We all know that physical exercise is good for our bodies, but did you know that exercising regularly helps your brain as well?

As Joni Gatz discusses at our regular Brain Aerobics classes (check our Upcoming Events to see when the next session will be), physical exercise is also extremely important for the brain. There have been many articles on the importance of exercise for brain health, such as this piece on CNNhealth.com, which states that, “People who engaged in moderate or vigorous activity at least once a week were 1.34-fold more likely to be memory maintainers,” according to a recent study published in the journal Neurology. Memory or cognitive maintainers are those 1 in 3 people in their 70’s and 80’s with no memory problems. Other key factors to being a cognitive maintainer include staying in school, not smoking and socializing regularly.

Lately, I’ve been trying to exercise more and was excited about a new way to combine physical and mental exercises. At our new store in Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center, I had the chance to try out the NeuroActive Brain Bike for the first time. The NeuroActive Brain Bike allows you to use a stationary bike while doing the NeuroActive Program on a screen attached to the bike with a wireless mouse at your side. The bike is easy to use, and the NeuroActive program is a fun way to train the entire brain and sharpen 16 cognitive functions. I loved being able to exercise my mind and body at the same time, and the best part is getting lost in the game . . . I forgot I was even working out! We are all curious to find out whether biking while doing the NeuroActive Program helps the program itself be even more effective. The current thinking is that aerobic exercise causes neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons, and that mental exercise maintains neurons, and research is underway to see if there is a multiplicative rather than just an additive effect.

Customers saw the bike for the first time as we opened our store in Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center. The Grand Opening last Wednesday was a huge success, and I want to thank all of you for celebrating with us at Old Orchard and on Grand Avenue. For those who missed it, here are a couple pictures from the event:

The combination of learning and “exercise” (if you consider mini-golf to be exercise) is appearing all over the place in occasionally funny ways. The New York Times reports that the first mini-golf course to teach astrophysics, Rocket Park Mini Golf, just opened in Flushing, Queens on Saturday.

How do you exercise your brain and body? Have you found a way to combine the two?

Stay tuned for more product ideas Wednesday and Friday of this week. Let me know if there are any tips you think I should include.

~Lindsay