Here is ques­tion six of 25 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions. To down­load the com­plete ver­sion, please click here.

Ques­tion:
How do I start a brain fit­ness program?

Key Points:

• Any activ­ity that requires you to use your brain in new, chal­leng­ing ways helps your brain.
• Recre­ational activ­i­ties like bridge, chess, puz­zles, sudoku, var­i­ous classes, read­ing, and sports are all bet­ter than pas­sively watch­ing television.
• Add a com­put­er­ized brain fit­ness pro­gram to get a com­plete men­tal work­out on a reg­u­lar basis.

Answer:
Do some­thing. Any­thing. Essen­tially, doing any­thing is bet­ter than noth­ing. So, if you enjoy play­ing strat­egy games like bridge and chess, then great – keep doing it. You’re work­ing your spa­tial, mem­ory, and plan­ning skills, among oth­ers. Much like phys­i­cal fit­ness, if you do some­thing you enjoy, you’re more likely to stick with it over time. Find activ­i­ties that use your brain and fit into your life.

The draw­back to rely­ing on social and recre­ational activ­i­ties for your brain exer­cise is that they tend to be incom­plete. For a more struc­tured and com­pre­hen­sive men­tal work­out, try a computer-based pro­gram. These pro­grams have the abil­ity to assess your abil­i­ties at the start and cre­ate a reg­i­men that will improve both your strengths and weak­nesses. The pro­grams also adapt to your per­for­mance to keep on chal­leng­ing you over time.

Phys­i­cal exer­cise and good nutri­tion will sup­port your com­mit­ment to brain health. Pas­sive activ­i­ties like tele­vi­sion watch­ing will do very lit­tle to improve and stim­u­late your brain. And chronic stress will actu­ally dam­age your brain.

Use “down” time to take a much-needed break. If you find your­self with ten min­utes in the shower, in your car, on a walk, or even at your desk, try paus­ing to focus on your breath­ing and sys­tem­at­i­cally relax­ing all your mus­cles. Con­tin­ued ele­vated stress lev­els can actu­ally kill your brain cells, as well as cause other phys­i­cal ail­ments. There­fore, just a few min­utes of relax­ation on a reg­u­lar basis will go a long way to improv­ing both your brain and over­all fitness.

Con­clu­sion:
You must use your brain in order to improve it. Daily life can pro­vide plenty of plea­sur­able chal­lenges to work your mind, but be sure to seek out a diverse pro­gram that includes nov­elty, vari­ety, and stretch­ing practice.

Fur­ther Reading

• Gamon D. and Brag­don A. Build­ing Men­tal Mus­cle: Con­di­tion­ing Exer­cises for the Six Intel­li­gence Zones (Walker & Com­pany; 2003). ISBN: 0802776698
• De Bono, Edward. Six Think­ing Hats (Back Bay Books; 1999). ISBN: 0316178314
• Mah­ncke HW, Con­nor BB, Appel­man J, et al. Mem­ory enhance­ment in healthy older adults using a brain plasticity-based train­ing pro­gram: a ran­dom­ized, con­trolled study. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2006;103:12523–8.
• Scarmeas N, Stern Y. Cog­ni­tive reserve and lifestyle. J Clin Exp Neu­ropsy­chol. 2003;25:625–33.
• Willis SL, Tennst­edt SL, Mar­siske M, et al. Long-term effects of cog­ni­tive train­ing on every­day func­tional out­comes in older adults. JAMA. 2006;296:2805–14.

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