Link between physical and mental activity?

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wasteofo2
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Is there a link between physical and mental activity?

For instance, when I'm feeling tired, often if I exercise, if I don't do it to strenuosly, afterwards I'll feel much more awake and alert. I would assume that since your heart gets pounding faster and your body sort of wakes up, that your brain would too. But then, assumptions have no reason to be right.

So if you get your body moving, your heart pounding, does it stimulate your brain as well? If you're tired and need to do some sort of work (write a paper, solve problems), would jogging a mile before hand help wake you up and allow you to do it better?
 
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Light aerobic exercise does get the brain juices flowing. Various factors could be at play here : greater arousal state due to catecholamines, endogenous mineralosteroids and corticosteroids, etc., greater blood flow to all organs and so on.

I find that leisurely walks allow me to focus on a problem better.
 
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Grow new neurons just add exercise

wasteofo2 said:
Is there a link between physical and mental activity?

For instance, when I'm feeling tired, often if I exercise, if I don't do it to strenuosly, afterwards I'll feel much more awake and alert. I would assume that since your heart gets pounding faster and your body sort of wakes up, that your brain would too. But then, assumptions have no reason to be right.

So if you get your body moving, your heart pounding, does it stimulate your brain as well? If you're tired and need to do some sort of work (write a paper, solve problems), would jogging a mile before hand help wake you up and allow you to do it better?

Here's another benefit of exercise for mental activity:

Exercise Improves Learning and Memory

Chalk up another benefit for regular exercise. Investigators from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) have found that voluntary running boosts the growth of new nerve cells and improves learning and memory in adult mice.

"Until recently it was thought that the growth of new neurons, or neurogenesis, did not occur in the adult mammalian brain," said Terrence Sejnowski, an HHMI investigator at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. "But we now have evidence for it, and it appears that exercise helps this happen."

http://www.hhmi.org/news/sejnowski.html
 
exercise also releases endorphins in the brain.