The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), main association for health and fitness centers, published an article today titled Are You Sure Your Members are Working Out ALL Their Muscles? written by none other than our own Alvaro Fernandez and Dr. Goldberg.

Here are some highlights:

• “Physical exercise boosts the brain’s rate of neurogenesis throughout one’s life, while mental exercise increases the rate at which those new brain cells survive and make functional connections into your existing neural networks. Both physical exercise and the challenge from mental exercise increase the secretion of nerve growth factor, which helps your neurons grow and stay healthy. The bottom line is that humans need both physical and mental exercise for good brain health.

 

• “In the short term, members can expect to see improved performance (attention, memory and stress management), as with any other muscle. In the long term, they will notice the prevention and delay of deficits due to aging or disease.”

 

• “Furthermore, the effects of mental training seem to transfer or generalize beyond the specifics of a particular exercise. This means that people don’t just get better at the specific task they’re doing, but the skills actually transfer to general cognitive abilities and mental faculties, as measured independently from the task itself.”

At SharpBrains, we hope your resolutions for 2007 include:

1. Regular physical exercise
2. Regular mental exercise
3. Good nutrition and lots of water
4. Plenty of rest and reduced stress