By Gabe Sanders PhD, NSCA-CSCS
When we set our clocks back to begin the winter months, we gain an hour of sleep for one night. However, in the process, we lose an hour of daylight each and every day for 134 days until we spring ahead to daylight savings time. While the loss of daylight can have a dreary type of psychological “side effect” for many people, most of these side effects are nothing to worry about and will likely not result in any negative health outcomes.
To combat the difficult winter months, it may best to start now and stimulate your mind, body and soul with exercise. Structured exercise during these winter months is more important than you THINK, which is why you should strive to be as active as possible.
Exercise can help brain function
There are many studies that support the notion that exercise can help brain function. It is also well understood that there is a dose-response relationship when it comes to exercise and brain function in older adults. This means that the more you exercise the more it will benefit your mind in addition to your body. We, health conscious people, get caught up convincing ourselves that we need to exercise because we know it may help our physical bodies, but we forget about the mental and psychological benefits of regular exercise.
We probably pay less attention to the psychological benefits of exercise because we do not measure these benefits like we can measure our physical features like weight or pant size, etc. Although, just because we do not measure the improvements to our brain, doesn’t mean that exercise isn’t improving it, because it is getting sharper with every exercise session.
Men who are fit have more cognitive function
A recent study published in a scholarly journal called NeuroImage attempted to measure these changes in older men using sophisticated neuroimaging. The results of this study were that men, who were more aerobically fit, had more cognitive function in their brain. While it is not realistic for everyone to get a scan of their brain to “measure” the benefits of their exercise, just know that every time you exercise and push yourself during your aerobic exercise session, your brain is being stimulated whether you directly see it or feel it.
*For more examples of other variations/exercises look under Multimedia-VDF Exercise Tips
**Consult with a physician and/or medical healthcare provider before starting any exercise regimen
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Article’s Resources
Hyodo K, Dan I, Kyutoku Y, Suwabe K, Byun K, Ochi G, Kato M, Soya H. The association between aerobic fitness and cognitive function in older men mediated by frontal lateralization. NeuroImage. 2015,