Brain Workouts – Effective Ways to Exercise Your Brain

Most of us are extremely concerned about keeping our body fit and healthy, which is we why we try to eat right and do regular exercises. But, what about the most important part of our body that controls all our physical activities and emotional responses? Yes, you guessed it right – we are talking about the BRAIN. Just like our body, you need brain workouts to remain active and alert.

The more you use your brain, the healthier it will be. You will enjoy better memory, enhanced analytical skills, and improved reflexive responses. The best brain workouts are those that present newer challenges for your brain – that stimulate it, invigorate it and entertain it.

Here is a list of few such easy yet effective brain workouts that you can try:

1.) Rubik’s Cube: Rubik’s cube was first developed in 1974, and it has remained one of the most popular and interesting puzzle games ever since. It offers a great workout for the brain, especially targeting your ‘spatial’ intelligence and ‘visual’ thinking abilities.

Working with the Rubik’s cube would enhance your analytical skills and develop your sense of conceptualization and balance. Rubik’s cube undoubtedly is a challenging puzzle game that can keep your brain alert and active.

2.) Sudoku: Another addictive and highly challenging brain game is the Sudoku. ‘Sudoku’ in Japanese means single numbers. Sudoku are not mathematical puzzles, but require logical thinking and reasoning abilities.

Since you will need to focus your complete concentration and apply lots of common sense and logic while solving Sudoku puzzles, you will be working out different areas of your brain in the process. Moreover, the best part is you can easily find new Sudoku puzzles everyday in newspapers, magazines and on the internet.

3.) Get rid of your calculators: How many times do you use the calculator or your computer to do simple calculations? The answer for most people would be, at least 3-4 times a day or more. Get rid of this habit, instead try doing most mathematical calculations in your mind.

Whether it is calculating the total cost of your groceries or calculating your daily expenses, do such simple calculations in your mind. You can practice this great mental workout done on a daily basis. What’s more, it does not even require any special equipments or tools.

4.) Memorize your grocery list: While making a proper list of all the household items you need for the month is a good habit, it is not really necessary to write it down on paper. Why not use your mental notepad for this. The best way to do this is to go into each room of your house, and take a mental note of things you need to buy.

You can associate each of these items with different images. For instance, see yourself in your kitchen, cutting vegetables, imagine you are in the toilet replacing the toilet paper and so on. Categorizing each item and associating them with visual images can help you remember each item better. This is a great way to boost your memory and keep your brain active.

5.) Learn a New Language: Learning a new language can stimulate your neural development and enhance your brainpower in various ways. A large number of scientific studies and researches have shown that learning a new language enhances creativity, memory, mental flexibility, speed, attention and problem solving skills.

Language is one of the most complex subjects, you can learn in your lifetime and it is indeed an excellent way to challenge your brainy. The more your brain is challenged, the more it will grow and the higher will be your mental productivity.

6.) Listening to Music: Perhaps one of the easiest and most interesting ways to exercise your brain is listening to music. It is a known fact that music can enhance the brain’s data retention powers, thereby enhancing your memory. The gap between two musical notes can trigger neural activity and also lead to growth of new neurons.

Listening to Mozart’s music that follows a specific rhythm, can activate your left and right brain simultaneously. The result is a significant increase in the learning and concentration abilities of an individual. You can also try memorizing a song or learning a musical instrument, which are again excellent brain workouts.

7.) Try New Routes: As mentioned earlier, the best brain workouts are those that force the brain to think and react differently. A great brain exercise that can be tried by anyone is to try changing the route they take to their home or office every day. This will force the brain to break old patters of thinking and be more attentive.

You can also try multi-tasking like listening to music while jogging or trying to solve a mathematical problem while cooking. All these are simple acts that will require your brain to work harder and thus stimulate its growth.

8.) Engage in Discussions/Debates: When you participate in a healthy discussion (not an argument), you will need to think creatively, analyze different points and pay attention to what everyone else is saying. This is a great exercise for your brain as stimulates blood flow, strengthens your nerve cells and activates both the logical as well as the creative aspects of your brain.

9.) Play Chess: Chess is not only the most popular and ancient form of strategy games, but is also a scientifically recommended brain exercise. Such games involve careful analysis, application of logic and creativity, all at the same time. You can join social clubs to enjoy chess and other strategy games with other players, or you can even play these games online.

Try the above mentioned brain workouts to stimulate neural growth and development, and to ensure that your mental performance does not decline with your age. Your brain is the center of everything you do, feel and think, and it is absolutely important to keep it healthy and fit.