Intense exercise from time-to-time is not only great for improving body composition and performance, but it may also help with your intelligence.

The Study Behind the Fitness Intelligence

In a study published in the journal, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers had 15 students perform two different cardio sessions with different intensities.
During one session, the students performed 30 minutes of cardio on a cycle ergo-meter (think stationary bike) at low-intensity.
For the other session, they performed 30 minutes of cardio on a cycle ergo-meter at high intensity.

Before and after the sessions, the researchers took blood samples to measure the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in each subject.

BDNF is a hormone that’s basically been shown to help improve brain function and cognition.
Additionally, they had the subjects perform a series of tests to help measure cognitive function.

People Who Did Intense Cardio Scored Higher

What the researchers found was that BDNF levels increased significantly only during the intense cardio session.
Additionally, they found that when the subjects performed high-intensity cardio they scored higher on the more complicated cognition test.

That being said, whether there is a correlation between higher BDNF levels and cognition scores isn’t certain and more studies need to be conducted on this, but it’s interesting to see that a higher intensity workout lead to an improvement in cognition.

Ref: Ferris LT, et al. (2007) The effect of acute exercise on serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels and cognitive function. Med Sci Sports Exerc. Apr;39(4):728-34.

Talk soon,
Coach Fares.

If you like this article, PLEASE share it with your friends by clicking one of the icons below: