Exercise and Resilience

As my alarm clock went off this at 5:30 morning, I immediately had to do some top notch positive self-talk to get over my bad-morning-moment and get motivated for my 6:00 swim training with a friend. Add to that, that today is Friday, and it has been a taxing week. By now I am ready for a little sleep-in and a chilled day. However, Friday still needed to happen with all its challenges.

I went for my swim and immediately afterwards I felt energised and ready to face life. If regular exercise is part of your life, you probably recognise this feel-good moment straight after a good training session.

Exercise has so many benefits. There is no pill or medication in existence with all the benefits of exercise combined into one. The benefits include better heart health, improved circulation, better lung capacity and respiratory health, stronger bones, healthier joints, less inflammation, a stronger immune system, improved gut health, weight control and so much more.

What is often overlooked is the role of exercise in brain health, mood and resilience.

Now let’s talk about resilience. There was a time when we thought the brain is what it is, does not change or have the ability to heal. We thought that from birth it goes only one way and that is towards degeneration with age or damage with trauma. We now know better.

Just over half a century ago researchers in neuroscience discovered that the brain has an incredible ability to rewire itself. One of the leading researchers in this field is Dr. Michael Merzenich who proved neuroplasticity as far back as the 1970s. Only more recently has the idea of the brain’s ability to rewire and regenerate been more widely accepted.

Neuroplasticity means the brain can build new nerve-units (called neurons) and make new connections resulting in new nerve pathways being formed. We are in other words not stuck in a state of degeneration or trauma, whether it is physical or emotional trauma. In his book “The Brain that Changes Itself,” Norman Doidge describes the story of Dr. Merzenich’s discoveries and many incredible stories of people’s lives that were positively changed by harnessing the power of neuroplasticity.

There is a growth factor in our bodies called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, or in short BDNF, that boosts this ability to renew and rewire nerve cells and nerve cell units. Dekel Taliaz and his Neuroscience research team from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have shown that BDNF boosts the development of neural circuits (rewiring in other words) that control adequate stress adaptations. It makes us adaptable and thereby more resilient to stress. Boosting this rewiring system can make us more resilient and help us navigate our way through challenging times and experiences.

And this brings me back to exercise. As Patrick Z. Liu and Robin Nusslock from the Northwestern University in the United States have shown, exercise increases BDNF levels. With the higher BDNF levels comes a greater ability to rewire the brain resulting in better brain health and greater resilience.
A lovely side benefit of the increased resilience with BDNF is having a much stronger immune system. There is a strong link between emotional wellbeing, your resilience to stress and your immune system. If you want to read more on the link between emotional wellbeing and your immune system you can do so in my immune system book “Strengthen Your Immune System and Boost Your Resistance to Disease“.

There are multiple other ways to increase our BDNF, but exercise is one of the most powerful and effective ways to do so.

This brings me back to my morning. I certainly had a great BDNF boost at the very start of my day. The more often I exercise, the better I can navigate through the challenges of every day. I hope you know the feeling. If you don’t, I can highly recommend that you start planning regular exercise into your life right now.

Go out there and have some fun in nature. Embrace Life.

Please feel free to send me comments and questions to: hester@embracelifewithhester.com
You can find my book, Strengthen Your Immune System and Boost Your Resistance to Disease, on Takealot or Amazon or get more information via this link.