Mental Pushups: Can You Train Your Brain Like a Muscle? Neuroscience Reveals the Power of Mind Workouts

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Mental pushups aren’t just a metaphor! Neuroscience shows the brain can grow stronger like a muscle through practice, challenges and mindfulness.

Brain Health: When we think about training, many of us think of training in the gym, where we might do weight training or build strength until fatigue, or push ourselves past our limits. But can the brain grow and get stronger like a muscle? Neuroscience says it can! While the brain certainly develops differently from a muscle, it can also be ‘worked out’ and trained, enhanced, and utilized more efficiently, much like a muscle when the right practice and opportunity to ‘work out’ are present.

Because of neuroplasticity, our brain has the ability to create new connections and strengthen existing connections. Simply put, our capabilities in our minds are not fixed. The brain can change, grow, evolve, adapt, and develop other potentials, no matter how old a person is, if the training and purpose/intention are intentional.

Can You Really Build Mental Strength Like Muscles?

Science is exciting. The human brain is made of about 86 billion neurons that are connected together in complicated networks. For years, scientists thought these networks were born in childhood, then became relatively stable in adulthood, or fixed. More recent discoveries have proven that neuroplasticity can change and allow the brain to reorganize itself based on learning and experience. Every time you work on a puzzle, start learning a new language, or practice mindfulness, you are “exercising” your brain by forming new paths and reinforcing old paths, like factual information, and creating new facts and remembering new relevant information.

Brain development and muscle development are similar in many areas. Muscles cannot develop if they do not experience a consistent amount of training, and similarly, the brain cannot grow without regular mental stimulation. Reading, solving word problems, and learning different skills are similar to reps and sets for the mind. However, growth requires going into your comfort zone. Muscles grow as they experience resistance, while the brain is going to grow when you challenge it with problems that are harder, more complex materials, or new skills. Similarly, rest is equally important; they repair from the workout, while there are processes in the brain that consolidate learning and optimize memory during sleep.

Science-Backed Ways to Boost Memory, Focus And Creativity

A brain workout doesn’t have to be a financial drain, nor a highly sophisticated tool. Daily habits provide big ‘workouts’ for your ‘big brain’. Learning a new skill (cooking, coding, guitar, etc.) creates new pathways. Reading and writing boost comprehension and then creativity. Movement (through yoga, jogging, or dancing) increases blood flow and provides some neuroplasticity, which is utilized in memory. Practicing mindfulness and meditation enhances focused attention while lowering stress (mindfulness rewires the attention networks). Some games to consider are crossword puzzles, chess, and Sudoku, which will all assist with recall and problem-solving.

In the world we have now, where distractions are everywhere, brain training will become the most valuable exercise. Cognitive flexibility (the ability to adjust to the needs of change) and focus (the ability to stay on task when interrupted) are valuable and hard to find.

There is evidence that engaging in regular brain workouts benefits the brain, strengthens memory, potentially slows cognitive decline in aging, improves learning potential, enhances creativity and innovation, and improves emotional balance. Brain training provides benefits well beyond academics or a job; brain training allows for a greater sense of well-being and enjoyment of life.

So, this is the same process: attention, incremental challenge, and adequate recovery. Your brain is not just an organ; it is a living, flexible super-organ with an infinite capacity to change. Every thought you explore, challenge you face, and skill you practice is like a ‘mental push-up’. The more you train your brain, the stronger, faster, and more resilient it will be at any age.

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