In his book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, John Ratey, MD, discusses the importance of exercise by going deeper into the cognitive benefits and analyzing the direct relationship between physical activity and the brain. In this ground-breaking discussion, he focuses on committing to exercise as a non-negotiable measure to keep our brain healthy, flipping the narrative by shifting the focus to mental wellness rather than physical ability. He also states that the most significant benefits we receive by engaging in the activity is more cognitive, and the side effects are the benefits we receive for our body. Through this perspective, Ratey effectively alleviates the pressure we sometimes feel to look a certain way, maintain weight, or shed those last couple of pounds. As Ratey argues, the benefits of exercise are more profound than we ever imagined.
Exercise & The Brain: The Benefits
In Spark, the brain is considered the primary muscle that benefits from exercise, not just our hamstrings and triceps. Ratey essentially views physical activity as a prescription for overall mental wellness and treatment for various disorders such as anxiety, depression, and ADD.
He discusses a study from Duke University Medical school where they tried to understand the relationship between exercise and emotions in order to understand if physical activity improved these maladaptive thoughts and disorders. They studied 100 sedentary patients that were divided into three groups. The first was sedentary with a prescription of Zoloft. The second was in an exercise program, four times a week for thirty minutes. The third group was a combination of exercise and medicine. The results of this experiment on the fourth and last month showed that those in the exercise group displayed statistically significant improvement relative to those who took Zoloft medication or those in the group who took a pill and exercised, highlighting how exercise can be as effective as pharmaceuticals. Ratey also argues that another benefit is that through exercise, individuals attempt to take ownership of their problems by engaging in active measures, building on qualities of resilience and discipline. This psychologically does wonders for individual self-perception and esteem.
Therefore, Spark delves deep into how physical activity can be crucial to synaptic plasticity, as it is essentially a mechanism to rewire your brain into more positive and beneficial neural pathways compared to the other neural pathways of anxiety and depression. Through exercise, the brain goes through a process of intensive rewiring, as the brain constantly adapts connections forming and breaking down amongst the billions within the mind. Therefore, exercise has much more profound repercussions despite being labelled on the surface as a purely physiological endeavour that lifts mood.