Saturday WAR Strength & Conditioning

In Tune Spiritually

WAR Workout 

60-90 Minute Hike with a Light Load - Constant Pace. Get real with yourself and enjoy the fall weather. Make this happen. Go with a friend, family member, by yourself, just make it happen.  The weather is running out.

Just Thinking about Exercise, the Brain, and Learning: I’m a firm believer that the brain works best after exercise. Think about it, you're more receptive to all that surrounds you, and all who surround you. Think about the High School or College kid that wakes up in the morning, exercises, and then goes directly to school; as apposed to the kid who wakes up 10 minutes before class, doesn’t eat breakfast, and rolls into class half asleep. Exercise puts our brain on track.  Our brain works best after exercise - it’s as real as it gets.

As I ponder this topic, it makes me think about the ADHD & ADD drugs (Ritalin, Adderal,etc) being prescribed so freely to kids, young adults, and even adults.  This discussion is for another time, but I want you to think about the relationship between nutrition and exercise; and the positive affect it has on mood and learning. Is it wise to prescribe a 12 year old an amphetamine salt? Or is it wise to prescribe nutrition, exercise, and education on how to live an active healthy lifestyle - through action based learning? Read the below article....IntelligenceObservers of the game of football might refute the claim that exercise leads to greater intelligence – and they would be partly right, says Ratey. “Exercise doesn’t make you smarter, but what it does do is optimise the brain for learning.”Physical activity boosts the flow of blood to the part of the brain that is responsible for memory and learning, promoting the production of new brain cells. Several schools in the US and the Netherlands have taken note. Pupils at Naperville Central High School near Chicago, for example, start the day with a fitness class they call “Zero Hour PE”. Equipped with heart monitors, they run laps of the playground, and teachers say exam results have soared since the keep-fit initiative kicked off.Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, a test involving 241 people, aged 15-71, compared physical activity with the results of cognitive tasks. The researchers documented improved results among people who were more active, especially those in younger age groups.Yet more research suggests that exercise boosts intelligence in the very, very young. Experiments on rats at the Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine in Berlin showed that baby rats born to mothers who were more active during pregnancy had 40 per cent more cells in the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for intelligence. If the same is true in humans, we can expect Paula Radcliffe’s baby, Isla, to be a genius; Radcliffe was training for the New York marathon until the day before she went in to hospital to be induced – and won the race just nine months after giving birth.