Exercise makes you smarter

Need more of an excuse to start working on your bod before the Summer rays hit? Apparently, according to a number of studies, exercise actually works to get your mind in shape as well as your body. Naturally, mental workouts (reading and the like) are also nessicary to truly harness your brain's potential, but the link between mental and physical health seems far more tangible now than was previously thought.

From Newsweek:

"Last week, in a landmark paper, researchers announced that they had coaxed the human brain into growing new nerve cells, a process that for decades had been thought impossible, simply by putting subjects on a three-month aerobic-workout regimen. Other scientists have found that vigorous exercise can cause older nerve cells to form dense, interconnected webs that make the brain run faster and more efficiently. And there are clues that physical activity can stave off the beginnings of Alzheimer's disease, ADHD and other cognitive disorders. No matter your age, it seems, a strong, active body is crucial for building a strong, active mind.

Scientists have always suspected as much, although they have not been able to prove it. The idea of the "scholar-athlete" isn't just a marketing ploy dreamed up by the NCAA; it goes back to the culture of ancient Greece, in which "fitness was almost as important as learning itself," says Harvard psychiatrist John Ratey. The Greeks, he adds, were clued into "the mind-body connection." And they probably intuited a basic principle that Western researchers also figured out long ago: aerobic exercise helps the heart pump more blood to the brain, along with the rest of the body. More blood means more oxygen, and thus better-nourished brain cells. For decades, that has been the only link between athletic and mental prowess that science has been able to demonstrate with any degree of certainty. "People have been slow to grasp that exercise can really affect cognition," says Hillman, "just as it affects muscles." "

So go out there, get on that treadmill, burn those calories, and raise that dwindling IQ!