Feeling good from exercise

Exercise is also great for your mental health. It doesn’t just leave

you feeling good, but it can also improve feelings of depression

and anxiety (see Chapter 9 for more on how to improve your

mental health).

Plasticity or neuroplasticity is the way the brain can change

throughout your life by forming new connections between brain

cells, which are called neurons. Most of the change occurs during

infancy and childhood when the brain is learning and growing the

most. But the brain can also change after an injury that’s dam-

aged some part of its functioning. More recently, science has also

discovered that the brain is ‘plastic’, even in adulthood. Whenever

you’re learning something new, your brain changes to adapt to

this new information (see Chapter 7 for how this happens with taxi

drivers). Exercise also plays a role in brain cell (neuron) growth in

the hippocampus of adults.

Schizophrenia is associated with smaller brain volume, particu-

larly in the hippocampus, which is associated with learning and

memory (see Chapter 7). Recent clinical trials have demonstrated

that physical exercise can also help increase the volume of the hip-

pocampus in adults with schizophrenia. But the type of exercise

made all the difference. Patients who were playing table football,

which just enhances concentration and coordination but not fit-

ness levels, didn’t increase their brain volume by much at all.

In contrast, those who cycled three times a week for 30 minutes

increased their brain volume 12 times more than the table football

group. This exciting research demonstrates that aerobic activity

can make a big difference to adults struggling with difficulties like

schizophreni

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