Training for a Sharper Mind: Exercise and Brain Health

TTG Staff

12 hours ago

7 min read

Man cycling on a stationary bike in a gym beside bold text, TRAINING FOR A SHARPER MIND.

Most people join a gym because they want something to change.

They want to feel stronger, lose body fat, improve their fitness or move without feeling so restricted.

Those are all worthwhile goals.

But there is another reason to keep training that rarely gets the same attention.

Your brain.

The ability to concentrate, learn, remember information and make decisions matters throughout your life.

It matters when you’re working, raising children, managing a household and maintaining your independence as you get older.

Research suggests that physical exercise can support some of these abilities.

That gives us another reason to look beyond what training changes in the mirror.

Why This Subject Matters to Me

In 2021, I had a concussion that left my short-term memory severely impaired for a long time.

That experience changed how I thought about the abilities we often take for granted.

During my recovery, I used exercise and mental challenges, including learning the patterns needed to solve a Rubik’s Cube, as ways to work on my memory.

I can’t separate how much those activities helped from the recovery that happened over time.

This is my experience, rather than a treatment recommendation for concussion.

But it made me look into this subject and made it more personal.

When I talk about training to maintain our capabilities, I’m also thinking about the ability to remember, learn and feel confident in our own minds.

What Does “Brain Health” Actually Mean?

Brain health is a broad subject.

In this article, we’re focusing mainly on cognitive function:

the mental abilities you use to understand and interact with the world.

These include:

Attention: focusing on relevant information.
Memory: learning, storing and recalling information.
Processing speed: taking in information and responding to it.
Executive function: planning, managing distractions, switching between tasks and controlling your responses.

Think about preparing dinner while helping your child with something and remembering that you need to leave in twenty minutes.

You’re keeping information in mind, deciding what matters next and moving between competing demands.

These abilities are part of everyday life.

Researchers can measure aspects of them using cognitive tests.

Those tests help us investigate whether exercise makes a difference, although an improvement on a test doesn’t automatically mean someone will notice a dramatic change in their daily life.

Can One Workout Help You Think More Clearly?

Have you ever stepped away from your desk, gone for a walk or completed a workout, then returned feeling more ready to concentrate?

There is research behind the possibility of a short-term benefit.

In a randomised crossover study involving 87 young adults, participants performed better on a concentration-related task after 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise than when they completed testing without exercise beforehand. [1]

That is an encouraging finding, but it is specific to the people, exercise session and test used.

It doesn’t mean every workout improves every mental ability.

For your own working day, there is a straightforward way to explore this.

When you’ve spent hours at a screen, and your concentration is fading, try a manageable movement break.

Go for a walk.

Take a comfortable bike ride.

Come in for our Lunch Class.

Complete a session you can recover from.

Then notice how you feel when you return.

Treat it as a practical experiment, rather than another productivity rule you need to follow perfectly.

Regular Training May Offer More Than a Temporary Lift

The longer-term question is whether exercising consistently can improve thinking skills over time.

Some randomised trials suggest it can.

One study involving 155 women aged 65-75 compared a year of progressive resistance training with balance and toning exercise. [2]

Women who completed resistance training once or twice a week improved their performance on a test of selective attention and conflict resolution compared with the balance and toning group.

This is one part of executive function: focusing on the relevant information while resisting a competing response.

The finding supports a potential cognitive benefit from strength training in this population.

It doesn’t establish that lifting weights improves every aspect of memory or produces the same result for everyone.

For us as coaches, that is still meaningful.

It expands the reasons someone might value getting stronger, even when their appearance or body weight isn’t changing very much.

What About Memory and the Ageing Brain?

One frequently discussed study followed 120 older adults who were assigned to either aerobic walking or a stretching and toning program for a year. [3]

Researchers found that the walking group increased the size of the anterior hippocampus, a region involved in memory.

Changes in hippocampal volume were also associated with changes in spatial memory.

This was evidence that aspects of the older adult brain can remain responsive to exercise.

It was not evidence that walking reverses ageing across the whole brain or guarantees protection against dementia.

That distinction matters.

Research can be promising without supporting every headline written about it.

You don’t need to believe that exercise makes your brain “younger” to see value in maintaining a regular training routine.

Does Exercise Prevent Dementia?

Evidence cannot yet promise that exercise will prevent dementia.

There are encouraging links between physical activity and brain health, but researchers are still working out how much exercise can influence long-term cognitive decline and who benefits most.

The National Institute on Aging describes the evidence as promising while acknowledging that further research is needed.

A useful example is the US POINTER trial, published in 2025. [4]

It involved 2,111 adults aged 60–79 who had an increased risk of cognitive decline.

Both groups were encouraged to improve several parts of their lifestyle, including physical activity, diet, cognitive activity, social engagement and cardiovascular health monitoring.

Over two years, the group receiving a more structured program achieved a small but statistically greater improvement in overall cognitive test performance than the group following a less structured, self-guided approach.

However, this was a combined lifestyle intervention.

We cannot attribute the result to exercise alone, and the trial did not establish that the program prevented dementia.

The everyday significance and durability of the difference also require further investigation.

The practical message is that brain health deserves attention across several areas of life.

Training can be part of that approach.

It should sit alongside appropriate healthcare, rather than replace it.

Which Type of Exercise Should You Choose?

You don’t need to rebuild your entire week around a special “brain workout”.

A sensible starting point is a routine that develops your physical fitness and gives you enough variety to remain engaged.

Aerobic exercise

Walking, cycling, rowing and swimming are all options.

Choose something you can perform at a manageable level and repeat consistently.

If you’re starting from very little activity, begin with a duration that feels achievable.

At The Training Ground, that might include an ERG class, a comfortable BikeErg session or a walk before heading home.

Strength training

A progressive strength program gives you a clear way to build physical capability.

The resistance-training research discussed earlier also gives us a reason to consider potential benefits beyond muscle and strength.

You don’t need to chase maximal lifts for this purpose.

Learn the movements, choose appropriate resistance and progress as your ability improves.

Movement that involves learning

You might also enjoy boxing combinations, dancing, learning a sport or practising an unfamiliar movement.

These activities require attention and practice.

That doesn’t establish that a complicated exercise is better for your brain than a simple one.

It does give you another way to make movement interesting.

The activity should suit your ability and allow you to learn safely.

There is no need to add instability or complexity simply to make an exercise look more impressive.

Choose movement you can practise, enjoy and return to.

Put It Into Your Actual Week

If you already attend strength and conditioning classes, you may have much of the structure in place.

You can build on that without adding several more appointments.

For example:

Keep your planned strength sessions.
Include regular aerobic activity that suits your fitness and schedule.
Use a walk as a break from a long stretch at your desk.
Occasionally choose an activity that involves learning something new.
Leave enough room for recovery.

If you’re starting from scratch, make the first step smaller.

Book one coached session.

Arrange a walk with someone.

Choose two days when you can realistically make time to move.

As we explain in How Many Days a Week Should I Train? Building Your Strength and Cardio Week, your routine needs to fit the week you actually have.

A plan you can repeat gives you something to build on.

Pay Attention to More Than Your Appearance

Physical changes are often the easiest training outcomes to notice.

You lift a heavier weight.
Your clothes fit differently.
You complete a session that once felt beyond you.

You can also pay attention to your experience around training.

Do you return to work feeling more ready to focus?
Does a walk help you break up a mentally demanding afternoon?
Are you enjoying learning a skill that initially felt unfamiliar?

These observations won’t diagnose your brain health or prove that your memory has improved.

They can help you recognise other ways movement fits into your life.

And if you notice persistent or worsening changes in memory, thinking or your ability to manage everyday tasks, speak with your GP. Those changes deserve assessment.

Another Reason to Keep Showing Up

At The Training Ground, we want training to help you live well for longer.

That includes the strength to carry things, the fitness to keep going and the confidence to participate in life.

Your ability to think, learn and remember belongs in that conversation too.

The research gives us encouraging reasons to include exercise in looking after our brains, while leaving plenty of questions still to answer.

For now, the action is familiar.

Build a manageable routine.

Include strength and aerobic activity.

Keep learning.

Give yourself reasons to keep showing up that extend beyond what you see in the mirror.