Exercise does wonders for your body, but what it does for the mind is quite often ignored. The abilities and benefits of exercising and keeping healthy have long been assessed and over assessed, but the simple yet effective role that it plays in bringing the mind to its optimal cognitive function is of great importance.
It is well known that your mind is what controls your body and directs it to perform most of its actions. However, sometimes, that the brain relies on the performance of the body to improve its own function. Cognition is one such function that the brain trains in by itself giving commands to the body and rectifying the flaws in performance.

What is cognition?

Cognition, by definition, is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding of systems such as thought, experience and senses. The importance of cognition in our daily bodily functions is immense. From infancy, our brains begin to adapt to the external stimulus and the gradual process of cognitive development begins.
There are various types of cognitive functions that exercises satisfy. These may vary from hand eye coordination to overall mobility development. Various age groups are differently affected by physical activity in their cognitive recesses.

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Effect of exercise on young adult cognition

This age group is a broad spectrum and may vary from the age of infancy up to the age of 20. The cognitive development throughout this phase is sustained and progressive throughout.
In this age bracket, a child who actively participates in sports and has a higher level of physical activity is seen to develop a better hand eye coordination and a better understanding of stressful situations than a child with little to no physical activity. According to studies conducted, it has been seen that if there is an increased level of aerobic fitness it will benefit the cognitive processes and the underlying cognitive control during pre-adolescent development. The data is clearly suggestive of a beneficial relationship between the level of physical activity and cognitive performance in young adults.

Effect of exercise on adult cognition

An adult is very differently affected by exercises as far as cognition is concerned. The formative years correspond to the development of cognition, whereas during adult life, the emphasis is on the upkeep and gradual modification of cognitive abilities. Activities such as walking, jogging and free hand exercises help in development of specified movement and their coordination and aid in the overall development of isolated movements in the body. The brain strengthens its ability to hold movements and this further develops the conscious cognitive function.
Weight training on the other hand is seen to have a very different effect on one’s cognitive functions. It is observed that weight training not only loads the brain with external stimulus to make different muscle groups perform one particular motion, but also makes the mind more alert and careful since it is avoiding any mistakes as well.
The latest advancements and innovations in the field of neuro-imaging, the physical activity-human cognition theory has led to some observations related to exercise-induced changes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain and its associated cognitive processes as well. This means that every time a person exercises there are changes observed in the cognitive parts of his brain, which lead to some alteration in the cognitive focuses as well. This is proof enough of the immense positive effect of one on the other.

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Effect of exercise on ageing people

People aged 60 and above are the most susceptible to loss of cognitive function due to a disease or just general decay in the brain cells as well. To assess the condition of such adults many studies have been conducted comparing the physically active group that exercises and stays in shape to those who do not exercise. The observation here has been that the group that exercises has an improved performance while performing a series of tasks that involves different types of cognitive control. The indication is clear that physical activity is much more beneficial to cognitive function during aging.
In conclusion, cognitive control is a subset of goal-directed, self-regulatory operations and has much to do with underlying perception, memory, and action. Considering the many assessments of different age groups, it is only positively proven that the body will stay in a much better state mentally if it is kept fit physically.

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