<story><title>Which type of exercise is best for the brain? (2016)</title><url>http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/which-type-of-exercise-is-best-for-the-brain/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Swizec</author><text>I find HIIT doesn’t do it for me. Can’t push myself hard enough in such short bursts because I have ridiculous cardio conditioning* from running. Boxing is great because it’s hiit but with technique and tactics and strategy.&lt;p&gt;* ridiculous conditioning in that I can keep average heart rate at 155bpm for 2 hours no problem. Most hiit isn’t long enough to get me above 110</text></item><item><author>vsareto</author><text>&amp;gt;Sometimes high intensity stop all other thoughts is exactly what the brain needs.&lt;p&gt;HIIT has been great for the rest of the day as long as I don&amp;#x27;t overdo it, but yeah, completely focused on the workout during that.</text></item><item><author>Swizec</author><text>Running and walking seems to be particularly good for thinking. Could be a link to our evolution, or the fact that it’s a simple exercise you don’t have to focus on and are free to think.&lt;p&gt;Sports are great for getting in the zone but usually too mentally taxing for background thinking. Boxing, for example, is amazing relaxation but you really can’t think about anything else during a round.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes high intensity stop all other thoughts is exactly what the brain needs. Other times prolonged low intensity gives just the space you need to hear yourself think.</text></item><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>Rodent studies aren&amp;#x27;t really great for measuring this because it&amp;#x27;s nearly impossible to control for the rodents&amp;#x27; enjoyment of each exercise.&lt;p&gt;We know that rodents enjoy running wheels because they use them voluntarily. It&amp;#x27;s not surprising that the exercise they enjoy is the one that seems to produce the most benefits.&lt;p&gt;For humans: Doing any exercise is better than doing no exercise. Doing frequent exercise is better than doing infrequent exercise.&lt;p&gt;The most important thing is to pick an exercise that you enjoy, so you&amp;#x27;ll be more likely to get out and do it and less likely to come up with excuses to skip a day.&lt;p&gt;Even better: Find an exercise that includes some social activity, even if it&amp;#x27;s just getting outside and seeing other people in passing as you run past or being in a gym near other people. Social exposure is great for mental health, so combining it with exercise is a good one-two punch.&lt;p&gt;We do have some human studies on BDNF (measured via serum, because we can&amp;#x27;t get into human brains obviously) and exercise: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;pmc&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;PMC3772595&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;pmc&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;PMC3772595&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; They didn&amp;#x27;t study different types of exercise, but they did find that longer duration exercise produced greater elevations of BDNF. You don&amp;#x27;t have to run marathons to capture some of this benefit. A long walk is good enough to get started.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hnrodey</author><text>I have a lengthy background in hiit (specifically CrossFit). And I say this in the most polite way possible.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re doing HIIT wrong if you cannot elevate your heart rate beyond 110 bpm. Whatever you&amp;#x27;re doing, there&amp;#x27;s a huge gap in the training programming&amp;#x2F;protocol.&lt;p&gt;Everyone suffers in CrossFit. Everyone.</text></comment>
<story><title>Which type of exercise is best for the brain? (2016)</title><url>http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/which-type-of-exercise-is-best-for-the-brain/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Swizec</author><text>I find HIIT doesn’t do it for me. Can’t push myself hard enough in such short bursts because I have ridiculous cardio conditioning* from running. Boxing is great because it’s hiit but with technique and tactics and strategy.&lt;p&gt;* ridiculous conditioning in that I can keep average heart rate at 155bpm for 2 hours no problem. Most hiit isn’t long enough to get me above 110</text></item><item><author>vsareto</author><text>&amp;gt;Sometimes high intensity stop all other thoughts is exactly what the brain needs.&lt;p&gt;HIIT has been great for the rest of the day as long as I don&amp;#x27;t overdo it, but yeah, completely focused on the workout during that.</text></item><item><author>Swizec</author><text>Running and walking seems to be particularly good for thinking. Could be a link to our evolution, or the fact that it’s a simple exercise you don’t have to focus on and are free to think.&lt;p&gt;Sports are great for getting in the zone but usually too mentally taxing for background thinking. Boxing, for example, is amazing relaxation but you really can’t think about anything else during a round.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes high intensity stop all other thoughts is exactly what the brain needs. Other times prolonged low intensity gives just the space you need to hear yourself think.</text></item><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>Rodent studies aren&amp;#x27;t really great for measuring this because it&amp;#x27;s nearly impossible to control for the rodents&amp;#x27; enjoyment of each exercise.&lt;p&gt;We know that rodents enjoy running wheels because they use them voluntarily. It&amp;#x27;s not surprising that the exercise they enjoy is the one that seems to produce the most benefits.&lt;p&gt;For humans: Doing any exercise is better than doing no exercise. Doing frequent exercise is better than doing infrequent exercise.&lt;p&gt;The most important thing is to pick an exercise that you enjoy, so you&amp;#x27;ll be more likely to get out and do it and less likely to come up with excuses to skip a day.&lt;p&gt;Even better: Find an exercise that includes some social activity, even if it&amp;#x27;s just getting outside and seeing other people in passing as you run past or being in a gym near other people. Social exposure is great for mental health, so combining it with exercise is a good one-two punch.&lt;p&gt;We do have some human studies on BDNF (measured via serum, because we can&amp;#x27;t get into human brains obviously) and exercise: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;pmc&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;PMC3772595&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;pmc&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;PMC3772595&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; They didn&amp;#x27;t study different types of exercise, but they did find that longer duration exercise produced greater elevations of BDNF. You don&amp;#x27;t have to run marathons to capture some of this benefit. A long walk is good enough to get started.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tomjakubowski</author><text>What do you normally do to get to a 155 bpm heart rate?  Not an expert but when I&amp;#x27;ve done HIIT workouts, they&amp;#x27;ve always started with a mild warm up to elevate the heart rate.  Maybe you&amp;#x27;d benefit from something more strenuous to start.</text></comment>