How to Use Exercise to Improve Your Brain’s Health, Longevity & Performance

In this episode, I discuss how different forms of exercise impact brain health and performance in both the short and long term. I explain how many of the positive effects of exercise on brain function occur through the action of specific neurochemicals that increase alertness.

I also cover how to best time exercise and which specific types of exercise to include in your weekly routine to maximize benefits for your brain. Additionally, I explain how certain types of exercise trigger the release of a hormone from your bones called osteocalcin, as well as brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Together, these substances increase neuroplasticity and enhance learning.

The positive effects of exercise on brain oxygenation, blood supply, and fuel utilization are also discussed. Listeners will learn how to design a weekly exercise program that optimizes physical fitness, brain health, longevity, and performance, along with the mechanistic logic behind those recommendations.

Articles

• Enhanced Human Memory Consolidation With Post-Learning Stress: Interaction With the Degree of Arousal at Encoding (Learning and Memory)
• Executive function after exhaustive exercise (European Journal of Applied Physiology)
• A single bout of resistance exercise can enhance episodic memory performance (Acta Psychologica)
• The Influence of Acute Sprint Interval Training on Cognitive Performance of Healthy Younger Adults (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health)
• The mind–body problem: Circuits that link the cerebral cortex to the adrenal medulla (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
• Repeated high-intensity interval exercise shortens the positive effect on executive function during post-exercise recovery in healthy young males (Physiology & Bheavior)
• The Tenacious Brain: How the Anterior Mid-Cingulate Contributes to Achieving Goals (Cortex)
• Thinking While Moving or Moving While Thinking – Concepts of Motor-Cognitive Training for Cognitive Performance Enhancement (Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience)
• Swimming training improves mental health parameters, cognition and motor coordination in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (International Journal of Environmental Health Research)
• The effect of exercise intensity on brain derived neurotrophic factor and memory in adolescents (Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine)
• Impact of exercise on older adults’ mood is moderated by sleep and mediated by altered brain connectivity (Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience)
• Visual threat detection during moderate- and high-intensity exercise (Emotion)
• Executive function after exhaustive exercise (European Journal of Applied Physiology)

Other Resources

• Stroop test
• Zone 2 cardio (Mayo Clinic)
• Should you lose sleep over a bad night of sleep? (Biolayne)
• How to Rope Flow (Mark Bell)
• WeckMethod

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

• Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: How to Understand Emotions
• How to Prevent & Treat Colds & Flu
• Guest Series | Dr. Andy Galpin: How to Assess & Improve All Aspects of Your Fitness
• Sleep Toolkit: Tools for Optimizing Sleep & Sleep-Wake Timing
• Master Your Sleep & Be More Alert When Awake
• How to Defeat Jet Lag, Shift Work & Sleeplessness
• Guest Series | Dr. Matt Walker: The Biology of Sleep & Your Unique Sleep Needs
• David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength

Huberman Lab Newsletters Mentioned

• Foundational Fitness Protocol
• Improve Your Sleep
• Toolkit for Sleep

People Mentioned

• Peter Attia: Stanford & Johns Hopkins-trained doctor, podcaster, author
• Andy Galpin: Professor of Kinesiology, California State University, Fullerton
• Layne Norton: nutrition and training expert
• Josef Parvizi: Professor of Neurology, Stanford University