Neuroplasticity

Today’s five-dollar word is neuroplasticity.  It means that we have the ability to learn new things.

 

For a long time, as we know from the proverb about old dogs, people believed that there was an end to our ability to learn.  Since then, we’ve learned better (ha!).  People can learn throughout their lives, given the right circumstances.

 

What does this have to do with fitness?  If we are doing fitness right, we should be learning new things often.  We want to create the right environment for our bodies and our minds to adapt and learn.

 

The very short version of what we want is novel experiences plus successful and fun movement.  We need our workouts to be hard enough that we have to pay attention to what we are doing but not so hard that it’s all suffering and failure.

 

Go play, and play hard!