Exercise makes you smarter.

"I like to say that exercise is like taking a little Prozac or a little Ritalin at just the right moment, exercise is really for the brain, not the body. It affects mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being." -John J. Ratey, MD

"Every time a bicep or quad contracts and releases, it sends out chemicals, including a protein called IGF-1 that travels through the bloodstream, across the blood-brain barrier and into the brain itself. There, IGF-1 takes on the role of foreman in the body's neurotransmitter factory. It issues orders to ramp up production of several chemicals, includin g one called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF." -msnbc.msn.com

"In a study published in 2001, neuropsychiatrist KristineYaffe of the University of California, San Francisco, and her colleagues recruited 5,925 women older than 65 at four different medical centers across the U.S. The participants were all free of any physical disability that would limit their ability to walk or pursue other physical activities. The volunteers were also screened to ensure that they did not have a cognitive impairment. The researchers then assessed their physical activity by asking the women how many city blocks they walked and how many flights of stairs they climbed daily and gave them a questionnaire to fill out about their levels of participation in 33 different physical activities. After six to eight years, the researchers assessed the women’s level of cognitive function. The most active women had a 30 percent lower risk of cognitive decline." -sportsGeezer.com

Basically when you get a good workout your blood starts flowing farther into you capillaries, so oxygen gets carried deep into your brain where you need it, making you smarter and reducing your risk of alzheimer's.

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Two kinds of exercise.

Aerobic: Endurance sports that cause blood to carry oxygen around the body for a long time. These make your heart and lungs stronger, and improve the efficiency of your muscles.

Anaerobic: Short, powerful bursts of energy like sprinting and weight lifting. These help you build power, which is the ability to do work quickly.

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Recommended Exercises:

Working out in a gym is a good idea, but you have to do it smart. Focus on whole muscle systems, not just one particular muscle. If you focus only on one specific muscle, it will become to strong in comparison to the others, which can cause strains and other problems. Always allow a 'muscle system' to recover before working it out again. Alternate to other systems while one heels.

Running should be used with discretion. It can pound your joints too much. I recommend low impact sports like swimming and cycling. (but do whatever you like.)

Bench Press and Squats

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Cycling is wonderful for physical and mental health.

Benefits for your heart: Cycling reduces the risk of serious conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and the most common form of diabetes.

Benefits for your weight: A 15-minute bike ride to and from work five times a week burns off the equivalent of 11 pounds of fat in a year.

Benefits for your mood: Moderate exercise has been found to reduce levels of depression and stress, improve mood and raise self-esteem.

Benefits for strength and coordination: There can also be indirect benefits in terms of reducing injuries from falls.

Benefits for overall fitness: A recent study found that aerobic fitness was boosted by 11 per cent after just six weeks of cycling 'short distances' four times a week. If cycling the equivalent of four miles to and from work in total a day the aerobic benefit increased to 17 per cent.