Ways to boost your mental powers
MENTAL BENEFITS OF INDOOR CYCLING
Indoor cycling is one of the best medicines I can possibly take and is one of the best ways to boost your mental powers.
This is medicine that I need to survive and my mental sanity depends on it.
I do my cycling classes three times a week and those surely keep me from going completely bat $h*t crazy)!
The cleansing emotionally and mentally as well as physically is the single greatest feeling I could ever possibly undertake and I go home a new person.
I want to share with you the great mental benefits of indoor cycling. Those of us who teach Spinning® and/or ride bikes outside will say “of course we know this!” You can use this as further reason to convince your students the need to continue coming to your classes.
Every morning I give my brain an extra boost. We’re not talking about tossing back multiple strong shots of espresso or playing one of those mind-training games advertised all over Facebook.
I hop on my indoor bike, rock a wicked playlist and ride for an hour. When I get to my office, my brain is at peak activity. After my mental focus sputters to a halt later in the day, I jump-start it with another short spin on my indoor bike in the office.
Ride, work, ride, repeat. It’s a scientifically proven system and a system that definitely works for me.
In a recent study in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, scientists found that people scored higher on tests of memory, reasoning, and planning after 30 minutes of spinning on a stationary bike than they did before they rode. They also completed the tests faster after pedaling.
Grow Your Mind
Exercise is like fertilizer for your brain. All those hours spent turning your cranks create rich capillary beds not only in your quads and glutes, but also in your gray matter. More blood vessels in your brain and muscles mean more oxygen and nutrients to help them work.
When you pedal, you also force more nerve cells to fire. As these neurons light up, they intensify the creation of proteins like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and a compound called noggin (yeah really), which promote the formation of new brain cells.
The result:
You double or triple the production of neurons—literally building your brain. You also release neurotransmitters (the messengers between your brain cells) so all those cells, new and old, can communicate with each other for better, faster functioning.
This kind of growth is especially important with each passing birthday, because as we age, our brains shrink and those connections weaken. Exercise restores and protects the organ. People who exercised had the brain volume of those five years younger.
So there it is! A Health, Heart and Pocketbook moment from your Spin Guru.
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