Exercise improves mental performance, study finds

Exercise improves mental performance, study finds


One more reason to start 2023 with new habits




Exercise improves mental performance, study finds

Summer 2023 has already begun, the season in which many people are committed to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Here’s another reason to be a fan of the world of physical education! The reason? The study came to light with the contention that exercise improves mental performance.

Start and test the help of exercise in the mind

The responsibility for this research work lies with the brand “Asics” with the documentary “Mind Games – The Experiment”, narrated by British actor and mental health campaigner Stephen Fry. The feature film shares the journeys of four gamers, Kassa Korley, Ryoei Hirano, Ben Pridmore and Sherry Nhan, who specialize in Chess, Mahjong, Memory and eSports as they compete around the world.

The four-month period of regular physical activity found that minds were sharpened remarkably and that both were at a competitive level.

The international ratings of the participants grew by 75%, which simply reduced the interaction of the mind with the body. Gamers’ cognitive function increased by an average of 10%, with problem-solving skills increasing by 9%, short-term memory increasing by 12%, processing speed and alertness increasing by 10%.

Other earnings and contributions

The other outcomes were group confidence levels with an increase of 44% and concentration of 33%. Including anxiety level reduced to 43%. Research shows that exercise is effective for improving brain function, learning a foreign language, daily reading and learning music.

Brendon Stubbs is a mental health researcher and coordinated this experiment. Everyone involved complied with a training program designed by international driver and trainer Andrew Kastor. The “script” included medium-impact cardio, strength training, and increasing the players’ exercise schedule to 150 minutes a week.

Another Stubbs aid was to measure members’ mental improvement based on their performance on mind sports, cognitive tests, and well-being questionnaires in this four-month work cycle.

“We all know that exercise is good for our mental and physical health, but the impact on cognitive functioning has been less explored. We wanted to look at the effects of exercise in people who are dependent on their cognitive abilities – mental sports competitors. Our results show significant improvements in their cognitive functioning, including concentration levels and problem-solving skills,” said Brendon.

“Exercise stimulates cell growth in the brain and rapidly increases blood flow to the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, mechanisms that allow us to better retain memories, process information and solve problems more quickly. If exercise can increase significantly improve the mental performance of professional gamers, imagine what it could do for the rest of us.From boosting focus when studying for a test, to improving alertness before a business presentation, exercise can really boost power of the brain,” complete.

Research leader additions

Additionally, Stubbs even found that players’ mental well-being improved by 31.2%. The mean score was below 58 at the start of this experiment and there was a “jump” to 76 at the end, an advance that denotes the impact of the exercise.

“These results are startling and speak to the power of exercise. Many of the players couldn’t run for more than a minute at the start of the study, so their training plans had to be moderated. 150 minutes a week sounds like a lot, but you can break it down in 5 sets of 30 minutes. This means that no matter your fitness level, the mental benefits of exercise are accessible to everyone,” says Kastor.

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Source: Terra

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