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Brain exercises

3 Most Effective Exercises and Innercise™

Author:NeuroGym Team

What’s your go-to exercise? Innercise™?

Think of the exercise you absolutely love doing. Can you feel the burn in your muscles? Does he get your adrenaline pumping?

How are you exercising your brain?

Not sure about that one, are you?

It’s okay: We have the three best physical exercises and mental Innercise™ (Brain workouts) workouts that will get you in tip-top shape.

Three Effective Exercises

Try these three exercises to work out your body.

1.    Walking

Walking is a cardiovascular exercise that also tones your body. It’s easy to do but very effective.

Frequent walking increases blood flow throughout your body, strengthens your heart, and aids in weight loss.

It’s one of the only exercises that is suitable for people of all fitness levels and ages.

Burn Calories Easily

Walking burns calories which help you to release fat and weight.

If you take a brisk walk for 30 minutes, then you can burn 250 calories easily. Bump your walk up to an hour, and that’s 500 calories.

By walking an hour daily, you torch 3,500 calories which is the exact amount of calories you need to lose a pound.

Step It up Gradually

It isn’t necessary to walk an hour daily if you aren’t up to it. Physicians suggest that you increase your walking gradually first by adding more time and then by increasing the incline or speed.

If you are an absolute beginner, then start by taking a 10-minute walk daily. Once you are comfortable with that, add five minutes to your walk. Continue to do this until you reach an hour daily.

2.    Push-ups

Push-ups are another well-known exercise with a ton of benefits. It strengthens several muscles in your upper body and can even work out your core if you do the moves correctly.

Planks are the foundation of push-ups and form part of yoga-like moves. These moves require your personal strength to stabilize your body, so you are using your own weight as a guide.

Do It Right

Here’s the best way to do a push-up:

  1. As you lie face-down on the ground, place your hands flat on the floor and slightly more than shoulder-width apart.
  2. Place your toes on the floor. Your body should be in a straight line.
  3. Tighten your abdominal muscles and glutes, and push yourself off the floor using your arms.
  4. Lower yourself down gently.
  5. Do 10 repetitions and three rounds.

Make It Harder

Push-ups can be challenging if you don’t exercise frequently. It’s best to build up to a full push-up by changing the incline as there are several variations.

Start by doing push-ups against the wall and then from the height of a kitchen counter. Try placing your hands on a chair and then on a low bench. Finally, do push-ups with your hands on the floor and knees bent before progressing to standing on your toes.

What About Your Brain?

As you exercise, you might realize it helps you to think more clearly or that it’s an escape from the daily stressors of life—that’s your brain thanking you for your hard work.

How else can you help your brain?

By attending the Brain-A-Thon, of course. Reserve your seat now.

3.    Interval Training

Interval training is a popular form of exercise that increases your heart rate rapidly and then provides an active rest period before going full-out again.

It creates a cardiovascular workout that strengthens the heart muscles and allows you to burn calories faster.

How to Do It

Take the time that you intend to exercise and break it down into at least five time blocks.

Spend 20% of this time exercising at full intensity and spend the other 80% of the time recovering while exercising at a lower intensity.

Repeat this intensity split for five rounds.

Interval Training Ideas

Interval training is suitable for many different types of exercises as long as you get your heart rate up during the high-intensity time.

For example:

  • Run for two minutes then walk for eight minutes.
  • Do burpees for one minute and walk on the spot for four minutes.
  • Do star jumps for 30 seconds then plank for two minutes.

Three Innercise™ Workouts for Your Brain

It’s time for a mental workout! Do these brain exercises daily.

1.    Fractionalizing

Fractionalizing is an Innercise™ that helps you when you feel overwhelmed. It’s a great way to be more productive and tick things off your to-do list.

By using this process, you focus on getting things done rather than freaking out. It gives you direction even when you have loads of stuff to do and is a great brain exercise.

Make a List

Make a list of everything you have to do. Think about as many things as possible and all those tasks floating around your head.

Write down everything you can think of until your mind seems clear. You can do this on a piece of paper, in a journal, or even in an online document.

Choose Your Mission

Once your list is done, select the three most important tasks.

Complete those three tasks entirely and mark them off your list.

Repeat

Choose your next three tasks. Continue to do so until you have finished all of them.

Are You Ready for More Brain Exercises?

Join six brain experts at the Brain-A-Thon and learn all about how your brain works. Use the tools and techniques shared during this virtual meeting to exercise your brain even more.

2.    Take 6: Calm the Circuits

Anxiety and fear happens frequently. When you stress, worry, or are fearful, you cannot think logically because you are allowing your emotions to take over.

How It Works

The Take 6: Calm the Circuits Innercise™ allows you to gain control over your emotions by calming down the fear circuit, known as the sympathetic system, in the brain.

It puts you in a better frame of mind so that you can think through things rationally. The Innercise™ switches off the sympathetic system and activates the parasympathetic system.

Let’s Breathe

Follow these steps:

  1. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose.
  2. Exhale slowly through your mouth as if you are blowing through a straw.
  3. With each breath, repeat one of the following statements:
  • I breathe in calmness; I breathe out fear.
  • I breathe in calmness; I breathe out panic.
  • I breathe in calmness; I breathe out stress.
  • I breathe in calmness; I breathe out anxiety.
  • I breathe in calmness; I breathe out overwhelmingness.
  • I breathe in calmness; I breathe out uncertainty.

Now, do the next Innercise™ to help your brain even more.

4.    AiA: Awareness, Intention, Action

Although there are many other Innercise™ workouts you can do, AiA deserves to be on this list because it goes well with Take 6: Calm the Circuits.

AiA has three steps in it. Throughout each step, you make a decision to release fear and stress so that you can welcome clear thinking and take action.

This Innercise™ is also useful if you are struggling to work on a specific project or constantly procrastinate. By doing AiA, you can take the first steps to achieve your goals.

Before You Start

As you get ready to do AiA, back things up a little bit and do Take 6: Calm the Circuits first. This way, you are in a calm state of mind as you move into AiA.

Continue the breathing pattern as you do AiA so that your parasympathetic system remains active.

Awareness

As you breathe, become aware of how your body feels when you inhale and exhale. Focus on how the breath moves through you and how it clears your mind.

Concentrate on your thoughts. What are you thinking about? Is it positive or negative?

How are you feeling? Good? Bad? Stressed?

Don’t spend too much time on your thoughts and feelings—just focus on what they are, naming them, and observing their presence.

Intention

Now that you have identified your thoughts and feelings, you need to decide what you are going to do about them.

Are you going to give in to emotional turbulence? Are you going to let your emotions take over?

OR

Are you going to think about the problem constructively? Are you going to allow yourself to accept the situation and figure out a way forward?

Set an intention to continue with a calm mind instead of having an emotional reaction.

Action

As you think clearly about the situation, identify one action step that you could take to help you make progress.

It doesn’t have to be anything big; a small step is perfectly fine.

For example, if you feel you are overweight, unfit, and can’t do any exercise, then you could set an intention to become healthier, and your action step would be to walk for five minutes today.

After doing the action step, think about the next step you could take.

Bonus Innercise™

We have a bunch of Innercise™ workouts for your brain. If you are up for it, try the one in this video too.

Retrain Your Brain

Innercise™ is all about thinking differently; destroying destructive thoughts and beliefs; and rewiring your brain for success.

It’s time to take your brain training to the next level. Do this by signing up for the Brain-A-Thon. It’s an opportunity to go from a novice to a professional mental athlete.

About The Author

NeuroGym Team

NeuroGym Team: NeuroGym’s Team of experts consists of neuroscientists, researchers, and staff who are enthusiasts in their fields. The team is committed to making a difference in the lives of others by sharing the latest scientific findings to help you change your life by understanding and using the mindset, skill set and action set to change your brain.

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