Sitting for a long time will cause muscle weakness and damage your brain. Practice these 5 muscle strength training techniques every day and experience the improvement of your brain power in 8 weeks.

Not only does sitting for long periods of time make you fat, cause muscle weakness, and increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes, recent studies have also found that sitting for long periods of time can also damage your brain and even lead to dementia. So, for the sake of your health, get your butt off the chair! Experts say that exercise can promote cognitive function. Office workers have limited rest time and space for activities. To protect the brain and prevent dementia, you might as well start with simple muscle strength training!

Reversal of the concept of "muscle development": simple mind → protect the brain without losing intelligence

In the past, people with well-developed muscles were often labeled as "simple-minded", but this stereotype has been constantly broken in recent years, and has instead been reversed into "good muscle strength means less risk of dementia in old age!" Coupled with the trend of weight loss and body sculpting, more and more people have developed the habit of exercising their muscle strength.

Strength training + aerobic exercise, more effective in activating brain power

Wu Mengtian, a sports therapist at Catholic Yonghe Gengshen Hospital, said that muscle strength training is also known as "resistance training". Regular exercise can promote activation of the frontal/temporal lobes of the brain, strengthen inhibitory function, improve learning and memory, and prevent brain volume and white matter atrophy in the long term. But if possible, doing it together with aerobic exercise will have a better brain protection effect.

Unlike strength training, aerobic exercise can improve cardiopulmonary endurance, is beneficial to the blood circulation in the frontal/parietal/temporal lobes of the brain, and is particularly effective in improving executive functions such as concentration. In addition, aerobic exercise can also increase the capacity of the hippocampus and improve memory.

A review of different studies has found that doing strength training and aerobic exercise every day for 8 to 12 weeks will have a short-term effect on promoting brain cognitive function; if it continues for more than a year, the brain will also undergo structural changes, with larger brain capacity and more complete brain nerve fiber bundles. Think about it, when the number of brain nerve fibers like electrical wires increases, the brain processes data faster, and the number of brain hard drives for storing information increases, how can brain power not improve? You said so!

Action demonstration: Stand on tiptoes. (Photo provided by Wu Mengtian, sports therapist)

Make good use of rest time to become smart 5 simple movements to train muscle strength

Make yourself smarter and develop the habit of strength training and aerobic exercise from now on! For busy office workers, it is very easy to do aerobic exercise. They can just walk or jog on the way to and from get off work. As for strength training, there is no need to worry if they don’t have time to go to the gym. Sports therapist Wu Mengtian provides the following 5 simple movements. You can do them while going to the bathroom or taking a short break at work, which can gradually strengthen your muscle strength and promote brain cognitive function.

Move 1 / Tiptoe:

★Purpose of exercise: This movement is mainly for training the posterior calf muscles.

★Action instructions: The preparatory posture is to put your feet together, lightly hold the back of the chair with both hands, put the center of gravity on the feet, and do not lean forward; when performing the operation, keep the body upright, do the tiptoe movement, repeat up and down 15 times, and do 3 rounds.

Action demonstration: standing on one leg + thigh training. (Photo provided by Wu Mengtian, sports therapist)

Move 2/Standing on one leg + thigh training:

★Purpose of Exercise: This movement is mainly for training the quadriceps femoris and balance.

★Action instructions: Stand beside the chair, hold the chair with one hand, lift the outer foot off the ground, bend your knees and lift your legs, repeat the action of lifting and lowering your thighs 10 times in a row, and do not let your feet touch the ground when you lower them; then switch sides and perform the same action. When exercising, people with poor sense of balance can tap the ground lightly with their toes or use both hands to hold on to a chair for stability. Do not force yourself to prevent falling.

Action demonstration: Standing step and tap your knees. (Photo provided by Wu Mengtian, sports therapist)

Move 3/Standing Step and Knee Tap:

★Purpose of exercise: To train the quadriceps and sense of balance.

★Action instructions: Hold the chair with one hand, lift your legs and do stepping movements on the spot. Raise your legs as high as possible until they are almost parallel to the ground. At the same time, tap your knees alternately with your outer hand. Repeat the movement 10 to 15 times and do 3 rounds. Switch sides. It should be noted that people with poor balance and coordination should hold the chair with their inner hand throughout the activity.

Action demonstration: Hook your feet after the shot. (Photo provided by Wu Mengtian, sports therapist)

Move 4/Hook the foot after the shot:

★Purpose of exercise: This is an advanced version of stepping, which mainly trains leg strength and coordination ability. Perform the heel tapping exercise, using one hand to hold onto the chair for stability if necessary.

★Action instructions: Stay standing, hook your calves and kick your buttocks backwards. Start by hooking your toes left and right. People with stable balance can increase the difficulty by hooking your toes and then clapping your heels with your hands, or clapping your heels crosswise. Repeat the action 10 to 15 times and do 3 rounds.

Action demonstration: Squat. (Photo provided by Wu Mengtian, sports therapist)

Move 5/Squat:

★Purpose of exercise: To exercise the buttocks and leg muscles.

★Action instructions: Stand and imagine sitting on a chair, bend your knees, half squat, and lift your buttocks, but don't actually sit on the chair. Hold for a few seconds according to your personal condition, then return to the original position and repeat. When squatting, do not let your knees go beyond your toes, keep your back as straight as possible, and place your hands on both sides of your body or support your thighs. People with poor muscle strength can place a chair under their buttocks to prevent falls.

Use your brain when exercising. Multiple module training can help you upgrade your brain power.

In addition to strength training and aerobic exercise, sports therapist Wu Mengtian said that there are also coordination exercises and multi-module training that can promote the brain's cognitive function performance. Among them, the multi-module training particularly emphasizes thinking during exercise. For example, playing basketball is not just about dribbling and shooting, but also about learning tactics and strategies. In this way, sports training becomes more complicated and the effect of activating brain power will be better.

So, next time, whether you are doing squats or lifting weights to build strength, running or pedaling on a flywheel to do aerobics, or doing Tai Chi to practice your sense of balance, don't stare at the TV or mobile phone screen while moving. Instead, try to use your brain more!