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Short review:
Buy this book, borrow if from the library or a friend, download it illegally… Whatever, but grab a copy and read it immediately.
Normal review:
OK, so by now you all have heard about how good exercise is for your heart, lungs, muscles, joints, etc., BUT have any of you heard about what exercise does to your brain functions? Don’t worry; you can learn it with this book.
Spark begins explaining the biochemical process of exercising regarding your brain, but it’s not exactly about the “runners’ high”; it’s about the neurotransmitters released in the neurons, the factors that make neurons create new receptors, and the process of producing new brain cells in order to increase your brain functions. I had only heard about getting more oxygen in the brain thanks to exercise, and therefore making your brain work better, but the fact that you can increase the number of neurons and their connections between each other ONLY by exercising has blown my mind.
So well, the author explains this, and then he goes throughout a series of chapters where he talks about a specific matter, including normal situations as well as psychiatric conditions, and how exercise affects that situation or disease. The chapters include anxiety, depression, dementia, ADHD, chronic pain, pregnancy, menopause, learning and education, etc.
I could talk to you about every one of these chapters, but I think it’s better if you read the book. However, here are some random ideas from the book that I want to share:
- Exercise changes your pain threshold so you don’t feel as much pain as if you don’t practice any exercise.
- Stress makes your brain work slower and your neurons die.
- Women over 30 who don’t exercise loose 1% of their bone mass per year.
- Overweight people are more likely to suffer from dementia at old ages.
- Exercise is now beginning to be used as a treatment for some conditions. Not as something to do besides the treatment: as the treatment itself.
- To get benefits from exercise you only have to do 30 minutes every day, which I think it is something everybody can commit to do.
So I really want all the people I know to read this book and began doing something about it. After all, we are responsible for our own mental and physical health, and to me, the idea that you can increase both at the same time is terrific.
Summarizing: read this book right now!
PS: I would like to talk about the first chapter, in which the author tells about a new program in some schools in Florida where students do exercise every day first thing in the morning and they have increased their ratings in the rest of the subjects. Besides, the Physical Education class in these schools is not the one we once knew and suffered: here the students have heart monitors and they can choose among a wide variety of sports, being rated only by how hard they had made their hearts work.
I was very surprised by this way of focusing PE in children, because I have always been rated for my performance in different sport tasks, and I had a good average in everything except for running. As an adult I began running with a heart monitor and I noticed that I run above the maximum of my heart rate according to my age, so I didn’t get good grades at running in school, but I was probably working harder than any other of my classmates.
I think that PE has to change and become the subject which teach us how to live healthily for the rest of our lives.
From Isi 
Hm. Maybe if I read this I will try out exercising again 😉
And taking into account that you MUST read it (everybody must), you’ll exercise, I’m sure. Seriously, read it!
Done! Well, not yet, but soon!
This is a great review. Sounds like I really need to try this book! I like books that motivate me to get healthy. With my RA, osteoporosis and pain are big risks for me. I ha e been trying walking my son to school everyday to get me going and I have found I am more productive in the mornings.
This book motivates a lot, you can be sure: I was listening to it (it was an audiobook), and I NEEDED to go and walk or do something, because I felt I was losing an opportunity to be healthier. So… just reading it makes you move.
And it also talks about doing more just by exercising in the morning, as you say. I also feel more awaken when I exercise in the mornings, so I suppose I do more things the rest of the day 🙂
This sounds really good. Putting it at the top of my list!
Joy, you’ll love it, taking into account the exercise you already do! It’s great to know all the benefits of the things we do, isn’t it?
Isi, I’m going to take your advice and read this book. I need exercise – to loose weight and definitely for my constant fatigue. I feels stressed and tired all the time and although I know a lot has to do with lack of sleep and anaemia, I think that it’s also lack of exercise. Cos I NEED more brainpower. My job is driving me nuts.
PS: Download illegally? 😉
Mel, be careful if you have anaemia; first go to see the doctor and when you are recovered, start exercising little by little. To me it seems like a contradiction, but I feel energetic after running, so I think you can also feel like that 🙂 And the thing about increasing your brain power sounds like magic, so we have to do exercise for our own good!
PD: The end justifies the means, because everybody has to know about the book 😛
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You’ve convinced me. I need to pick this up come pay day.
Hope you read it, Carol. It is really interesting!