Swimming just an hour or an hour and a half daily-- I do 5 miles-- is so necessary to organize the day. Here is an article on-line showing the need to break the 9 to 5 work routine. No matter how much an office-worker loves his or her work, some exercise is necessary during the day to maintain health. The attached article mentions some "secret" exercises that can be performed at work during the work day. Researchers, however, need not exercise in secret, since most of us are relatively independent. All we need do is head for the nearest gym, plunge in the water and hit the waves. Treadmill or lifting weights provide additional outlets for physical energies unable to be used during sedentary research hours. Probably varying exercises are best for toning all muscles: in the pool alternating Australian crawl with backstroke, sidestroke, and butterfly especially builds the upper body while kicking maintains the legs in shape. Once in control of our bodies, we feel better prepared to control our minds and concentrate on research. Research takes on the style and verve with which we do our exercises.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/exercise-at-work/10-office-exercises-you-can-do-secretly.htm

I truly think that "mente sana in corpore sano" has truth to it. Think of chess, a strenuous mental activity. Bobby Fischer was among the firsts to show that mental endurance is facilitated if one is fit. The analogy with research work is easy... :)

Dear Prof. Orringer,

Thanks a lot for sharing your question.

Regular physical activities like sports keep everyone mentally and physically fit, which helps individual researchers to perform better. Adequate physical activity actually rejuvenates thinking ability. A quick search in the internet will pull out a significant number of research articles supporting this concept.

The way science explains how exercise may affect executive functioning are summarized as:

1. Increased oxygen flow to the brain

2. Increased brain neurotransmitters and

3. Increased brain-derived neurotrophins that support neuronal differentiation and survival in the brain. Neurotrophins assure the survival of neurons in areas responsible for learning, memory, and higher thinking.

For a better understanding this relation I am quoting from CDC website (http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/health/)

“Regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age. It can also reduce your risk of depression and may help you sleep better. Research has shown that doing aerobic or a mix of aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities 3 to 5 times a week for 30 to 60 minutes can give you these mental health benefits. Some scientific evidence has also shown that even lower levels of physical activity can be beneficial.”

The way science explains how exercise may affect individual physical conditions are summarized as:

1. Controls healthy body weight

2. Reduces risk of cardiovascular diseases

3. Reduces risk of Type 2 Diabetes and metabolic syndrome

4. Reduces risk of some cancers (Endometrial and lung cancer)

5. Strengthen bones and muscles

6. Increases chances of living longer

Regards,

Matteo, Pat, and Amritial, you are right on the mark. Thanks for your significant contributions, stating facts of which not every researcher is aware. Prof. Abdalla, an athlete researcher, has found evidence that I hope he shares with us on exercise and the retardation of aging. For myself, at 73, I am a case study: I physiologically feel half my age because I exercise daily, monitor my diet, and continue to research at more than a decade after retiring. "Mens sana in corpore sano": the ancients were right!

Of course yes, physical activities will definitely help one to improve and refresh one's mind and body. If mind and body is fresh one can be more productive doesn't matter whether it is research, business or what ever. It is not necessary to do vigorously. You can do calm and quiet exercises. Yoga is a way of life which give you physical, mental and spiritual exercises simultaneously and helped me improve a lot in all stages of my life.

Superb answer, Lijo. Who ever thought of yoga as recreation? Yet it is so natural! Do you know of any websites to consult about these calm and thoughtful exercises to get us beginners started?

Dear Nelson, you can consult with me. I was a Yoga consultant, Yoga teacher, Yoga Champion in the University for 5 years and was Captain of the University. But of course yes, there are a lot of websites and Youtube videos, they give you plenty of information about Yoga and how to practice etc..

Magnificent contribution, Prof. Abdalla! In confirmation of your last statement, I can say that I have already outlived my father and grandfather, both less physically active, more sedentary. As further evidence of your memorable assertion that everybody has two ages, see Alice Park, "Young Kids, Old Bodies," Time Magazine, vol, 183, no 8 (2014): 40-44, still fresh on the newsstands, on cases of obese children whose bodies have aged faster than their chronology indicates.

If you are a young researcher or student and you do sports like many young people do it (up to the limits of their body) physical activities may have a bad influence to your scientific or learning results. If you get older sport is used as fitness program or program for fun. Then your condition and health are improved, you improve the ogygen support in your brain. So practice your sport, but using your experience and knowledge.

This is a great caveat, dear Hanno: I have known not a few researchers who pushed their exercising-- usually jogging-- beyond the healthful limit and succumbed on the road. In my swimming, I prefer long distance endurance to speed. You could easily beat me in a race, but I would probably swim longer than you.

Dear Nelson, I´m no good swimmer, but you know the large distance between my home and your place in USA. So you have to start soon :-)))!

Hanno, the distance between Connecticut and Giessen is through freezing oceans and seas. When swimming, I use water slightly warmer than room temperature. My most memorable combination of research and athletics took place in December 2012 on the southern and eastern coasts of summery Australia. I gave a paper at a meeting in Melbourne and went snorkeling in the Coral Sea at Cairnes. We need to experience the Great Barrier Reef directly before it succumbs to pollution.

Dear Nelson, I would like to meet you at barrier reef, it´s on my planning, if I find time and health enough to visit this wonderful land-seescape.

During my physics studies I was jogging (2-3 times per week a half marathon). I had a colleque who had problems with theoretical physics and I trained him in theoretical physics during this excessive body training. We had enough oxigene in our brains. Today I would forget the rule of pythagoras when jogging in this way. You see wisdom needs time.

Are HUNTING and RESEARCH interrelated?

Parodying Prof. Abdalla´s imaginative answer on fishing, I cannot help recalling that Plato´s Socrates, in the Republic, calls the philosopher literally a hunter (thereutes), who goes through the bushes to trap his prey (the truth) until cornering it methodically. See José Ortega y Gasset, "Meditations on Hunting," tr. Howard Wescott (Wilderness Adventure Press, 2007). While hunting as a sport might well raise ethical issues, here in northeastern Connecticut (USA), our forests of pine, maple, and oak are overpopulated with deer and wild turkeys. So researchers, come and get them!

(By the way, Prof. Abdalla forgot to add that he goes fishing on the fabled Nile! I wonder if he chances to see any storied queens passing his fishing rod on gilded barges.)

For those of you who want to go snorkeling with Hanno and me on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Northeastern Australia after we have participated in our Melbourne scholarly conventions, here is an example of what you will see: Walley, the two-storey-high humphead wrasse, Cheilinus undulatus. See the youtube indicated here, where he is shown at a younger stage than when he and I met in 2012. Even he has too much character for Prof. Abdulla to snag on his line. He (Walley) likes to be fed by hand and to have his fins petted. All our conceptions of nature-immersion as a rest from individuality have to be revised because of Walley.

Total attention to phenomena like this brings relaxation, recreation, and research stimulation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk_ppbvYXeI

Many thanks, Ahed, for the compact, dense answer, filled with information.

Sports and other outdoor activities refresh you and throw the stress out.

@Nelson, Lijo et al.,

I actually learned to breathe properly through Yoga classes, so that with 1 deep breath, the air inhaled will (hopefully) saturate more hemoglobin in the blood.

Now I just jog and brisk walk and Breathe, oxygen gets in and stress gets Out :)

Yes Miranda, breathing exercise is a very important part of Yoga and we call it as "Pranayama"

Keep a kid within you alive to avoid stress and related problems.

As a former rugby player and coach, this is my view; sports or physical exercise has been known to boost educational performance and research. This results in better blood flow to the brain, It also mean one stays healthy for longer and can perform better for longer as one ages. It also keeps ones mind sharp.

Dear Jeremiah, only if you don´t practice up to excess! Then sport is harmful.

I agree with Hanno...not only sports, even if we do research and keep on without taking care our health, that will also be harmful....

Dear Lijo, you are right, but I prefer to forget sports when researching instead to forget sports when just sitting around. :-)

That's right, we all have priorities and must respect each others...

@Nelson, there was a similar question, I think by @Miranda! I do relax myself by fishing, bot stationary and not stationary, but it is less than it should be. For example, a lot of time spent her with all of you is impossible without seating the chair. I hardly wait for RG app for mobiles! :)))

To improve your physical health it is good to do some exercises, it helps the muscles relax and increases blood circulation in the brain

Of course it does. Not only taking care of your health, furthermore keeping your mind in shape. As a rugby and padel player, I recommend both!!

Laughing is also very helpful, it relaxes and relieves your brain.

Great question! I can tell you from experience that whenever I reach a dead end In my research I have only two solutions to help me out: sport(exercising, swimming ) and socializing. They have never let me down so far.

@Issam, great solution of dead ending.

Hi friends, I just got back from my jog and brisk walk. The health test at my college last week showed that even thin people can have moderately abnormal elasticity of blood vessels in the brain, for folks above 40. It's because I took care of my aunt who had stroke, that I am very sensitive about this issue

@Ljubomir, my mobile internet that I use right now is only about US $9, for 1 gig, per month. But must be Very Patient and careful in typing on the little tab. Even when I type correctly, I still make errors in sending, as on Abdalla's thread about Research and friends. Just press a bit harder, and it makes 2 posts instead of 1.

Sent from mobile.

@Issam and Hanno: Apart from exercise and laughing, I have more solution for dead end: that is nothing but MUSIC.

Dear Lijo, muscle training for the eardrum and the rythm following fingers and knees! Really lazy! :-))

Hanno: I would really recommend music therapy...sometimes music give you a sort of relaxation that cannot experienced using other medicines. I have experienced it as well.

@Lijo and all, it´s amusing. Nobody states that relaxing is bad or superfluous. But it doesn´t replace physical activity. I think we all agree to perform both. For those who still doubt, try some sportive action and watch yourself afterwards. Did you ever experience the relaxation after a sportive activity? A tip for doubters: Jogg, take a shower, relaxe (optimal with hearing music) and enjoy a good meal.

Your gained energy will improve your research!

That is for sure..I was also urging to do the exercise from the beginning my dear Hanno..I have just mentioned my expertise in Yoga..but, few years back I used to do jogging 5-6 kilometers a day 5 in the morning. I used to win Silver Medal in long races (5K and 10K). ( I had a friend he is really a professional athlete always get Gold Medal)...

Lijo is right: why do many of us research better while listening to music? Because we relax while working? This would seem contradictory, yet music encourages work. How to explain this phenomenon?

Hanno, I have found--- and my two athletic sons have confirmed-- that after vigorous exercise, appetites for food are often not as great as they are after relaxing! The adrenalin expended depresses appetite.

Dear Nelson, I will repeat it. do sports, but not really exhausting and vigorous because latter will harm you (and your research).

Dear Lijo, my congratulations to your medals, but this doesn´t change my opinion.

Dear Prof. Abdalla,

You have researched in the United States, so you know about square-dancing, a kind of rural American folk-dance performed with four couples. I am glad that my wife does not read ResearchGate, or she would see your fine posting on elderly dancing and force me back into square-dancing during my research breaks.

Here is a square-dancing website with sight and sound (ugh!):

http://www.footandfiddle.org/

Abdalla, my friends have criticized me for posting a youtube with "young" dancers square-dancing, not "gerries" dancing (gerries are geriatric patients).

So here is a youtube of "mature" square-dancers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rIK3fo41P4

If she swam, I would be in Florida now, racing her between research paragraphs instead of freezing in the cold Northeast U.S. and having to swim alone at an indoor gym, which is where I am heading right this instant.

@Abdalla...you mean Synchronized swimming? It's awesome art...I love to see it especially in the Olympic Events...

Intellectual activity make use of the brain. Our central nervous system has evolved for coordinating our body. Apart from the obvious health advantages of exercices on the body and the brain, the beneficial effects on the brain may extend directly to the intellectual solution of the current problem at hand. We should not assume that the intellectual problem do not get embodied in our sensory-motor system. I personnaly think that the same animalistic sensory-motor mechanism are involved at the sub-conscious level in all artistic processes which include the art of soving scientific problem, and the art of sport performances. The difference between other animals and the human animal is that we are not limited in our range of action, we are the theatrical animal , the only animal who can create new play this is art, but our basic acting skills are the same as those of our primate ancestor although we create our own fictions.

Louis, a very penetrating remark! You of course know Henri Bergson´s "L'Évolution créatrice." I believe it is within that very work-- correct me if I am wrong-- that Bergson attributes to muscles a memory. When we are driving, for instance, often we go to familiar places without even thinking. It is almost as if our steering muscles were doing the driving for us. If this is true, then our body absorbs memories of our research, as you suggest. At present, I am writing a book on Maurice Ravel. When I interrupt my research to go swimming, my mind is playing the rapid but regular "Toccata" from Ravel´s "Le Tombeau de Couperin" and I swim in time to the music.

Listen to the "Toccata":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhuaxYMtPkI

Nelson,I know Bergson and like his philosophy. He is part of the pragmatic movement of philosophy that is based on the evolution of habits or modes of actions. For the pragmatic and for Bergson in particular, memory is not a representation but built-in in terms of mode of action. Damasio have made a theory of emotions which linked them to body sensation, When we have so called bad feeling or good feeling, we can almost associated a body location for the good or bad feeling. We would not be able to feel our emotions if they were not mapped into our body. And our emotions are closely linked to what we care for and what we care for is related to what we did in the past. All our past emotional trauma are memorized into locations in our body. Meditation techniques and exercises help up clean some of this mess physically. All these eating disorders are closely related to emotional trauma. Music is closely linked with the movement of our body. We naturally dance on music and take the music out of a good movie and you kill its emotional side. The music super-imposed an emotional narrative onto the visual narrative and so guided the interpretation in providing an intentional dimension on the actors closely linked to the music emotional narrative.

Dear friends, this is my thread on Exercise Among Scientists and researchers that Ljubomir referred to. Our threads have been running parallel for some time. Ljubomir's, Abdalla's, Ahed's, Bassam's etc. That's why we make posts on our friends' threads and support one another :))) FUN, Great minds think alike!

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_do_you_think_is_the_interest_and_involvement_in_physical_exercise_among_scientists_and_researchers

Dear Miranda, I just supported your post. I had no idea there was so much duplication of this thread! RG should do something about the repetition.

@Nelson, thanks. Perhaps RG doesn't mind this duplication, so why should we? We must know that if great minds think alike, this is going to happen. You know the song: 'Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps'. Have a great day :))

You have the "great mind," Miranda, not I. "Definitely, definitely, definitely."

I have a question. Why we always talk about calm and quiet exercises? What about the vigorous ones? Do they help us? In my opinion, both are necessary, and I think the second have more impact on our thinking process and memories. Do they?

@Olga, I don´t know what´s a calm or quiet exercise. We are talking about sports not about meditations, yoga etc. If you endore hard sports (bungee jumping, triathlon,...) I´m sure these activities will remain experiences and memories in your brain but I´m doubting that these impression improve your research.

@Hanno, In Indian Universities "Yoga and Surya Namaskar" is recognized as a sports event. It also includes breathing exercise. What ever objectives you are looking through any kind of sports can be achieved better than that by practicing so called " calm exercise - Yoga" I promise.

Hanno. I totally agree with you. I did my question because of our idea of sport and physical activity. Furthermore, I was thinking not only about this diference, althought thinking about new disciplines like Crossfit. Do they promote researching?

I understand @Abdalla your concern The tremendous benefit you can also bring to your research productivity. But, as far as in my limited knowledge, mostly researchers give least priority to such kind of extra activities...

Olga, I never practised "cross fit", but I´m afraid, that this is again a high intensity training at the limits, so I suspect, not improving researchers.

@Prof Abdalla, it's good to meet you here. I need to invite you to my thread on herbal medicine, phyto medicine. You can give some valuable contribution to us on that thread. I can't give you the link now because I'm using the mobile. Other friends are also invited of course, Nelson won't mind :)

Sent from mobile.

No, Miranda, I encourage Prof. Abdalla to go with you to your thread on herbal medicine (which I have seen). Quite a lively thread! I was thinking of a response involving preferences for witchdoctors in Haiti and certain parts of Africa over Western medicine. This does not imply that herbs are witchery, but that Western medicine does not have a monopoly everywhere.

Olga, estoy contigo. I prefer vigorous exercises too. A good "paseíto" around León at a brisk pace makes you return home refreshed!

Just back from a wonderful brisk swim at the gym-- highly recommended for everyone in any kind of weather. While I swam, I stroked to the dramatic sounds of Mahler´s First Symphony, played on the CD-player of my mind. Now I feel inspired to research!

Yes, I am also planning to use our pool, regularly...

But for sure, I won't do vigorous...I don't know may be I will do Yoga in Pool "Fish Poster (Matsyasana)" Normally I do "Fish Poster" not in water, but in mat. This is a great poster and it's benefits are:

Expands the lung capacity

Opens the chest, correcting round-shoulders

Strengthens the back muscles

Gives a backward stretch to the thoracic and cervical sections of the spine

Gently stretches the neck muscles and shoulders

Encourages deep breathing

Helps relieve asthma

Brings an increased supply of blood to the cervical and thoracic regions of the back.

Take Care

Lijo

That Lijo, dear Prof. Abdalla, is a better swimmer than I. He has shown me photos of his trophies. Combining yoga with swimming is a genial idea, even better than blending Australian crawl with Mahler, my co-author. For those who, like Hanno, prefer relaxation between research binges, there is nothing better than a hot-tub or therapy pool. Is anyone into whirlpool or Jacuzzi?

Congratulation Prof.Abdallah for your medals....

Dear Patrick,

I am no interpreter of dreams, but the sensation of falling may be a self-surrender to unconsciousness, in which often we see more clearly themes we need to research. Everyday life is too full of distractions.

Thanks, Prof. Abdalla, for the abstract from Dr. Alkhatib´s article on improved cardiac VEGF expression in aging hearts through treadmill exercise. Everything indicates the need for vigorous exercise in a researcher like you, at the height of his physical powers, and in one like me, already aged (but not feeling it).

Dear Abdalla, no we are at the beginning again: Do your treadmill exercises to help your cardio-vascular endothel. Not Mahler, good literatur etc. Of course I´m no rat, but you wouldn´t believe it, it´s helping my human nature as well. Like most of us I´m already aged and am "treadmilling" frequently to keep my fitness.

PS: I love music, literature, good dinners and talks, but not for my vascular status. ;-))

My problem, dear Hanno, is that in between researching I like to cook! But usually calorie-conscious recipes... celery casseroles, four-bean salads, and so on. If anyone has a fitness recipe he or she wishes to share, this would be the perfect string on which to post it!

Dear Nelson, I´m afraid to be punished because of leaving our thread. But here is my reception called in german "rote Beete Essenz":

For 2 Persons you take 4 medium sized beetroots, grate them not to fine incl. skin, cook them 30 min in fond of vegetables, pass the soup through a fine sieve, you get a transparent totally clear red fond. Then serve it either with some stripes of basilicum or some little flakes of horse salt. Delicious, no calories. **star level. A wonderful receipt. Sorry for deviation, but I like to cook to have fine dinners and relaxing. Regards Hanno

Dear Nelson, once again: This time its called "Rote Beete Salat". Take your 4 beetroots incl. skin, cook them in a pressure cooker with 1 clove about 30-45 min low temperature, remove the skin and cut them in small pieces. poor over extra virgine oil, very good balsamico, fresh pepper. Again **level. Regards

Dear Hanno,

No punishment deserved! A fine recipe for staying slim! I find that on subzero days when the temperature is too low for you to go to the gym, preparing slim dishes is a useful pastime. Here´s four-bean salad: a 15-ounce can of cut green beans, a 15-ounce can of cut yellow wax beans, a 15-ounce can of chickpeas, and a 15-ounce can of red kidney beans. Drain liquid out of all, combine in a large bowl, dice in a medium green pepper and a medium red pepper, and half a cup of Spanish onion. Add half a cup of corn oil and half a cup of red wine vinegar. Sweeten to taste with NutraSweet. Top with a dash of pepper. Nourishing, filling, tasty, enough for a week of meals or more. (Note: 15 ounces equal .4252 km... little less than half a km.)

In my opinion exercise in an appropriate individual intensity enhances mood. There are a lot of proposed psychological mechanisms for the psychological benifits (distraction hypothesis, self-efficacy theory, social interaction hypothesis). Hypofrontality hypothesis is also very attractive. When you do research you exercise cognitive brain regions. When you do physical exercise you activate other sensomotor brain areas. So this is a good way for exercising the whole brain and of course the body!

I was hoping we would get the expertise of a physical education researcher. Thank you, Konstantinos, for your comprehensive and holistic answer! Yes, I personally use exercise as a mood-enhancer: here it is minus four degrees, and the temperature can be depressing. But I have just returned from swimming vigorously in a heated pool indoors, and my mood is much lighter than when I departed. I subscribe to the self-efficacy theory, but am willing to consider the others that you propose!

So you see rugby as a total distraction from research. Luckily for you, you can play rugby all year in that Southern California climate. Here in the Northeast, where athletes must play indoors in the winter, there is a greater likelihood to be sedentary.

Stress relief and concentration on something not research-related. Where in Germany?

Yes, indeed! The moments of physical activity and relaxation are key to emotionally manage our internal state. Sometimes arise paths, ideas, responses related to research during these moments of respite and relaxation. The researcher must seek the mind-body balance.

Regards. PD.

This idea of balance or harmony between opposing parts of our being is derived from an ancient, classical notion of human health (see P. Laín Entralgo, Antropología médica para clínicos, 1984). Exercise "tones us up." That is why we perceive more clearly. All experience-- including work-related experience-- makes more sense.

Muito obrigado, Paula.

How many times a week should researchers work out or participate in sports?

Recent studies seemed to indicate that daily not so intense physical activities is necessary. The more time we are completely physically idle and the worst it is for our body. By doing daily physical activities , we keep our general metabolism high and all that is optimum for our nervous system is being maintain in top shape.

Squash or tennis, anyone? I may be mistaken, dear Prof. Abdalla, but I do believe that once the body (even the old one) is accustomed to more exercise each week, it finds difficulty in settling for less.

@Abdalla, what one should do if there is no opportunity for swimming , which I find very important! 9 months without swimming is serious problem. Do You suggest any other activity!

@Ljubomir, our friend Nelson has said he has a heated pool, so he can swim 365 days. Maybe, you can convert your fishing into a vigorous activity? And your walking may be converted into brisk walk!

@Nelson and friends, I think anyone who is more than 30 years old is old, because the collagen of the skin starts to get depleted. Right, Abdalla?

So most of us are old. But it's ok to be old and WISER :)))

Just continue with our exercise and activities, and carry on with herbal health care. Dr Max has given lots of advice on my thread. Look for it, ok? :)