Cognitive Fitness Training

 

What is Cognitive Physical Training or Cognitive Fitness Training and what does it include?

Cognified Exercises combine coordinately and cognitively demanding physical activities that have shown greater impact on Executive Function than aerobic activities alone. The activities combine

• Unpredictability
  • Goal-directed attention
  • Discovery
  • Enjoyment and Socialization
  • Constant & Dynamic Challenge

“I’ve been working out for six months, but all my gains have been in cognitive function.”

 

Cognified Exercises provide tasks for:

• Attention, via sensory stimuli, audible and visual cues, and external focus/distraction
• Memory, via routines, procedures, steps, complex instructions, rules, and choreography, visual recall of locations and verbal recall of lists or numbers
• Processing Speed, via higher temporal or speed demands, and fast movement execution based on visual, auditory or sensory cues
• Executive Function, via organizing, planning, directing, reasoning, problem-solving, working memory, or impulse control in an open skill setting that is enjoyable and challenging.

As with all exercises the level of skills required and the difficulty of the tasks have to take the status quo of the trainee into account in order to prevent anxiety and frustration due to high demands and high level of difficulty, and boredom or loss of interest if skill demand and task difficulty are too low.

Examples of Cognified Exercises and/or drills:

Finally I would like to introduce you to some of my favorite Cognified Exercises I integrate into my clients’ workouts, whether it’s one-on-one or partner work or small groups.

• Clock Lunges

A well-known exercise to most trainers but easily changed into a Cognified Exercise.

Imagine standing in the center facing 12 o’clock straight ahead, 6 o’clock behind you and 9 and 3 o’clock to your left and right. You lunge to the right side of the clock with your right leg, to the left with your left leg. 12 and 6 are a matter of choice.

Reaction Speed: I give you a time, you lunge. I speed up the cues and you try to keep up.

Memory: After giving you three times (i.e. 4, 7 and 10 o’clock) you then lunge into the correlating directions. I increase the next time the challenge to 4 commands, 5 commands and so on until you can’t remember correctly.

Spatial Awareness: After mastering speed and memory I now increase the difficulty by changing the position of the clock. You are facing 2 o’clock instead of 12 and the previous exercises becoming suddenly a whole lot more challenging.

• Squat with Ball Toss

Attention: You squat come up catch the ball, take it down come up and toss it back.

Processing Speed: Same exercise as previous but after tossing it back you turn around 360 degrees catch, squat, toss, and turn the opposite way. Then we do turns on command adding a verbal cue of left or right. I can add second exercise like a Side Lunge and assign numbers or colors to each of the two exercises and directions. 1 or Red means right turn 360 degrees, 2 or Green means left turn 360 degrees, 3 or Blue means Side Lunge Right and finally 4 or Yellow means Side Lunge Left.

• Deck of Cards

I use an oversized deck of cards to avoid issues with eyesight, inability to recognize the cards.

We then assign different exercises to each suite, i.e. Clubs = 3 Squats, Hearts = 2 Push Ups, Diamonds = 4 Jumping Jacks, and finally Spears = 10 Mountain Climbers. Obviously I can intensify this by assigning even more exercises to the different card values (7-10 or Jack – Aces) or add progressions to already existing exercises.