There's no question that a cardio workout is good for your body. It gets your blood circulating, burns fat, exercises your heart, improves your metabolism, and can even help you manage diabetes. But few doctors or trainers ever talk about how good cardio is for your mind!

The University of Granada in Spain is about to release the results of their study that shows that aerobic fitness makes us better able to sustain mental focus than our sedentary counterparts. Their research is to be published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Twenty-two triathletes who trained eight or more hours per week were tested alongside twenty subjects who were described as having low aerobic fitness for sixty minutes. For the first 36 minutes, the athletes demonstrated quicker reaction times than their “low-fitness” counterparts. During the course of the whole test, greater brain activity associated with allocating mental resources to a task was demonstrated by the triathletes. The athletes' brains also showed greater brain activity associated with a preparatory response to a task. The researchers concluded that there was a positive association between aerobic fitness, sustained attention, and response preparation.

All very interesting, but why? What's the science?

Separate animal studies provide a clue. In these, it has been demonstrated that exercise promotes the growth of new neural pathways in the brain. It also prevents some degeneration, and causes the growth of blood vessels in key parts of the brain. The end result is an increased supply of energy and nutrients and energy to those key cerebral areas.

What is significant for many of us “more seasoned” athletes is that other studies have indicated that regular cardio-vascular workouts help our brains mitigate some of the effects of aging. One such study measured neural markers and cognitive function in both middle-aged athletes and non-athletes. Although the cognitive function scores were the same in both trials, the scientists discovered that the athletes' brains demonstrated greater neural plasticity and metabolic efficiency.

Still more studies have shown that processing speed, cognitive control, and memory are all higher in people who are fit, over those who lead a more sedentary lifestyle.

And your brain stores fuel under training conditions, just as your biceps or quadriceps do. Researchers believe that these larger glycogen stores in the brain may be one of the reasons running boosts cognitive function.

So, get smart, and get fit!