; I certainly like to recommend that people get out and climb and it sure has gotten me around the issue of not wanting to exercise, even if I don't find it to be a great workout in itself.

But that quibble does change the character of the recommendation, I think: in general, I think that any hobby which benefits from high levels of fitness is a good thing that makes working out easier. Mountain biking, back country skiing, mountaineering, canyoneering... all of those are great and make getting into the gym feel like it has a much higher pay-off.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#106

Post by scarecrowbob »

partyboat1586 wrote: post #81
useful wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Climbing reduces cortisol (stress hormone) by producing testosterone. I also think fear makes you forget about everything but the problem and grounds you in what matters in life (usually not work). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20963437

I wonder what it is about climbing specifically that causes this or if it you could get the same effect from say soccer.

I can't say for sure, but having played other sports and also spent a lot of time climbing I don't think that I've experienced the same flavor of focus on the basketball court or in a flow-state while mountain biking.

I feel like there is a different and very high-quality kind of focus that comes from having to perform correctly or die.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#107

Post by basementcat »

deevolution wrote: post #43

If you're like me an dread the monotony of working out give climbing a try! Every climb is different which keeps the workout fresh and exciting and it works out every core muscle group.

Sometimes after a climb I’m exhausted not just physically but also from all the mental effort related to path planning. Ive noticed a similar "exhaustion" (perhaps in a diminished form) after skiing and snowboarding on tricky (for me) terrain.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#108

Post by austin_y »

vezycash wrote: post #57

If I understood the article properly, then: PLAY - Playing a physical game like tag, catch, soccer, volley ball, hide and seek... provides both physical exercise and cognitive / social stimulation because of group play's dynamic nature. This next bit might not be useful. In college, the distance from my apartment to school was 15 - 20 minutes. And I took to the habit of listening to audio books on my ride (traffic wa…

> I noticed that if I listened to a track while riding, I would remember exactly where I was the next time I listened to the track.

I experienced the same thing recently by listening to a book on my drive to/from work! I often listened to sections of the book a second time to catch things I missed, or to help ideas sink in, and found that I could often clearly picture the stretch of road on which I heard a passage.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#109

Post by barrkel »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #106
partyboat1586 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what it is about climbing specifically that causes this or if it you could get the same effect from say soccer.

I can't say for sure, but having played other sports and also spent a lot of time climbing I don't think that I've experienced the same flavor of focus on the basketball court or in a flow-state while mountain biking. I feel like there is a different and very high-quality kind of focus that comes from having to perform correctly or die.

Ever ridden a motorcycle? That certainly triggers a flow state when you're on a good curvy road, and the stakes are similarly real.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#110

Post by bitwize »

throwaway_tech wrote: post #19

>Less clear has been why physical activity affects the brain in the first place. I think the studies are looking at this backwards. Physical activity should probably be looked at as the natural state of humans and ask why lack of physical activity affects the brain. Then it probably makes a lot more sense, the brain is comprised of cells, just like muscles, that are either anabolic or catabolic. A lack of physical ex…

Animals developed brains so that they could move around without endangering themselves.

I remember a bit of research that came out of Seymour Papert's work. They took kids who were so severely disabled that they were immobile, and gave them a (physical) Logo Turtle to command, and to move around an obstacle course. The underdeveloped bits of their brain that governed locomotion started growing.

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