Brain Exercises

Staying fit is a great goal that will help you lead a longer, healthier life but if your brain is not challenged and made to to do some brain exercises, no amount of fitness training will keep you alert and quick minded.

The brain is a muscle too and it follows the same “use it or lose it” policy as your other muscles. So how can you keep your brain fit? Brain exercises are the answer.

Two of the most important factors in keeping your brain healthy are traditional exercise and nutrition. Keep your body healthy and your brain will follow suit. But after that there are other ways to exercise your mind.

You’ve probably heard people describe one of their older relatives like this, “my Auntie Polly is so razor shape, she does black belt Sudoku everyday.” Well, Auntie Polly has the right idea but it is not the best way to go about exercising your brain.

You see the best way to stimulate your brain is to break free of everyday activities and challenge yourself in new and unexpected ways. By doing Sudoku everyday, she has created a familiar routine that becomes less and less challenging with time. Auntie Polly, it’s time to add Word Searches and Crossword puzzles for some variety.

Activities to exercise your mind:

• If you’re right handed, trying brushing your teeth with your left hand
• If you are a ‘words’ person, challenge your brain with number games.
• Try a different route on your daily commute
• Reconstruct your day by writing down what you did. For example, if you take a trip to the zoo, when you get home try to write down all the animals that you saw in the order that your saw them.

Your mother may have told you that playing too many video games will turn your brain to mush, but she was wrong. The Nintendo DS Lite has a few games that are designed to exercise your brain and they are quite good.

Nintendo DS Lite Cobalt / Black

They’re varied enough to avoid becoming routine and continue to challenge even after repeated playing. But the best part is that they’re fun to spend some time with.

I recently played my cousin’s copy of Big Brain Academyon her Nintendo DS. The game consists of a bunch of fun puzzles that you try to finish in a set amount of time. Just as you get the hang of the puzzle, it’s over and there’s a new one to try. When I finished, the game informed me that my score was that of a hair stylist.

If you’?re trying to fight off the effects of old age, exercising your body is great but don?’t forget to do your brain exercises too.

Watch this funny video on Brain Exercises:

Related articles for Brain Exercises:

• Gaming skills linked to brain size (geeksaresexy.net)
• Why Puzzles Could Be Good For Slimmers (news.sky.com)

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