Building your mental strength with weights

We are all familiar with strength training to retain our muscles and keeping our limbs toned, especially as we get older. But did you know the positive impact strength training can have on your brain? A recent study (from the functional neurology center) showed that exercising your legs, especially with weight-bearing exercises, signals the brain to create new nerve cells. Considered groundbreaking, the study shows how vital load-bearing exercises are to brain function. The researchers found that not strengthening your muscles can alter your body chemistry by lowering the amount of oxygen in the body and impacting cellular growth and regeneration. With this reduced oxygen in the body, it can decrease the numbers of neural stem cells and thus the ability to produce new neurons - and new neurons is what helps to keep your brain strong. Regularly exercising, especially lower body strength, will literally grow new nerve cells. So next time you may be dreading “leg day”, doing squats and lunges or even walking a bit further, know that it can pay off in ways that might not be visible to the eye.