Ryan

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I read three interesting articles over the past couple of weeks pointing out the value of exercise for keeping your brain in good shape. Add to that an article pointing out that "extreme" exercise isn’t bad for the body and the message is clear: keep running!

I think the benefit of exercise for the brain is a very fascinating topic. Given that we used to think brain decline was inevitable as we age, it’s fascinating to see that we can improve our brains as we age – and the key is exercise.

First up, from Runner’s World, Masters Athletes Have Superior Brain Function:

The results suggest that older athletes have a lower risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to Tseng. But he emphasizes the key message here is the extraordinary benefits of long-term exercise – and that it’s never too late to start.

"Brain plasticity [changes] can happen even later in life and that’s an important message from the study," he says, noting that some of the athletes began running in their 40s and 50s.

Next, from Science Magazine, How Exercise Beefs Up the Brain.

In short, exercise stimulates the production of proteins that are very good for the brain.

Finally, from the Washington Post, Need a brain boost? Exercise.

According to recent research, a single workout can immediately boost higher-order thinking skills, making you more productive and efficient as you slog through your workday. When you exercise your legs, you also exercise your brain; this means that a lunchtime workout can improve your cognitive performance, thanks to blood flow and brain food. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, is a protein that facilitates the growth of neurons and nourishes existing ones. It improves executive function, a type of higher-order thinking that allows people to formulate arguments, develop strategies, creatively solve problems and synthesize information. BDNF sits idly at the synapses of your brain neurons and crosses the synapses only with the increased blood flow that comes with exercise.

Hey, BDNF is that same good protein from the prior article. What to take from these two combined? That BDNF that is produced through exercise is good for both short term boosts and long term brain development/maintenance.

On to what exercise does to the body, we have ScienceNordic weighing in with Debunked: extreme exercise isn’t harmful:

One conclusion was that mortality rates did not increase more than usually compared to the normal population. It’s been proven on more than one occasion that exercise has a positive effect on life span.

"There’s no basis in the literature to say extreme exercisers risk dying younger," says Overgaard. "But we don’t know what happens if you continue past your prime." Exercise doesn’t automatically mean a free pass to a long life, he adds; there’s still the risk of illness and diseases.

So it’s not a silver bullet but those who claim we’re killing ourselves off are just plain wrong.

So keep running. You’re doing your brain a favor and not harming your body.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Wow, did I get to read a lot of great things this past week! So many, in fact, that my Thursday post may be a second installment of this type of post. Here are four of my favorites on three very interesting topics.

Muscle memory

For many years, I’ve believed it’s always easier to get back to a level of fitness once you’ve been there than it is to get there the first time. I remember talking about this idea with teammates in high school and college.

Now, we know at least part of why that may be physiologically.

As far as the muscles go, there are structural changes within your muscles (more nuclei) that occur as a result of training and do not seem to be lost when not training. This gives the formerly fit a head start on those who have never been fit.

This study was specifically about muscle strength. While muscle strength does give a runner an advantage, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if similar things happen in relation to aerobic conditioning. No research I’m aware of on that idea yet, though.

Protein and muscles

Two very interesting reads on this topic this week:

First, from Alex Hutchinson at the Runner’s World Sweat Science blog, a post on the basics of protein and muscle.

Second, from Science Daily, a full serving of protein at each meal is better for muscles than the typical American diet of a small amount of protein at breakfast, a moderately small amount at lunch, then a massive amount at dinner.

I actually read the Science Daily article first and, as I was reading it, I recalled something from a long time ago that I wanted to look up. Then the Sweat Science blog post covered it. Thanks for coordinating so well!

What I wanted to look up was the largest useful dose of protein. Hutchinson states this is 20-25 grams for a typical healthy adult, up to 40 grams for older adults.

In this case, it makes perfect sense that aiming for 30 grams per meal will be better for the muscles than 10 at breakfast, 15 at lunch and 65 at dinner. After all, depending on the individual, somewhere around half of those 65 grams at dinner are wasted and likely converted into fat.

The moral of the story: balance your protein intake. That probably means increase it at breakfast and lunch and drastically reduce it at dinner.

Strong hips make happy knees

This was a review of research on treating Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (aka Runner’s Knee).

I’ve found myself often saying recently, when something hurts, look up for the root cause. If your ankle or foot hurts, look toward the calf. If your IT band hurts, look toward the hips. Well, if your knee hurts, look toward the hips also. Including hip strengthening exercises in a treatment regimen for Runner’s Knee appears to make the regimen much more successful.

I consider this another reminder that we need to look at our bodies not as a series of individual, unconnected parts. Instead, we need to look at them as the interconnected, interdependent linkages they are. If one body part hurts, it often means a strength imbalance or lack of flexibility somewhere else. Treat the symptoms but also find and deal with the root cause or you’ll be facing a constant battle.