Can I ask a dangerous question? When is the last time you exercised? We’ve almost made it through February. If you are a regular at the gym, you know this is about the time when the New Year’s resolution gym goers start dropping off and the crowds return to normal. But wait!
If a fleeting resolution isn’t enough to keep you in the gym, this just might. Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki believes “that exercise is the most transformative thing that you can do for your brain today.” In her 2017 TED Talk, called “The Brain-Changing Benefits of Exercise,” Suzuki outlines 3 reasons for why she believes this: it has immediate positive effects on your brain, it improves your attention, and it protects your brain against incurable diseases in the future.
Since we are interested in helping speakers master the art of presenting well, brain health is important to us. Healthy brains equal better speakers. So let’s use Suzuki’s research to figure how hitting the gym pays off for your presentation.
1. Benefits You Immediately
It’s no secret that exercise boosts your mood because it increases many of the feel-good chemicals in your brain. Your levels of dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline are affected by aerobic exercise. These neurotransmitters can affect your ability to focus, improve your mood, control your blood pressure, and regulate your anxiety. All incredibly beneficial things for a public speaker! Exercising before a presentation can help the body get rid of built up adrenaline and help regulate your body’s nervous response. This is why you sometimes see speakers who do jumping jacks or push-ups right before walking on stage. That quick burst of activity has immediate positive benefits on both your body and your brain.
2. Improves Attention
One of the biggest ways in which exercise affects your brain involves your ability to focus and pay attention because it literally increases the size of your prefrontal cortex and medial temporal cortex which control thinking and memory. Not only that, but when you exercise, studies show the positive benefits of your workout can last for up to two hours. That means hitting the gym, taking a quick walk, or even choosing the stairs over the elevator might be one of the best things you can do to prepare for your presentation. It will give you the ability to focus to the best of your ability while you are speaking which is something all speakers need.
3. Strengthens and Protects
As a professor in my early 40s, one of the things I notice about my aging brain is my inability to recall words quickly when I’m teaching. The physical aches and pains I can handle. But the long pause while trying to think of the word I want to use is deeply unsettling to me. Suzuki says that regular exercise can help combat this. She even calls exercise “a supercharged 401K for your brain.” Exercise can strengthen the brain in ways that help to slow the progression of diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia.
So How Much Exercise is Enough?
Suzuki recommends at least 30 minutes of exercise 3 to 4 times each week. But the 2018 National Health Statistics Report recommends “muscle strengthening activities at least twice weekly, with either moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week, vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity for at least 75 minutes per week, or an equivalent combination.”
The scientific evidence is clear. If you want to control your nerves, improve your mood, focus more clearly, and recall words more quickly when speaking, exercise. It doesn’t matter whether you choose yoga or walking or dancing or jogging up the stairs. Whatever you do, just get moving. When you do, you’ll be all the more ready to flex that strong and beautiful brain of yours during your next presentation.
Our tips and tricks for public speaking are backed by scientific research. Ready to learn more?
