“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.” John F. Kennedy
I recently decided to engage the services of a personal trainer to enable me take my personal fitness to a higher level. Already, I will be consider myself a relatively fit person – doing some form of exercise about 3 times a week. The problem however was I knew I was not physically challenging myself enough. Previously I could do up to 15 push ups before taking a break.
Before, I engaged the trainer, I also realized I was not as productive as I knew I needed be – I was beginning to take things relatively easy. I decided to invest in personal trainer after one of my exercises, when I became tired after 5 push-ups. After that exercise – I said to myself – “Nneka -enough is enough, you have to challenge yourself physically to achieve regular victories!”
It was while reflecting, that I realized I had spiritual coaches – my Pastor & other Christian teachers. I had mental coaches in the form of my mentors and some thought leaders whom I learn from on a regular basis. The missing part was a fitness coach – who could help stretch me physically.
By the following week, I had engaged the services of Sande – an experienced fitness coach and I challenged myself to start my training from 5 -6 am! This meant I had to get up much earlier to have my morning devotions – Spirit first, then the body! The results have been dramatic ! By the 2nd week – I was able to complete 4 cycles of 10 push ups each in a session! 40 push ups as compared to 5 push ups, only after 2 weeks!
I know there is no way I could have stretched myself this much, if I had not had a fitness coach. More importantly, I was able to start my day earlier by doing more deep work of creating content, and other activities that required some form of mental agility.
My results confirmed some research that I did that there is a strong correlation between physical agility and mental agility. As you already know, a regular fitness regime helps prevent weight gain and also helps prevent some major ailments. Additional benefits of physical agility include:
- Boost your memory –The part of the brain that responds strongly to aerobic exercise is the hippocampus. Well-controlled experiments in children, adults and the elderly show that this brain structure grows as people get fitter. Since the hippocampus is at the core of the brain’s learning and memory systems, this finding partly explains the memory-boosting effects of improved cardiovascular fitness.
- Improve your concentration – Besides making memories stickier, exercise can help you focus and stay on task and helps with memory retention.
- Improve your mental health- Bouts of physical activity can have potent effects on your mood. There is a high – a feeling of elation that follows intensive exercise. Research also shows that exercise is also emerging as a promising way to overcome depression
- Enhance your creativity – A Stanford University research affirmed that walking significantly improves certain types of cognitive efforts involved in creativity, specifically convergent thinking, such as the ability to come up with solutions to a problem, and divergent thinking, which involves conceiving open-ended, original ideas.
- Slowing cognitive decline – There is evidence that staying physically fit keeps your brain healthy into old age. Most concrete is the link between aerobic fitness and cognitive preservation. Workouts needn’t be extreme either: 30-45 minutes of brisk walking, three times a week, can help fend off the mental wear and tear and delay the onset of dementia.