by John Fike

Most everyone knows that your body - muscles, bones, ligaments, heart, lungs and the like - requires physical activity to avoid getting fat, weak and lazy. If your body doesn’t get exercise, all sorts of things go wrong with it.

Besides the obvious addition to the waistline, a lack of exercise can also contribute to back problems, lowered resistance to illness and disease, and even heart attack and organ failure.

What many people do not realize is that the brain and central nervous system (CNS) also require exercise in order to stay fit and to function properly. Of course, pushups aren’t going to keep your brain fit. Physical activity will employ the CNS to a degree as you’ll read below, but mostly the brain and CNS need to be engaged in mental activity.

Studies have shown that mental activity, even something as simple as playing Bingo regularly, minimizes memory loss and increases hand-eye coordination in elderly people. Keep in mind, however, that just as the body adjusts to regular exercise and the exercise has to increase to see continued gains in strength and endurance, the brain also adapts and requires more and more stimulation to maintain or increase cognitive strength.

Here are 17 tips to keep your brain healthy and sharp long into retirement:

1. Play Strategy Games

Chess, Checkers, Go, Stratego, Risk and the like require you to evaluate, plan and think several moves ahead and subsequently fully engage your brain. Modern war games are available for the computer or for tabletop play and challenge your brain even further.

2. Engage Your Brain with Word and Number Puzzles

Sudoku, crossword puzzles, word searches and similar puzzles engage your brain in analysis and abstract thinking. Crossword puzzles particularly call on you to engage your full memory and abstract conceptualization ability.

3. Get Out Your High School or College Math Books

Go through the problem sets and practice your numerical skills.

4. Play Scrabble and Boggle

These games require you to conceptualize and see solutions that are not obvious.

5. Learn a New Skill

Learning a skill, whether it’s a computer skill or physical skill like throwing darts, fully engages the brain and gives you a new tool to work with. If the new skill relates to your job or business, you may even be able to get your employer to pay for classes or write them off on your taxes.

6. Read Non-Fiction Books

Non-fiction books cause you to analyze and evaluate and give you more information to remember.

7. Discover a New Hobby

Knitting, crochet, painting, drawing, rebuilding automobiles, collecting (anything), cabinet making . . . Any hobby engages the brain creatively and analytically. It’s also a great way to relax and get away from stress, so hobbies serve a dual purpose.

8. Build Something

It could be a plastic model from the store, a piece of furniture or a house. Numerous mental skills, including creativity, are employed when building something.

9. Get Plenty of Sleep

Just as muscles need rest to grow and repair damage from exercise, so does your brain and CNS. Without sleep, your mind gets befuddled and your nerves get frazzled.

10. Schedule Downtime from Stress

Too much exercise is called overtraining. Physical overtraining results in injuries. Continual stress is a kind of mental overtraining and also results in injuries that usually manifest emotionally. Just like your body, your brain needs a chance to relax and recover.

11. Day Dream

Pure creativity. Just let your mind wander and see where it takes you.

12. Get Physical Exercise

Physical activity builds up neurotransmitter receptors in muscles and stimulates the CNS to improve hand-eye coordination and physical skills. Actually, strength is as much about getting the CNS to signal muscle fibers to contract as much as it is about having large muscles, so even weight lifting stimulates the CNS and brain.

13. Use Your Off Hand for Common Tasks

The brain and CNS get used to doing things a certain way and most tasks get done using one hand or the other and the brain and CNS are so used to it that they go on automatic. By using your off hand (left hand if you’re right-handed or right hand if you’re left-handed) causes your brain to actively engage and teaches your CNS a new skill. Do it enough and you may even develop some level of ambidexterity.

14. Practice Observing

Whenever you find yourself waiting or with nothing to do, spend time looking around and noticing details about the things and people around you. There is much that we miss in the world around us and practicing observation trains us to be more perceptive.

15. Do Things with Your Eyes Closed

Most of us take sight for granted. Closing your eyes trains the CNS to rely on other senses and requires the brain to analyze information in a new context.

16. Memorize Something

When it comes to the amazing computer called the brain, most of us have 250 GB hard drives but only use about 2 GB. Just like your garage or basement, the less you’re in there storing and retrieving, the more your memory gathers cob webs.

17. Change Your Routine

Drive to work a different way or read a book instead of watching television. Balance your checkbook on Monday instead of Saturday. Do something out of the ordinary to wake up your mind.