2 . If you want your mind to be sharper, the evidence suggests you should visit the gym.     1     We tend to suppose that brains don’t go with muscles.     2     As the latest video from the Head Squeeze team shows, exercising the body is one of the best ways to improve your intelligence and preserve it through old age.

Consider this: one German study found that older people who enjoy mild exercise—such as gardening—are half as likely to suffer from cognitive impairment as they age. Another experiment found that pensioners asked to take a leisurely walk a few times a week scored better on attention and memory tests.     3     Children who walk to school tend to concentrate better and get better test results than those given lifts in the car.

One, possible reason is that the exercise improves the blood (and therefore oxygen) supply to the brain which helps give it the, energy, to think. It might also promote the growth of neurons (神经元) and perhaps encourage the release of certain neurotransmitters and growth hormones (生长激素) that are important to the brain’s overall health.     4    

In the future, some researchers are looking into specially designed “exergames” that combines physical activity with cognitive training to give your brain the best possible workout; early results suggest that the sum is greater than the individual parts.     5    

6 . The Importance of Getting Kids to Be Active

Everyone knows that kids should be physically active and need to exercise regularly to be physically fit.     1    , regular physical activity is considered by most experts to be an important part of a healthy lifestyle. However, that doesn’t mean every child needs to spend four or five hours a day exercising.

How Much Exercise Do Kids Need?

It is recommended that kids should be physically active for at least 60 minutes per day.     2    . For example, if your eight-year-old played soccer for 20 minutes during PE at school and then played basketball with his friends for 40 minutes after school, he would meet the recommendation of 60 minutes of physical activity for that day.

Exercise and Calories

    3    . It can help them build self-respect, sleep better, have more energy, and reduce depression. And as most people know, along with a healthy diet, regular exercise is the best way to lose weight and prevent childhood obesity (肥胖). Since your child is not likely to get his exercise using exercise equipment, it can be hard to always tell how many calories he is burning while exercising.     4    , as long as your child is getting his 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day and maintaining a healthy diet.

Youth Exercise and Fitness

Remember that kids, even teens, don’t usually stick with exercise programs.     5    . Instead, kids do better with lifestyle exercise programs, such as active free play and organized team sports.

8 . We’ve all heard the saying“Life slows down the older you get,” but that's certainly not true for Joan MacDonald.

The 75-year-old fitness influencer has accumulated an incredible following on social media, in part because she's chosen to actively reject the idea that aging robs you of your energy, focus and drive. In fact, MacDonald looks at movement as a “gift, ” and whether you're hitting the gym five days a week, or just beginning your fitness journey 一 it's never too late to take advantage of what your body was meant to do. Get moving.

“Just start with what you can, ” MacDonald tells Guideposts, org when asked what her best piece of advice would be for seniors looking to get active again.“If you can only walk three blocks, start there. Over time aim to add another block.”

And just because you' re starting small, it doesn’t' t mean that a short bike ride or quick stretch session isn't having an impact. The recommended amount of cardio （有氧运动）each day for most adults is 30 minutes, although even short bursts of movement can have a huge impact on decreasing the risk of being overweight, heart problems and other conditions.

The key is consistency. MacDonald knows that the road to healthy isn't easy and sometimes, the struggle can seem impossible to overcome. She had to battle against years of bad habits and recondition her body to push against her imagined limits. She tries to keep her social media channels focused on the positive aspects of working out and eating better, always encouraging and uplifting her followers, and never judging their difficulties 一 or her own. It's that attitude that she says is key to staying active.

“Focus on what is going right and well,” MacDonald says. “For me, I started my whole transformation because I wanted to feel better. I wanted energy to live my life! Now having my health, strength, and endurance is what keeps me committed.”

9 . When 36-year-old Andy Duran decided to return to his favorite high school hobby-skateboarding— in January 2021，the only problem he expected to run into was his own ability to get back into the sport after the long break. However, the 340-pound skateboarder from Oakland, California, soon realized that was the least of his problems.

Duran’s problems began before he even stepped on a skateboard. “I couldn’t find any resources (资源) for fat skaters, what types of boards to try, or where to buy branded (名牌的) shirts in sizes 2XL or 3XL,” he says.

What Duran did find instead was an unfounded belief that fat people should not be skating. “I started to find people who were saying that if you’ re over 190 pounds you shouldn’t be on a skateboard, or that the board won’t support you,” he says.

Determined to do something to change that, Duran founded Chub Rollz— a skating and skateboarding community for overweight skaters. “If you feel like your size makes you feel uncomfortable about skating with others, you are welcome to skate with us,” Duran says.

Duran created a list of recommended (推荐的) products for fat skaters. He also held skating and skateboarding classes to teach beginners. He received a lot of messages from strangers expressing gratitude. “This means so much to me; I didn’t think I could skate,” said one. “A person at the skate shop laughed at me, but this club makes me feel like I can still do it,” wrote another.

Though encouraged, Duran believes a lot more needs to be done to change the idea that fat bodies can’t do and aren’t interested in the activity. He thinks that is simply not true. “I want to see more changes in communities. Maybe skate shops have more training for creating a more welcoming environment for all types of skaters or boards to be made in different sizes,” he explains.

10 . Rollerblading is an excellent sport that just about anyone can enjoy. After you have mastered the basics of rollerblading, you can begin to master the sport. There are a variety of different methods and styles that you can try.     1    . However, some athletes prefer to perfect their sport and compete in their chosen sport. The sport of rollerblading has many forms and styles that allow competition.

Some types of rollerblading, including free skating and aggressive skating, have a heavy emphasis on tricks. Free skating is a type of rollerblading that is primarily about getting from start to finish as fast as possible.     2    .

Some inline skaters prefer to go the way of inline speed skating.     3    . Unlike free skating and aggressive skating inline speed skating does not involve tricks or obstacles. The competitions take place on roller skating rinks, or on outdoor rinks. Inline speed skating competitions include a variety of different events and formats that range from sprints to longer distance relay competitions. Many athletes who choose inline speed skating can also ice speed skate as the seasons change.

    4    . In this sport teams compete against each other for the puck, using sticks to pass and direct the puck into the goal. Roller hockey is played essentially the same way as ice hockey, but the equipment has been redesigned in order to adapt to the non-ice conditions.

Each of these sports requires different skills and is comprised of a different group of people.     5    . Whichever sport a beginning inline skater may choose if they want to develop their skills as a skater, hey will have fun mastering one of the excellent sports.