Want to sharpen your mental focus? A brief, intense workout might be just what your brain needs, according to new research.
While we’ve known for a long time that regular exercise can boost brain health over time, scientists from UC Santa Barbara have now found evidence that even a single workout session can enhance cognitive function – especially if you’re willing to break a big-time sweat.
In a comprehensive review published in Communications Psychology, researchers analyzed thousands of exercise studies conducted between 1995 and 2023, focusing on participants between the ages of 18 and 45. Their findings suggest that short bursts of vigorous activity, particularly cycling and high-intensity interval training (HIIT), can provide immediate cognitive benefits.
“We found that vigorous activities had the largest effects,” explains Barry Giesbrecht, a professor in UCSB’s Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences and senior author of the study, in a media release.
Think of HIIT as the workout equivalent of sprint intervals – short periods of intense exercise followed by brief rest periods.
Perhaps surprisingly, shorter workouts packed more mental punch than longer ones. Sessions under 30 minutes showed stronger cognitive benefits than those lasting longer. The improvements were most noticeable in executive functioning – the mental skills we use to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks.
The research team discovered these brain-boosting effects were strongest when cognitive tests were performed after exercise rather than during the workout itself. However, Giesbrecht notes that the cognitive improvements, while consistent, were generally modest in size.
Source : https://studyfinds.org/intense-exercise-brain-health
