The effects of sport on the brain

The race for memory

Running to maintain your memory, it seems surprising and yet it is our brain that tells us. Sport would stimulate the production of new neurons and neurotransmitters. A study conducted at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute showed that mice accustomed to physical activity had 2.5 times more neurons than others. 

Sports activity also increases the formation of blood vessels in the hippocampus (brain region). Very important vessels since they supply the new neurons with the energy they need. What is certain is that in humans, this activity significantly delays the atrophy of the brain, preventing the alteration of gray and white matter. So less loss of neurons and neurotransmitters, thus avoiding the appearance of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Doing a sport is also better to oxygenate.

During activity, cerebral blood flow increases and the brain consumes the transported oxygen better. It is now known that poor oxygenation of the brain is responsible for the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease. Is sport the medicine against brain aging? Everything suggests that yes...

And we muscle our brains!

A study carried out on women over 65 years of age shows that the most physically active keep their cognitive functions in good condition unlike the most sedentary who suffer a deterioration of their intellectual abilities. According to the researchers, this phenomenon could be due to the blood flow which during exercise sometimes increases to more than 30%. The brain, then better supplied with oxygen and nutrients, would be preserved and therefore more efficient.

Also move if you suffer from hyperactivity or attention disorders because practicing a sport can help you regulate yourself by stimulating your dopamine. The presence of this chemical is abnormally low in hyperactives because it is poorly recaptured by synapses. Moving to focus better, a method let's say... Unexpected. Physical exercise would therefore be the simple and natural way to work intellect and concentration.

Sport to regain well-being

The vagaries of everyday life are sometimes difficult to live with. Irritability, stress, anxiety, and even sometimes depression settle down thus spoiling your daily life and even that of your loved ones. Having a bad lifestyle does not help, poor diet or lack of physical activity influence without you knowing it about your morale. Yet regular physical practice could help you regain balance.

Sport, a natural antidepressant

Everyone can be affected by depression at some point in their lives. This disease is sometimes difficult to fight and its symptoms are present consistently and over the long term. However, this is not inevitable, treatments exist whether they are medicinal or psychological. According to a study in October 1999, sport would also have a beneficial effect on our morale. 

Sport would reduce symptoms of depression faster and more intensely than when taking antidepressants. By practicing it, our brain would make new neurotransmitters responsible for our good mood but also endorphins that would eliminate stress, calm anxieties and therefore give free rein to all the good positive waves.

According to researchers at texas medical university in Dallas, 50% of young adults practicing sports see their symptoms of depression disappear during a practice of 30 min of sports a day, 3 times a week. No wonder since sport counters the loosening effects of the body caused by depression. The body "reactivates" and the sensations of physical and moral fatigue are reduced.

Running would be the perfect sport against depression, it would even be as effective as antidepressants according to researchers at Duke University. Serotonin levels, abnormally low in depressed people, would increase fivefold during a jogging session. This molecule reduces feelings of depression and brings a sense of power and pride. But that's not all. It also regulates the sleep-wake cycle, reduces the sensations of pain and anxiety. Everything to feel at its best.

A newfound self-confidence

Are you tired of feeling unable to do any tasks, of not feeling up to the task? Regaining self-confidence is not a step to be taken lightly. This makes it easier to face the difficulties of life. 

By telling yourself that you are capable, you make every effort to achieve your goals as well as possible. Only, this characteristic is not given to everyone and when you are completely devoid of it, you must know how to obtain it. Learn with sport to reconcile with yourself. 

Set goals for each session and see your improvements. What could be more satisfying than feeling active, having the feeling of doing good to your body, seeing it reshape from week to week, and feeling more efficient. Bring the positive into your life to do good to your ego!

A simple way to improve your social life

For some returning home is synonymous with loneliness, abandonment and suffering. Even if the desire to shut oneself away is becoming more and more intense, it is necessary for his psychic well-being, to break this vicious circle that is taking hold. 

Going out with friends, walking a little or signing up in a gym, all methods are good but only consistency gives results against the gloomy mood. Sport reduces feelings of abandonment and isolation by forcing you to be in contact with others.

Even if sport is not collective, you meet the eyes of others, engage in discussions or simply exchange a smile. Over the sessions, links are forged, affinities appear. Speaking out is becoming easier and even natural. 

This has a direct influence on how you approach others in general, whether in your leisure time or within your work. The sports course is the perfect place to test your communication skills. The atmosphere is relaxed, the negative consequences are less, and whatever happens, changing courses is not a challenge.

For immediate psychic well-being

As a rule, you wake up in the morning tired as every day, so not necessarily in a good mood... Throughout the day the negative effects of stress accumulate: traffic jams, delays, deadlines to be respected etc... The hour of the end of the day rings and that's good for you. 

Although you leave your workplace, all the accumulated tensions remain taped to you, and you feel it as a heaviness, an inconvenient fatigue. Everything you want to do, slip into the couch and not move from the evening. The best for a total relaxation would be to clean up your day and evacuate everything.

For this, on the way to the gym or the aqua aerobics for example history to decompress and make the void in you. Remove the clothes worn during the day and put yourself in sportswear, this moment already offers you the opportunity to get rid of a little of the bad waves that grip you. 

The course begins, you will be able to release everything! The efforts are intense, your whole body works, all you have in mind is to go to the end of yourself... And you're not that bad at it! Ahhh that it feels good to feel light! You are now emptied, the fatigue is there but it is pleasant. 

Go home without putting back the old clothes, head to your shower and remove the rest of the impurities on your skin. The heat relaxes you... nothing like it to end the day. 

We end with a jet of cold water to activate blood circulation, and we sneak into a large bath sheet. Relaxed, relaxed, the worries of the day are now far from your concerns. You will be able to enjoy your evening and sleep like a lawr... The night promises to be good!

As you will have understood, playing sports means taking care of your body and mind. A lifestyle that allows, among other things, to improve one's well-being, memory, intelligence and health. Put a little sport in your daily life, all the ingredients will be gathered to live well and long!