Walk, work, think

Steve Bordley emailed me this morning to point out that…

A new study published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience has shown that walking will in fact enhance connectivity within brain circuits. Additionally, the study found that walking also improves cognition and combats the decline in brain function normally associated with aging. Walking, in effect, keeps the brain younger and functioning at a higher level than those of sedentary individuals.

The challenge in today’s workplace environment is finding the time to walk the minimum amount of steps required to improve mental processes. Often lost in the debate concerning improving our education system is the need to care for the mental and physical health of our educators.

The study followed 65 previously sedentary adults aged 59 to 80 and joined a walking or stretching and toning group for a period of twelve months. The researchers also measured brain activity in 32 adults aged between 18-35 years of age.

The study focused on regions within the brain that function together as networks.

“Almost nothing in the brain gets done by one area it’s more of a circuit,” said University of Illinois psychology professor and Beckman Institute Director Art Kramer, lead researcher. Dr. Kramer has led previous studies which showed that walking can increase memory and cognitive abilities by as much as 15% in 6 months and increase the production of small blood vessels in the brain by 43% in the same duration. “These networks can become more or less connected. In general, as we get older, they become less connected, so we were interested in the effects of fitness on connectivity of brain networks that show the most dysfunction with age, Dr. Kramer added.”

Walking improves your thinking.

Then the going gets weird. Steve heads up TrekDesk.

Hey now, multi-taskers, you can work your butt off while you jog the fat off!

Hold on a minute. This is progress?

Managers: “The days of office drudgery and ill health are finally over. TrekDesk, attached to an existing treadmill, allows employees to walk slowly while they work (without sweating).The benefits of walking while working are life changing and include weight loss, disease prevention, health restoration, mood improvement, productivity increases; a total overhaul of your mental and physical well being.”

Walking is part of my personal learning environment. And walking in nature is more productive than walking inside or on asphalt.

Try to imagine an office filled with this crap. Laughter would probably crowd out getting work done.

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