
What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter? - robg
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/what-sort-of-exercise-can-make-you-smarter/?hp
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donw
My vote is for rock climbing. A lot of tech people do it, and it takes serious
problem-solving skills. Figuring out how to contort your body to be able to
extend your reach that last inch towards the next hold, and how to position
yourself to move after that, takes a lot of thinking.

Plus, it's an amazing whole-body workout.

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trapper
I would wager that a "fit" worker is more productive than a sedentary worker,
even taking into account the time for training.

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randallsquared
That depends strongly on the amount of time it takes for getting fit, doesn't
it? In my experience in Basic for the Army, even very high levels of exercise
do not prevent one from putting on fat ("Oh, just eat as much as you want;
they'll work it off you!", I was told. I believed them. I shouldn't have).

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abas
Being fat doesn't mean you aren't fit.

I've been thin my whole life, but am working to get fit now after a year or
two of largely sedentary existence and it is making a big difference for me.

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randallsquared
Well, _not_ being fat doesn't mean you _are_ fit, but being fat is certainly
incompatible with being fit. I speak as a fat guy who's probably less unfit
than 95% of people at my weight (over 320 lbs): I'm still not "fit".

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SwellJoe
Is it wrong that I chuckled at this revelation that gives new meaning to your
nick, "randallsquared"?

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randallsquared
Heh. People used to spontaneously call me that when I was a kid (due to my
name "Randall Randall" rather than my size, I expect), and it's way easier to
google for. :)

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ojbyrne
Curious if you've read Catch-22. One of my favorite characters in the book was
called "Major Major" (and of course his rank was Major). At some point they
managed to get a 4th one on the end too.

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randallsquared
I know about the novel, and about that character, but haven't read it (or seen
the movie).

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Novash
Play Go, Chess, Sudoku and Dual-N Back. Learn another language. Learn to play
an instrument. All this can make you 'smarter'.

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mediaman
Interestingly, I remember one study that tested the effects of "brain games"
versus exercise on the mental cognition of people as they age. The result of
the study surprised me because it indicated that brain games do not seem to
have a significant impact on the prevention of cognitive decline among the
aged, but aerobic exercise did -- which, in some sense, aligns with this
article.

Apologies in advance because I am having trouble finding the citation.

Edit: based on some searching, it appears that mental exercise does enhance
neurological function among seniors. However, aerobic exercise has an equal or
greater impact. I suspect combining both would be the best.

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Novash
If you want to do an interesting experience, doing sprints teach your brain to
think faster (because it has to keep up with the information of your steps).

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logicalmind
Based on your theory, Usain Bolt must be extremely intelligent.

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cruise02
That conclusion really doesn't follow from the stated proposition. The
proposition is that doing sprints will make you smarter than you are now,
_not_ that it will make you smarter than someone _else_ who doesn't do them.
The only conclusion about Usain Bolt that you can reach from the stated
proposition is that he's now smarter than he was before he started sprinting.
</pedantry>

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logicalmind
I read the point as "doing a high speed exercise makes your brain have to work
at a faster rate". Sprints being the example chosen as increasing the brain
processing speed. Which is quite interesting because there are other
activities that require high speed mental abilities. Playing an instrument in
a thrash metal band for one. According to this theory, a member of Megadeth
would be a faster thinker than a classical musician. Interesting thought.

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cruise02
My point is that you can't draw conclusions about two _different_ people this
way. If playing speed metal is a good mental exercise, then the only thing you
can conclude about Dave Mustaine is that he's smarter now than when he started
playing. You can't conclude that he's smarter than anyone else, no matter what
activities they participate in. The classical musician very well may have
started out at such a high IQ that no amount of mental exercise will allow
Dave to catch up.

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myth_drannon
"Mens sana in corpore sano" - a healthy mind in a healthy body

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dpapathanasiou
I'm surprised the article didn't mention martial arts training: it's terrific
for improving mental relaxation and awareness.

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SwellJoe
It didn't mention it because the study wasn't _about_ martial arts. It would
also likely be difficult to get mice to do martial arts.

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dpapathanasiou
_It would also likely be difficult to get mice to do martial arts._

Cute.

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gibsonf1
P90x has given me amazing results both mentally and physically, so I think the
article is right on. (The program is split between muscle building and
aerobics, including Kenpo and Yoga as well as good old push ups and pull ups
and dumbbells, etc.)

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jpwagner
Can they show that it was because of the "exercise" and not _the adrenaline
rush of being forced to move your body torturously and indefinitely by a power
much greater than you?_ among other possibilities...

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latortuga
It would seem that the last sentence of the article isn't substantiated by the
study and sounds rather off the cuff. I wish they wouldn't make a sweeping
generalization based on a specific study or two; the human body just isn't
that simple.

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xiaoma
The last sentence of the article is a direct quotation from Chauying J. Jen
(任卓穎), the co-author of the research. It's very doubtful that Jen's analysis
of the results of his own study are "off the cuff".

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figital
I've tried Brain Gym a few times with a licensed instructor and found it to be
quite helpful: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_gym>

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kingkongrevenge
> Jen says researchers suspect that treadmill running is more intense and
> leads to improvements in muscle aerobic capacity, and this increased aerobic
> capacity, in turn, affects the brain more than the wheel jogging.

So the subjects didn't know how to lift and the researchers didn't know how to
instruct the subjects to lift. The suggestion that a proper 20 minute lifting
session would be less intense than 20 minutes on a treadmill is ridiculous.
Done correctly lifting will leave you gasping for air.

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c00p3r
Different. Literally.

