Exercising your mind, your brain needs exercise too!

Have you ever had your brain "hurt"?  I feel that way sometimes by the end of the day!  I try to do things like the silly online brain games or read more instead of always watching TV.   At work I'm always giving my brain a work out both in emotional intelligence (don't strangle the employees empathize) and technical intelligence (drafting documents, building spreadsheets, analyzing data).  I sent my mom an article that talked about how if you help watch your grand kids it helps to reduce chances of Alzheimer's ok this one was mostly to make me feel better!

But the other day in my total body conditioning class that I teach during lunch once a week I was having them do an exercise that worked both muscles and brain and everyone really seemed to be struggling with it.  Then I tried to talk to them at the same time we were doing the exercise and they all let out an exasperated exclamation, Don't talk to us we're concentrating!!!  Haaaa!!!  So the next time around I let them do the exercise only on one side for 30 seconds then switch to the other side for 30 seconds instead of alternating each time between sides.  They were much happier!  I explained "in here we work muscle tone and strength, balance, coordination and make the nerves fire off in ways they aren't always asked to so that we can stay on top of our game!"  I think a few rolled their eyes and the rest were just happy to get through the workout.  But I find this kind of stuff so interesting.  I bet there is a ton of research being done on this connection between brain and exercise.  That's why I like to change things up all the time not just for muscle memory purposes.  What do you do to stay on top of your game?

This weekend was pretty decent workout wise.  I did a 20 mile tour de garage on the trainer and a 1.5 mi run with the dog and stroller on Sat. and on Sun. I did an 8 mile run up an arroyo that was dirt half of the way so it totally worked muscles that don't normally get worked on my runs.  And I got to do it with my great new running/mom buddy.  She has even offered to come out and pace/support me on my upcoming race which is awesome because she is a much better runner than me and I know she'll keep me on point or at least distracted.  Ok so I have my first sprint triathlon in about 1 month and I haven't been in the pool in almost a year!  Good news is it is through the University I work at so I get to enter for free, well almost they still tax it as income, but bad news is I've had a hard time getting myself to the pool.  So I went at lunch today on spring break and it was fabulous!!  It was weird trying to shower super fast before heading back to work but I got here half an hour early to make up for it.  I wander if anyone noticed my hairstyle changed from morning to afternoon and that I wasn't wearing my usual make up after lunch! :-)  My guess is no!  But the rings around my eyes from the goggles is a dead give away!!! Tonight I hope to lift some weights from home.  Now I just have to find some time to get out on the actual road on my bike instead of staring at a computer screen and some old greasy rags.  Just for fun... He thinks he's a big boy now and insisted on eating the corn on the cob!