The Thinker
My buddy Brian Boudreau, between flying 200m reps, working from his laptop. He is a programmer in an exotic computer language, MUMPS to be exact.
I love the echo here of Rodin’s “The Thinker“. The New York Times had an article today about how exercise is now proven to be good for your brain. But not just easy rambling workouts, it’s gotta be hard.
The rats who were the original focus of the study did forced wheel running, and according to the NYT-
Allow a laboratory mouse to run as much as it likes, and its brainpower improves. Force it to run harder than it otherwise might, and its thinking improves even more.
Sounds like skating hard, chasing your buddies, or with a coach urging you onward with the weighty judgment of the incorruptible stopwatch.
So thanks Brian, my brain feels better after that workout we did. And I always thought skating in circles was brain crushing. How wrong I was.
Filed under: from the coffee shop
Skating on wheels in straight lines (bike trail) works also!
Would be interesting to see more research on this. Surely a good topic for anyone in sports med. Study humans, their thinking is somewhat different from animals. Consider whether too-long or too-hard workouts can become counterproductive because of physical/mental exhaustion. Consider whether the amount of mental challenge in the workout is relevant, e.g. maybe running a treadmill (no mental) is too little, maybe a new long track setdown technique (frustrating) is too much mental stress. Consider how long the benefit lasts.
Good Morning Jim! I am not surprised this appealed to your thoughtful approach.
Actually, the study moved from rats to humans, and human based evidence showed that intense aerobic exercise is what helped the brain the most.
Weightlifting did very little for the brain. Researchers speculate It’s something about the hyper-oxygenation of the blood.
So in that line of thinking, your distance inline skating is probably among the best. Aerobic, and HARD.
How long does the benefit last? ha, my unscientific opinion is FOREVER!!
Hope Brian’s boss doesn’t see where he is working from .
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And what about the endorphin rush when you’re cranking out a 3k or 5k all out and you start to feel your vision blurr. I remember overhearing Elli mention a few years ago having that experience after an intense tempo or time trial in SLC. After that rush, and you get a bit of a rest, I bet you can think a bit more clearly???