While your brain certainly isn’t a muscle in the traditional sense you’ll definitely want to be sure that you continue to “work it out” the same way you would your biceps or your core in order to keep your mind as sharp and as strong for as long as possible.

Most people intuitively know that it is critical for them to move through critical thinking problems and to try and learn new things as often as possible to keep themselves sharp and millions more, but new research suggests that you’ll not only want to challenge your brain with “brain busting” puzzles, but that you’ll want to combine these exercises with traditional workouts that tax your body as well.

Restorative Neurology and Neuro Science says that a combination approach boosts cognitive ability significantly

A study conducted 2014 has helped researchers better understand just how impactful cognitive challenges like sudoku puzzles and other word puzzles (not to mention mental math) have on helping the brain stay lean and healthy, but what kind of impact physical activity while moving through these mental challenges has on the brain as well.

The researchers weren’t quite sure if combining these two distinctly different approaches were going to produce any results whatsoever, but were very pleasantly surprised to learn that the body and the brain responded very favorably to this multi-pronged approach.

Rather than just test the brain or the body at one particular point in time, trying to solve logical issues or complex word problems while working out forced the body to multitask and create new relationships and focus on different areas of the brain at the exact same time.

This released a tremendous amount of brain activity and hormonal biochemical reactions that improved muscular growth, muscular regeneration, but also cleared out pathways that had been going dormant.

Everything in moderation

Even though this new research is very promising and should help individuals fight back against cognitive diseases and disorders like Alzheimer’s and memory loss, the research does not suggest that people should push themselves as far or as hard as possible when it comes to combining these two disciplines.

You aren’t going to want to try and scale Mount Everest with your attention on something else or diverted, that’s for sure. It’s a surefire way to put yourself in very dangerous situations, so (as with most everything) you will want to practice this new approach with moderation.