Earlier this month, I met with a high school basketball player who had poor study habits. After school, he would relax at home, then hop on the court to practice his shooting skills, then hit the gym for an hour-long workout. By the time he ate dinner, he’d typically be too tired — or unmotivated — to even think about schoolwork. His grades were suffering, and his parents were desperate for him to rethink his priorities.
Fortunately, the student did not have to give up his passion in order to boost his performance at school. In fact, emerging research suggests exercise, when performed strategically, can enhance memory and learning — whether you need it to pass a test, nail a work presentation or simply learn lyrics to a new song.
[See: 13 Ways to Improve Your Memory.]
One study’s initial findings showed, for instance, that a single bout of aerobic exercise before memorizing a list of words can help people better retain that information over several days. More recent findings show that a single bout of aerobic exercise — for instance, a 20-minute session of high-intensity interval cycling — before learning a new motor task may promote certain changes that help us learn and remember that task better than if we didn’t exercise before learning it.
These findings support what we already know, which is that neural connections are formed when we learn new information. That is, our brain’s wiring physically changes with exposure to new stuff, be it new school material, a new athletic technique or a new dance move. But this research illustrates something newer: Exercise, either before or after a learning episode, seems to actually make us smarter. That may be due in part to the fact that exercise boosts your levels of epinephrine, a hormone helpful in forming neural connections.
The high school player learned this firsthand. After he was introduced to the research behind learning and exercise, he decided to make some changes. He began studying for a short period before beginning his basketball training, which not only improved his on-court skills, but also strengthened the learning from his previous studying. After practice and dinner, he briefly reviewed the old information as a way to solidify the memory before moving on to another short period of learning new material.
Indeed, this type of “brain training” is more effective than brain-training games that promise to improve cognition and help prevent age-related brain decline without moving a muscle, according to a recent study out of Florida State University. As lead author Neil Charness put it in a press release, “If your real goal is to improve cognitive function and brain games are not helping, then maybe you are better off getting aerobic exercise rather than sitting in front of the computer playing these games.”
[See: 7 Mind-Blowing Effects of Exercise.]
To improve your learning through exercise, try applying one (or all) of these scenarios to your goals:
— You’re reading from a school textbook and hoping to quickly pick up the new information. Between sections or chapters, do some stretching or light yoga in your room before resuming your reading.
— You’re studying for a test, exposing yourself to material you’re not entirely comfortable with. Resist the temptation to cram. Instead, go for a walk or drop down for a minute of pushups after studying for 20 to 30 minutes. Then, return to the original information for a quick review before moving on to new material.
— You’ve just heard a new song on the radio and you’d like to learn the lyrics. Try this: Listen to the song once or twice, interrupt the listening with a few minutes of jumping jacks, then go back and listen again. Repeat this routine several times, and notice if the exercise-filled break has any effects on the ease with which you recall the lyrics each round.
[See: 8 Ways to Remember Something Right Now.]
— You’re preparing for a presentation or important conversation at work. Take a chunk of time to mentally rehearse what you’d like to say. Then remove yourself and do some laundry or climb stairs — really anything that will generate epinephrine to help fix the memory. Then go back and mentally rehearse the original content. Once you’re fully comfortable, go on to something new.
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Here’s Exactly How to Exercise to Perform Better at Work or School originally appeared on usnews.com
