The common belief is that exercise is designed only to keep the body strong, limber, healthy and firm. In the contemporary youth obsessed neurotic culture it has become common to associate with your physical form and value yourself accordingly so wherever you turn you’ll get advice on the “6 ways to flatten your stomach in 6 days”, “3 new ways to get a Brazilian butt”, “5 minutes a day to perfect thighs”…

The reason you exercise is not to go down a dress size or be a thing to be ogled. It goes much much deeper, down to the very center of where the youness of you resides – the brain. The brain is an usurper, a relatively small machinery compared to the rest of your body but consumes most of its energy, oxygen, nutrients… which are all carried by the circulatory system to the brain. The most important thing that happens in a sedentary lifestyle is not that you’ll get a bit softer, fatter and saggier, but the changes that happen to neurons and synapses – you will literally get dumber if you don’t move. The slowed down blood flow takes in less oxygen, makes less use of the nutrients at its disposal, eliminates waste slower. The brain then becomes deprived and slows down the non-essential functions in order to reroute it to the crucial spaces of keeping your body alive. After some time you’ll notice you have trouble with solving simple problems, can’t remember the names of everyday objects, you’ll notice a fall in productivity, mind fog, diminished creativity and motivation, confusion, anxiety due to the lack of dopamine production…

This is a biological fact – the mind and body are a loop, what happens to the one affects the other – You can think yourself into illness of the body or neglect your body to the point of psychological disorders. Your brain may be held fit by mind gymnastics such as Lumosity or riddle solving, but this is miniscule to the effects of exercise. You will in the true sense of the word “wake up” your brain once you start using your body for what it was designed to do – move. No matter how old you are now, regular exercise will turn back the time dial and revert your cognitive functions and agility of the synapses to those of a person 15-20 years younger. You don’t exercise to save keep your stomach from sagging, but to keep your brain from shutting down. You’re not a body, you have a body, and what a magnificent tool it is.