Brain Health and Exercise
Brain Health and Exercise
Everybody knows that exercise is important for our health. Have you ever wondered why babies and toddlers are always moving and active? It’s because movement promotes brain growth and development and young children intuitively do this. In adults, exercise makes the brain more elastic and this promotes healing, improves memory and brain function, improves sleep quality, improves mood, increases energy, and it can be fun and social! Walking is one of the most accessible forms of exercise available to everyone and has the added bonus of exposing us to nature, which is also good for our brains. That all sounds like a pretty good deal for putting on some shoes and heading out the door to exercise, right?
One of my biggest challenges early in recovery was re-learning how to walk. I literally had to learn the mechanics of putting one foot in front of the other, rewiring my injured brain, and rebuilding strength. Countless hours of physical, occupational and aquatic therapy helped me to re-learn how to walk, and my homework was always the same - get outside and go for a walk.
Set Achievable Goals
Set small goals for yourself each week and enlist the support of friends to help you keep to a daily walking plan. In the beginning I could barely walk around my one level house with a walker. Gradually I could take a very slow walk around the garden, then the block etc. I would try to walk a tiny bit farther each day. First as far as a bench. Then to a sign beyond the bench. Then to a bridge beyond the sign. And so on. With regular practice you might surprise yourself by how far you are walking in a relatively short amount of time!
Don’t Overdo It
The other side of the coin is that too much exercise can negatively impact an injured brain and result in setbacks that can include extreme fatigue, brain fog and even a return or exacerbation of neurological symptoms. You will have to figure out the “right” amount of exercise for you at each stage of your recovery journey. Make sure you keep setting the bar a little higher as you achieve one small goal at a time. Moderate levels of exercise are important to help re-establish connections in the brain.
It’s fun to walk with a friend! You might find that some friends walk “too fast”, and some friends walk “too slow”. Pick your “just right” walking buddy and you’ll enjoy it more! Some friends talked “too much”, leaving me mentally exhausted, until my brain was more healed and I was further along my recovery journey. Lastly, enjoy your time outdoors - nature is such good therapy for healing an injured brain.
Join BrainWalk in the Month of February
Do challenges motivate you? Want to be part of a team, walking daily to raise awareness about Encephalitis in February? World Encephalitis Day is February 22nd and each year, the Encephalitis Society hosts BrainWalk for the month of February. Join as an individual, or join My Team, “Lisa Lauter’s Journey to Health” here, or click on the picture below. Get in your steps, how every many or few, log them online and help raise awareness about encephalitis!
