Dr. Wendy Suzuki

That is the coolest thing that I've ever seen in my whole life.

It was life changing.

great yeah optimal well all the research shows that the best kind of exercise that you can do is anything that gives you aerobic activity that is getting your heart rate up so that that goes for you know power walking will get your heart rate up soccer

So many different things.

Name your activity.

So many people want to say, oh, my favorite activity.

Will that work?

And I always just say, is your heart rate up when you're doing it?

If the answer is yes, then yeah, that works great.

We know that that level of aerobic activity is critical because that's going to release that growth factor maximally to get into your hippocampus that will grow those new brain cells.

How much?

So I have an answer to that.

So we did two different experiments in my lab.

One in low-fit people, people that are really not exercising very much at all, less than 30 minutes in the last three weeks you've moved your body.

And we asked...

could we see any behavioral improvement in your memory function from your hippocampus or your ability to shift and focus attention if we ask you to move your body in an aerobic way for two to three times a week?

And we collaborated with a spin class, so clearly very aerobic.

And what we found was in those people that did successfully do two to three times a week a 45-minute aerobic activity,

Their mood got significantly better.

Their memory function got better.