Boost Your Brain: Exercise for Cognitive Health

Regular physical activity is good for your heart, muscles, and bones. But did you know that exercise is good for your brain? Regular exercise can help you learn, problem solve, and improve your mood. But before we get started, did you know that you can work out anywhere, on any day, on Silver Sneakers Live? From Tai Chi to cardio, and from Pilates to strength training, we have the workout that you're looking for. Click on the first link in the description box below to check your eligibility. Today's session is designed to get you moving and challenge your coordination, memory, and thinking skills. Are you ready to move? Let's start these brain drills by learning a combination. Let's march right, left. Double step touch, side to side. One more set. Then hamstring curls, left and right. Chest up, pulling the arms back. Let's do four more on each side. And we'll put those two movements together. Double step touch, then hamstring curls. Double step touch, hamstring curls. So pretty easy. One more time, to the left. Now hustle forward three steps and a knee. Go back. Let's do it a few more times. And then from the top. Double step touch, hamstring curls. Walk forward with a knee, then back. Double step touch, hamstring curls. Hustle forward with a knee. Again, less cueing. Let's do it again, one more time on each side. Walk forward. That's it. March in place. Okay, did you get it? We'll review later with no cueing at all. So with your right foot, let's slowly go heel, toe, heel, and then left. So that's the movement. This is our second drill. We're gonna combine physical movement with some brain drills. One more slow. Good, now tempo. Heel, toe, heel, right, left. Then right, march left. Heel, toe, heel. One more on the left. March right. Try that again. So some uneven rhythm variations. Heel, toe, heel, rotate your left wrist. March. Rotate your right wrist. March. Good, keep it up. Heel, toe, heel. Heel, toe, heel, one more set. Get back on track. Keep the same rhythm. Heel, toe, heel. One more set. March. Last series. All right, I'm gonna add a brain drill. Let's subtract by threes. I'll give you a random number and you subtract as quickly as possible. Keep up the leg work. Let's start at 42. I'll help you. 42, 39, 36. Keep going. A few more. Just march. So how'd you do? Roll your shoulders. Relax your jaw and breathe. Our next movement requires some arm movements and I'm gonna use weights. If you have them, you can grab them. If not, that's okay. So set yourself up. Roll the shoulders back and down and then we'll just curl right and left. So curl right and left. Our next movement is a rear delt press to the back. Your arms straight without being locked. You feel the back of your shoulder. Let's curl right, left, then press back from the shoulder. Right, left. The right arm curls, the left arm pushes back. Let's do it at the same time. Four times. Press back, right. Curl left. The same time. All right, let's switch side to side. Switch. A few more. Last set. All right, if you've got weights, put them away and I have another drill for you. Plant your feet. We're not moving our feet right now. This is called circles and lines. So with your right hand, draw a circle. So that's pretty easy, right? So reverse the circle. Left hand is gonna draw a line. It can be vertical or I might ask you to draw a horizontal line. All right, let's start with our circle right and then add a line. So it's okay if your line starts to look a little bit like a circle. Reverse the circle. And then horizontal line. Reverse your circle. All right, now as an option here, I'm gonna go back to a vertical line and a circle. You can add a nice, easy, slow march. Just if it feels good. March. Reverse your circle. Horizontal line. Vertical line. Reverse that circle. How'd you do? Stop your feet, draw a circle left. And now you know, right arm's just gonna draw a line. All right, so circle. Reverse your circle. It's harder than it looks. Slow march. All right, let's see if we can do a horizontal line. Let's see how I do here. Horizontal's harder for me. Reverse your circle. All right. How did that feel? Let's do a V-step left. So a slow V. We're gonna move into a star step. A V-step to the back. One more. So a star step is a V forward and a V back. That's it, let's go to tempo. Out and in, then back. So get the step. Let's try right lead. So just get into the rhythm of the movement. You can go slower than I do. Back to left lead. Right here, left lead. All right, so if you were to list all 50 states in alphabetical order, do you know which state would be first? It's Alabama. Right lead. Let's spell, in your mind or out loud, spell Alabama out loud. So A-L-A-B-A-M-A, I think. Left lead. Let's spell Alabama backwards. Can you do it? I know it starts with an A. M-A-B-A-L-A. March in place. Roll your shoulders, take a big breath because you're almost there. Chest up, easy march. Now let's do that combination that we started with without any cueing. So do you remember what you learned in the very first part of this session today? All right, no cueing. We start to the right, and here we go. Great job. Movement is medicine. Get some exercise every day. Walking, dancing, tai chi, and strength training are a few workouts that you'll find on our live class schedule at silversneakers.com. I hope you can join me there.