3 ideas for using physical activity to boost your cognitive performance

Imagine yourself driving a car at 300 km/h. Your heart rate is at 80% of max for the duration of the 90-minute race. There is no rest. At every turn, you face forces of 2 to 6 Gs. You are hot – it’s over 50°C, you’re thirsty and breathing heavily. But the physical demands are not your only concern – cognitive demands are too. The car’s steering wheel has over 35 buttons and switches; you need to stay vigilant to 19 other cars on the track; team strategies keep changing over the radio; injury or even death could lurk behind every corner. The pressure is on and your primary goal is to stay focused and sharp. Welcome to the world of Formula 1!

For this sport an athlete needs to be cognitively fit. But did you know that boosting your cognitive function is not just about training your brain and mindset? Physical fitness plays a huge part in cognitive fitness. But specifically – how? Our clients, both athletes and business professionals alike, often ask: what type of physical exercise should I do to boost cognitive performance? So, let’s recap some basics about cognitive function and share a few practical tips to boost both physical and cognitive fitness.

Enhancing cognitive function in knowledge work receives a lot of attention. But what is it exactly? Our key cognitive functions are also called executive functions, which include:

For knowledge workers these cognitive functions are crucial to be able to perform well and maintain excellence in the workplace. Equally, sport is both a mental and a physical game and these elements of function are paramount for top level performance. Athletes focus on both the physical and mental aspects of training to enable them to perform to the very best of their ability.

There is a solid body of research showing that exercise can improve cognitive function. For example, one study showed that a bout of high-intensity exercise boosted performance on a colour-word matching task assessing decision making. More concretely, participants did a 2-minute warmup on a bike, followed by 8 minutes of high intensity exercise: 8 sets of 30 seconds at 60% effort and 30 seconds of rest. Participants who did the exercise scored significantly higher on the decision-making task that followed. But it’s not just a specific exercise or a specific task: another study showed that both light and moderate exercise, in groups with varying levels of fitness, significantly improved scores on tasks measuring memory recall.

In practice, we use exercise to get Formula 1 drivers physically and mentally prepared for a race. In a Formula 1 race, drivers need cognitive abilities like decision making, multi-tasking, attention (focus), arousal control, memory, and fast reaction time to process information at high speed on the track. Our Performance Coaches take their Formula 1 drivers through a staged warm-up designed to enhance the driver’s cognitive function and prepare them for the demands of the race. The warm-up increases blood flow and raises core body temperature. Exercises are chosen to activate and prime the nervous system, making them ready to perform.

If the research clearly shows the impacts and benefits of exercise on cognitive function, what can we do from a practical perspective to improve our cognitive performance?

Do you have a task that requires memorisation? An exam or presentation on the horizon where you need to remember facts and figures? Try this recipe from one study that improved memory recall: Do a 20-30 minute exercise session (between 64% and 95% of max heart rate) 1-2 hours after memorisation. Then do 20 to 60 minutes exercise before recall is required. Why not try this next time and see how it impacts your memory and performance?

A series of studies at Stanford University showed that walking either indoors or outdoors can improve creative inspiration by an average of 60%. These improvements in creativity lasted from 4 to 16 minutes depending on the situation.

Try this just before your next team brainstorming session, or before starting a task where you need to think outside the box and be expectant for creativity to flow!

There are multiple protocols and interventions of different types of exercise to manage or reduce stress. In fact, virtually all forms of exercise – whether aerobic, high intensity, weight training, yoga, or Tai Chi – tend to reduce stress. One very practical method is breaking the exercise into two 10-to-15-minute sessions, one before work and one at lunch time when possible. Formula 1 driver, knowledge worker, retired grandparent; all can improve physical and cognitive performance through exercise.

Technopolis provides Wellness Talks in collaboration with the event partner Hintsa Performance. Happy employees are healthier and more productive, and that’s why Technopolis offers its customers and their employees services, such as Wellness Talks, that support health and wellbeing.

Wellness Talks is held online six times a year – easy access from your own workstation. Check out upcoming events on our event calendar.