How Exercise Changes Your Brain?

Just had a workout? Feeling more calm or highly focused? This is not a coincidence! Not only does exercise help with building muscle and keeping your body healthy, but it also helps rewire your brain in ways that affect how you think, learn, and handle stress. 

Exercise Can...

1. Grow New Brain Cells

Through exercise, the body releases a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), which helps with neurogenesis. This basically helps the brain grow new blood vessels, which results in the growth and long-time survival of new brain cells.

Benefits to higher BDNF:

• Strengthens connections between neurons

  • Improves learning and long-term memory

Note: This mainly happens in the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain involved in memory and emotional regulation.

Image 1. An image showing the neurogenesis (growth of brain cells) due to an increase in blood flow to the brain (Loprinzi et al.) 

2. Improve Focus & Learning

Adding onto the previous point, the increased blood flow and oxygen to the brain help with:

• Improving attention and concentration

• Speeding up thinking and reaction time

• Supporting better academic performance

Even short spells of activity (e.g.,. a 20-minute walk) can boost class performance or focus right away. 

This is one of the main reasons why people can focus for hours after going on a run or a walk! 

Image 2. Advice on the learning of new skills and exercise published by the World Economic Forum.

3. Improves Mental Health

Alongside the BDNF protein, exercise also releases endorphins and lowers cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone produced by the adrenal glands of the body, while endorphins act as natural painkillers and mood elevators. Usually, endorphins are released to counteract cortisol and reduce stress. Some people do not produce enough natural endorphins, so they take pills to increase this production. However, prescription drugs can have many different side effects; therefore, it is recommended to try physical activity before other options. 

Endorphins help: 

• Improve mood

• Reduce feelings of anxiety

• Help you feel calmer and more in control

Essentially, this helps improve mental health and supports hundreds of families around the world. 

Not only does exercise release endorphins, but it also releases serotonin and dopamine, which are brain chemicals involved in happiness and rewards. A greater amount of happiness results in:

• Greater motivation

• Emotional balance

This makes emotional ups and downs easier to manage, especially when you have too many things to do at once or are going through a tough time. 

Image 3. A visual summary of the different ways that exercise can help with the mental health of humans

4. What Can You Do?

You might be tempted to think that intensive workouts are not your style or you do not have time for these workouts, however, exercise does not necessarily mean working on your glutes, or having an incredible leg day at the gym. Taking a 20-minute walk down the street or doing yoga for 30 minutes a day can also help you reap the benefits talked about in this blog! 

Non-intensive, easy exercises can include: 

• Biking for 20 minutes

• Yoga for 30 minutes 

• Jogging for 20 minutes

• Swimming

• Dancing

• Even stretching counts!

All you have to do is ensure that you are consistent. This will not work if you work out for one day in a month and hope to see changes in your focus or motivation. Exercise must be a continuous cycle throughout your life in order for you to lead a successful life mentally and physically! 

• This can get hard, especially as you grow older and have more and more responsibilities

However, here are a few ways to help:

• Fitness Logger

  • Try to focus on one component at a time and see the changes over time - research shows seeing past success can help with future motivation

• Compete with Friends

  • Many times, exercising on your own can feel boring, and unmotivating. However, creating physical activity into a competition helps with that motivation

• Schedule Sessions

  • On your calendar (digital or paper), set out times throughout the week and stick to it (reward yourself with your favourite food for doing it). Eventually, session scheduling will become so easy that going to the gym may become your favourite activity

• Start Small

  • One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is doing intensive workouts from the get-go, and getting tired and deciding to give up on exercise, however, starting with 20-minute biking or walking and working your way up to the heavy weightlifting can help tremendously. And remember, you don’t even need to start the heavy weightlifting, you can just stick to small workouts! 

Final Notes

In conclusion, physical activity helps rewire your brain to make you more focused, more involved with your life, and generally a healthy human being (physically & mentally). There are many ways you can integrate working out into your everyday life, and ways to keep you accountable.

Here are some apps which help with fitness tracking or competing:

• Best for fitness tracking: Strava

• Best for a variety of workouts: Nike Training Club

• Best for guided workouts: ClassPass

Here’s a website you can read for more apps: https://www.garagegymreviews.com/best-free-workout-apps 

There are also many different scientific studies if you want to read further than this blog:

• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4410170/ 

• https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/exercise-and-stress/art-20044469 

• https://www.pacificneuroscienceinstitute.org/blog/neuroscience-research/new-study-shows-exercise-can-boost-brain-health/ 

Written By: Krisha L

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Sources

CDC. “Physical Activity Boosts Brain Health.” Physical Activity, 24 May 2024, www.cdc.gov/physical-activity/features/boost-brain-health.html.

Cleveland Clinic. “Cortisol: What It Is, Function, Symptoms & Levels.” Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, 2021, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22187-cortisol.

---. “Endorphins: What They Are and How to Boost Them.” Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, 19 May 2022, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23040-endorphins.

Godman, Heidi. “Regular Exercise Changes the Brain to Improve Memory, Thinking Skills.” Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Health Publishing, 9 Apr. 2014, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110.

Hancock, Alexis. “How to Make Gym Goals You’ll Actually Keep in 2026.” Pushpress.com, PushPress, 8 Jan. 2026, www.pushpress.com/blog/how-to-make-gym-goals. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.

Loprinzi, Paul D., et al. “Does Aerobic and Resistance Exercise Influence Episodic Memory through Unique Mechanisms?” Brain Sciences, vol. 10, no. 12, 27 Nov. 2020, p. 913, https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10120913.

Wong, Debbie. “Realistic Resolutions: 10 Tiny Fitness Goals You Can Actually Keep in 2026 | Recreation, Athletics & Wellness.” Recreation, Athletics & Wellness, 9 Jan. 2026, www.utm.utoronto.ca/athletics/blog/realistic-resolutions-10-tiny-fitness-goals-you-can-actually-keep-2026. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.