 You know that exercise is good for you, but you probably can benefit from being reminded again about the benefits of exercise, and also what type of exercise is best. So that's what I'm going to share in this video. So let's start with the benefits of exercise, and I'm actually going to focus more on how the exercise benefits the brain and the mind. Because this is what I teach about, I teach business and productivity. So I'm going to focus on that part of it. Recent research I've seen is showing that exercise creates new brain cells. Okay, so now this is interesting. The activity is called neurogenesis, which is the creation of new brain cells all throughout the human life. So it's not just young people who make new brain cells, as you know that. No matter how old you are, your brain can create new brain cells all throughout the rest of your life. And the question is, what is the rate of neurogenesis in your life? If you exercise more, you tend to have a higher rate of neurogenesis, newer brain cells, which means you'll be able to prevent Alzheimer's. Okay, that's very important for prevention of Alzheimer's and other brain diseases. When you increase the rate of neurogenesis in your brain. Exercise is a huge, huge part of that. Studies are showing this. The other important thing about exercise is that it's been shown to increase the part of your brain for learning and memory, and even daydreaming, which is important for creativity. Okay, so again, exercise will improve your ability to learn, ability to remember, ability also to envision into the future and to be more creative as a result. Now, oh, the other thing I should say is that exercise has been shown to raise kids test scores. So no, raising test scores isn't just about sitting and studying more. They've shown that at schools that have regular exercise where recess is an important part of the curriculum, versus schools that don't have exercise where they just have a lot of classroom time, the schools that have exercise have higher test scores that prioritize that. Okay, now the question is, what type of exercise should we be doing? So the most basic instruction on this is to do two and a half hours of moderate aerobic exercise per week. Now two and a half hours per week at one time is not going to be as beneficial to your body as breaking that up in some way. So the way I break it up is 30 minutes five times a week. 30 minutes, just imagine, 30 minutes Monday through Friday. Now the question is, what is moderate aerobic exercise? The most simple thing that all of us can probably do is brisk walking. Okay, what's brisk walking? Brisk walking is walking fast enough where it becomes difficult to carry on a conversation with someone. Now I'm not doing brisk walking. I'm doing slow walking. Let me show you what brisk walking is like. So if I walk like this, I'm still walking, but notice how as I'm walking now, it's a little harder to carry on a conversation. So that's what brisk walking is. It's not leisurely in the park. I'm in the park, but it's not leisurely walking. It's walking fast enough, trying to keep up with my sweet dog buddy there. If you can see him out there in the, he's walking ahead. So brisk walking, that's all of us can do that. Or of course bicycling is great. Swimming is also a fantastic way to exercise. Dancing is wonderful. Dancing is a great way to exercise because dancing will move your body in ways that you don't typically get to move in daily life, and that also increases the rate of neurogenesis in your brain. Okay, so I just read some research that was interesting that compared three types of exercise and how that affected the brain. The first type was sustained moderate aerobic exercise, like brisk walking, bicycling, dancing for like 30 minutes. The second type of exercise was interval training. Interval training has become popular in recent years because it is a very efficient way to increase your bodily fitness and muscles. Interval training is basically like you exercise intensely for like three minutes or five minutes and then you do slower exercise for another few minutes and then another intensive for a few minutes like running up the stairs and then walking back down, running up the stairs, running back down. That's called interval training and it's a very, you save a lot of time and still able to build up your fitness. Now that's the second type. The third type is weightlifting, lifting weights. They discovered, okay now this was a study with I think laboratory mice but you know they have a similar kind of connection between exercise and brain development to humans I guess. They discovered that of the three types of exercise, the best one by far for improving the hippocampus of the brain which is the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory and envisioning the future, okay. The best exercise by far was moderate aerobic exercise. So moderate sustained aerobic exercise compared to interval training and compared to weightlifting was by far better and of course all three types were better than a sedentary lifestyle where you don't exercise much but actually interestingly the weightlifting didn't have much of a benefit to the brain for learning and memory compared to a sedentary lifestyle so if you're going to do any kind of exercise be sure to be doing sustained moderate aerobic exercise. Again the simplest way is to do 30 minutes of brisk walking five times a week or I guess you could do three times a week, you know 45 minutes it's getting close. 50 minutes three times a week is also good brisk walking. Now one more thing before I close this video is that they've also shown that green exercise is also better for the brain and the mind than just working out indoors in the gymnasium or at home or something like that. So what is green exercise? It's being out in nature. It's being out in nature so they had two groups of people one group walked a busy city street and then the other group walked in a city park so not even a national park or something just a city park with some trees and some grass and also it was a really cold day so it wasn't even a nice warm day like today it was a really cold day they were walking out in nature the other group walked in a busy city street and then afterwards both groups were asked to solve a challenging creative problem and consistently when they did this test on many groups consistently the group that was out in nature even though it was cold and unpleasant just being out in nature allowed them to solve the problems with more focus and creativity than the group that was just walking out on a busy city street so it's called the attention restoration theory you might want to check that out attention restoration theory which is basically somehow nature has an effect on the brain that it restores the brain in some way that improves creativity and focus when solving problems afterwards so my prescription for you is to do more green exercise especially moderate aerobic sustained exercise like 30 minutes of brisk walking five times a week and you will do your brain a lot of good you will prevent Alzheimer's you will improve your learning and concentration and focus and creativity which will help your business and your work life and your relationships as well the last thing I want to say is that the biggest challenge for all of us probably is making your exercise habits sticky making sure that you have a habit of exercise my recent favorite way didn't know that this was going to happen but was to get a dog so I know that's a big challenge but if you can get a dog that will definitely improve your habit of exercising but otherwise I will include a link in the notes of this video that gives you some ideas on how to create habits more effectively so I hope this is helpful I'm always open to your questions and your comments and what works for you to make exercise a habit I'd love for you to comment below and until the next video I wish you lots of or consistent green exercise be well