Three great exercises to strengthen your mind
Updated | By Poelano Malema
Doing these exercises will keep your mind mentally sharp! Good thing is that you can do them from the comfort of your own home...
Keeping your mind healthy is as important as keeping your body in good shape.
Many people know the benefits of exercise - from helping you maintain a good weight to heart health, there are countless benefits of physical exercise.
But, did you know that there are exercises that you can do that can also improve your mental health?
According to Dr Wendy Suzuki, a neuroscientist who held a Ted Talk, aerobic exercises that increases your heart rate are the best exercises for your brain.
Some of these exercises include walking, swimming, stair climbing, tennis, squash, house chores, and dancing.
Her theory is supported by a study conducted by the University of British Columbia.
READ: Ten benefits of yoga
In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.- Harvard Health Publishing
Reading aloud is also one of the proven ways to improve your memory. The University of Waterloo found that people who read aloud to themselves were able to remember what they read unlike those who read silently.
The study found that speaking and hearing yourself speak helps the brain to store the information in a way that goes into long-term memory. It also found that repeating the words to another person resulted in the highest verbal memory recall.
Putting together a jigsaw puzzle is also a great way to boost memory function. Research published in the National Library of Medicine found that putting together a jigsaw puzzle can help reduce neurocognitive disorders.
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