Keep on keeping on!

At this time of year, lots of people take up or resume exercise – whether that’s the Couch to 5K, joining a gym, or just trying to move around more. To help keep everyone motivated, here are some interesting facts about the benefits of exercise that aren’t only to do with the usual stuff (with thanks to Diana, one of my clients, for sending the article from The Times to me).

• Taking daily moderate exercise (like brisk walking) for 30 minutes five days per week is associated with improved brain structure and function (University of Maryland, 2014).
• Regular resistance exercise with light weights — enough to make you sweat — can increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, crucial for growing new brain cells (Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, 2017).
• Walking briskly, running or cycling — cardiorespiratory exercise that makes you breathless — is linked with sustained cognitive power in older age (Norwegian University of Science and Technology cardiac exercise research group).
• Circuit training for more than three months boosts cognitive ability and blood flow in the brain (University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, 2013).
• One or two hatha yoga sessions per week over six months offers a range of benefits to areas of the brain that are associated with clear thinking, memory and emotional self-control, according to an analysis of 11 studies conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois.

Keep going! Exercise is beneficial in so many ways.