How to Use Exercise to Improve Your Brain’s Health, Longevity & Performance

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are discussing exercise and brain health, which includes brain longevity and brain performance, our ability to learn new information over long periods of time and indeed into old age. Today, we are going to discuss how different forms of exercise, resistance training, cardiovascular training of both long, medium, and short duration can be used to improve the way that your brain functions acutely, meaning immediately in the minutes and hours and the day that you do that exercise, as well as in the long term, in the days, weeks, and months after you perform that exercise. And of course, if you're exercising regularly, the effects of exercise on brain health and performance compound over time, making you better able to learn things, better able to retain information from the past, and indeed to expand your brain's capacity to learn new types of information in new ways. In researching today's episode, I quickly came to realize that the number of studies that have explored the relationship between exercise, brain performance, and brain health, as well as the range of different types of exercise that have been explored in that context, is extremely vast. There are literally tens of thousands of studies on this topic, as well as meta-analyses and reviews, all of which point to positive effects of doing exercise of various types on brain health and performance. Within those many, many studies, you'll find many, many different exercise protocols that lead to improvements in brain performance and longevity. So the goal of today's episode is to synthesize that vast amount of information into a logical framework that simplifies it and clarifies it and places it within the context of specific mechanisms, both neurobiological mechanisms and endocrine-based mechanisms, that together can very well explain the data on how exercise impacts brain health and longevity, such that by the end of today's episode, you'll have both some specific recommendations about how to use exercise for sake of brain health and performance that I believe will be new to most of you, as well as the ability to think about the mechanisms and the logical framework that wraps around this incredibly large literature on exercise and brain performance, so that you can customize your exercise program on the basis of how much time you have available, your specific age, your health status, and the specific types of brain changes that you might be seeking through the use of exercise. And I should also say that by learning how exercise impacts brain performance and brain health, you're also going to learn some of the incredible ways that your body communicates with your brain and your brain communicates with your body, not just during exercise, but all of the time. So today you're going to learn a lot of practical tools, of course about exercise, brain health, and longevity. It's based on research that is incredibly interesting, in some cases surprising, and in almost all cases actionable. As some of you may already know, I have a book coming out this year, 2025, entitled Protocols, an operating manual for the human body. I'm super excited about the book. It includes protocols, that is, actionable steps that anyone can take to improve their sleep, motivation, creativity, gut microbiome, nutrition, exercise, stress modulation, and much more. Now, the book was originally scheduled to be released in April of 2025 However, to make sure that the book reflects the latest scientific research, I've decided to expand on the yes, already finished version of the book, to make sure that the protocols are as up to date as possible, and reflect the most modern and best findings. So, the new release date for Protocols is going to be September of 2025 I do apologize for the delay in release, but I assure you that I will make it worth your wait. To learn more about the book or to secure a copy by presale, go to protocolsbook.com. There you'll find all the information about the book, as well as the various languages that the book will be translated into. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist carried out entirely online. I've been doing weekly therapy for well over 30 years. Therapy is an extremely important component to overall health. In fact, I consider doing regular therapy just as important as getting regular exercise. Now, there are essentially three things that great therapy provides. First, it provides a good rapport with somebody that you can really trust and talk to about any and all issues that concern you. Second of all, great therapy provides support in the form of emotional support, but also directed guidance, the do's and the not to do's. And third, expert therapy can help you arrive at useful insights that you would not have arrived at otherwise. Insights that allow you to do better, not just in your emotional life, in your relationship life, but also the relationship to yourself and your professional life and all sorts of career goals. With BetterHelp, they make it very easy to find an expert therapist with whom you can really resonate with and provide you with these three benefits that I described. Also, because BetterHelp is carried out entirely online, it's very time-efficient and easy to fit into a busy schedule, with no commuting to a therapist office or sitting in a waiting room or looking for a parking spot. So, if you'd like to try BetterHelp, go to betterhelp.com/huberman to get 10% off your first month. Again, that's betterhelp.com/huberman.