If Your Brain Had Legs It Would Dance

Can you just imagine it? Your brain on the dance floor, doing the cabbage patch or the running man. Working up a sweat! Getting down with its bad self. Cutting a rug, as it where. Oh, if only. Exercise is supposed to be good for the brain. If only if it had legs of its own, to get out there and shake its groove thang.

But wait, it does. You are your brain, and you have legs. When you dance, your brain dances. When you exercise, your brain reaps the benefits. Aerobic exercise makes your heart stronger, your muscles stronger, reduces fat, and all the same time is improving cognition, strengthening memory, and boosting mood.

So if you can imagine it, you can do it. If your brain had legs, and it does, it would dance, so it does. So to speak. After all, you have free will, so you can choose to not dance. And if you're so inclined, you might choose to not exercise at all.

You can still improve cognition, strengthen memory, and boost mood. You can eat the right nutrients, engage in the right kinds of mental stimulation, seek out and enjoy social interaction. But what happens when you need to run faster, run further, run longer?

We live in a world where we have the luxury of rarely, if ever, needing to run fast, far, or for long. Your brain can survive without legs. It doesn't have to dance. But it does have to stay young. If it doesn't, as it grows "older," it will eventually not want to do anything.

Thankfully, the flip side is that if you do dance, or run, or swim, or do any kind of aerobic exercise, no matter how old you are, your brain is going to get better. Even if you don't want it to. But who wouldn't it to?

The irony is that, since you can choose to dance, and are not forced to, you can enjoy it for its own sake. You have to eat, have to use your brain on a daily basis, and unless you're a recluse, you have to deal with people. So your brain is going to maintain itself in those activities.

But if you dance, its just going to get better.