Fitness for the brain VKontakte. Fitness for the brain. Fitness for the brain: what you need to remember

Do you want to be beautiful and look so that people will pay attention to you? How often do you visit a fitness club for this? However, beauty is not only an external appearance, but also an internal one - mental acuity. Remember that your brain needs regular exercise too. Wikium.ru will become your personal fitness instructor for the brain.

What is the brain?

The brain is the central part of the nervous system, which is the control center of the body, including conscious and unconscious processes. However, we are accustomed to thinking that the brain is responsible only for the creation of thoughts, while its activity extends to the entire work of our psyche. Some of the activities of the brain are cognitive functions such as memory, attention, thinking and others. It is believed that the brain begins to form in infancy, forgetting that the brain begins its development during the formation of nervous tissue in the womb.

The process of brain formation begins 3-3.5 weeks after conception, at the moment when the embryo forms as three petals of different cells. One of which will be transformed into a neural tube. This channel will become more complex and become a brain that will be able to make decisions, learn, love and create.

How the brain learns

Brain training is the creation of new neural connections that describe the experience a person has gained, systematize it and use it in life.

From 0 to 10 years can be called the “Big Bang” period, when billions of synapses are created that are involved in gaining new experience. A synapse is the point of contact between two neurons, it serves to transmit nerve impulses between cells. In other words, our experience is the movement of an electrical impulse from neuron to neuron.

From 10 to 18 years of age, the process of synapse formation reaches its peak and the brain takes its final form.

From 20 to 60 years old, there is a constant renewal of existing connections. In other words, you don’t get anything new just like that, but only as a result of training and feeding your brain.

How does the brain train?

Many different techniques have been used to train brain functions since the mid-20th century. They were developed based on clinical cases. These techniques are aimed at increasing the volume of working memory, concentration, and development of thinking. You can find out more about these methods on our website. When using such methods of brain training, cognitive abilities develop faster than with everyday brain work, which has a positive effect on such aspects of life as learning, career growth, language learning and much more.

Advice is given by Elena Anisimova, Candidate of Medical Sciences, coordinator of the Association of Interdisciplinary Medicine, and expert of the Brain Ecology project.

The head must work

Our brain is like a muscle: if it is not given daily work, it becomes decrepit, becomes lazy, the command “think!” does not recognize. But if there is load, gray cells grow in the literal sense of the word. Scientists describe this process as follows: new synapses are formed between neurons, the cerebral cortex becomes thicker and more tortuous, new capillaries grow into the brain substance, axons conduct nerve signals faster, and functional connections between individual brain structures become more complex.

But meanwhile, the brain is not as primitive as the muscles. The usual “rocking chair” (such as writing 10 thousand characters on a computer every day) is not enough for him: he will get bored and sooner or later will dismiss the routine as unnecessary. We'll have to surprise him and even deceive him with unusual gymnastics.

AiF infographics

Neurobics

This method of training for our convolutions was invented by the Americans - neuroscientist Lawrence Katz And writer Manning Rubin. And for 15 years now, the world has been studying the book “Fitness for the Mind,” choosing the most suitable of 83 exercises to improve memory and develop intellectual abilities.

To perform fun exercises, you will have to get a little “wonderful”, do daily tasks in a slightly extravagant way, using all 5 senses in an unusual combination. Doing the same routine work makes it difficult for us to focus on new things: memory weakens and concentration falls. But if you do familiar things in an unexpected way, the brain has to build fresh connections between nerve cells and restore them if they have been lost.

Try to develop a craving for everything unusual in every free minute, doing household chores, on the way to work and to the store, sitting in front of the TV or at the computer. Do the exercises cheerfully, ironically, in a good mood - the brain really likes emotions.

6 useful exercises

1. Use your left hand(or right if you are left-handed). Try brushing your teeth, buttoning your blouse, eating soup, typing on your computer keyboard, and writing letters with it.

Why do this? Activation of the motor cortex is transferred from the left hemisphere of the brain to the right, which has a beneficial effect on creativity and innovative thinking.

2. Experience new sensations, develop new abilities. Move around your own apartment, which you know well, take a shower with your eyes closed. Try to determine by touch the value of the coin lying in your pocket. Try to master Braille - a reading and writing system for the blind. Agree with your family to communicate all day only in sign language.

Why do this? New sensory areas of the brain that are usually little or not used are “heated up” to the limit, which is also good gymnastics for neurons throughout the brain.

3. Don’t be afraid to change your usual image. Wear new unusual clothes, try new makeup, experiment with hair color and hairstyle.

Why do this? A person feels differently when trying on a new image (just remember the “jacket effect” for a man or “stiletto heels” for a woman!), and his way of thinking changes.

4. Walk and take new routes to work(even if the unusual road will be longer!), travel more often, try to spend each vacation in a new place, go to museums and exhibitions.

Why do this? Spatial memory develops and even the size of the hippocampus increases, according to recent studies by physiologists.

5. Change the interior of your home and work more often, rearrange things in the apartment weekly, swap kitchen utensils, try cooking according to overseas recipes, buy new perfume. Walk around the apartment for a few minutes, putting on a high-heeled shoe on your right foot and a slipper on your left foot.

Why do this? Habits tire the brain, and novelty stimulates the sensory inputs of the brain, making life more vivid and memorable.

6. Learn to answer boring questions in a non-trivial way like “how are you?”, “what’s new?”, come up with new phrases every time - give up stereotypes, memorize jokes, come up with new jokes yourself, entertaining stories - and be sure to show them off in conversation.

Why do this? If you approach everything you say creatively, from different angles, you thereby stimulate memory and the speech center in the brain - the left temporal region of Wernicke's and Broca's areas.

150 minutes of movement - every week

Remember that traditional physical activity also affects brain activity.

Researchers from the University of Illinois, led by Arthur Kramer, found that moderate exercise, just 150 minutes per week (or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise), plus walking at least 500 meters daily, increased the volume of the human cerebral cortex in the frontal and parietal regions. They are responsible for working memory, attention and switching from one task to another. As confirmation, scientists provided a picture obtained by a computed tomograph.

English with a tutor: speak English from the first lesson using the technology of natural acquisition of a foreign language.

We present to your attention a powerful article that was replicated throughout the Internet from the Baihou Project website due to its overwhelming level of usefulness. This edition of this legendary article has been updated and expanded. This page provides a list of sites that can change your life for the better. This collection of web resources includes:

➡ websites and online services for learning English;

➡ sites for finding foreigners for language exchange;

➡ websites and blogs for self-development;

➡ online courses and universities in various disciplines;

➡ interesting and good sites;

✅ the list will be updated, so ⚠ bookmark the page so as not to lose it!

Websites for learning English:

🌐 website - Baihou Project

🌐 EnglishTap – tests for practicing English
Express tests for practicing English. The collection of tasks includes tasks on the entire grammar of the English language and the most frequently used idioms, phrases and phrasal verbs of the English language. Link to tests: englishtap.blogspot.com

🌐 Watchengo - video in English with subtitles
The WatchEngo website contains a collection of interesting, motivational, inspiring, educational videos and the most popular songs in English with subtitles. The site is available at watchengo.blogspot.com

🌐 Tweengy – a site for free English learning
The site has a section with clear lessons on English grammar, phrases and idioms of the English language, as well as links to additional services that will help you learn English in a comprehensive manner. Website link: tweengy.blogspot.com

🌐 Ororo.tv - series in English with subtitles
These are more than 950 TV series in English, over 50,000 episodes with subtitles and translator. The site also has a collection of films (about 2500). Relatively recently, a section with videos in English with subtitles was added.

🌐 Puzzle English - English by ear
Online service for learning English. The main priority strategy for teaching Puzzle English is to train listening comprehension of English speech.

🌐 Puzzle Movies – films, TV series and cartoons in English
A service where you can watch movies, TV series and cartoons in English with double subtitles and a built-in translator to learn English and just have a good time.

🌐 LinguaLeo - English online
Interactive free online service for learning English. Lingvaleo is one of the first such services on the Russian market.

🌐 TED - an inspiring conference
A conference where people from all over the planet share their ideas, experiences, and make themselves known. Their motto is ideas worth spreading. With the help of TED, you can not only improve your English, but also gain a lot of positivity, great ideas and broaden your horizons. Website: www.ted.com

🌐 Busuu - online language learning
A global community for language learning. Busuu is also a language social network, so you can send tasks for review to real people, communicate, and find new friends. Website: www.busuu.com

🌐 BBC English - learning English
The BBC's branch of the British News Service for the promotion and teaching of English. On this site you can watch news, interesting videos, learn idioms, and learn English in general. Website: www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish

🌐 Voice of America - learning English
Online resource for learning American English. On the site you can find idioms in American English, news, explanations of the use of words from a particular topic, videos of different topics with subtitles and an adapted speech rate. Website: learningenglish.voanews.com

🌐 WordSteps - vocabulary manager
An online tool with which you can save, learn and remember words of different foreign languages. The service allows you to perform exercises to practice reading, writing, listening comprehension and using words in context. Website link: wordsteps.com

🌐 lang-8 - learning foreign languages
Website for learning foreign languages. You write a post in the language you are studying. Native speakers read your post and correct mistakes. You read other users' posts in your native language and correct their mistakes. Website: lang-8.com

🌐 Grammarly - English grammar checker
An online application (extension) in the browser that allows you to find errors in English text. The scope of application of this online service is quite wide; it can help you both write a test correctly and provide assistance in learning English. Website: www.grammarly.com

🌐 Duolingo - learning languages ​​online
A very good site for learning languages ​​online for free. You are given sentences, you translate them, and the system corrects your mistakes. Now the range of the site has expanded significantly. Each lesson consists of tasks for practicing speaking, listening, and translation. Website: duolingo.com

🌐 Polyglot. English language.
Polyglot is a television program on the “Culture” channel, the goal of which is to learn English in 16 lessons. The grammar, basic communication skills and the necessary set of words are given in a very systematic way. The video can be found on YouTube.

Websites for finding foreigners to communicate and practice a foreign language:

🌐 Skype community
Skype community for learning foreign languages, section “Learning foreign languages”. Link to forum community.skype.com

🌐 Sharedlingo - language exchange
An online platform for language exchange in the form of quick conversations. Here you can communicate with native speakers of different languages ​​in real time. You can also have voice conversations and play games. Website: sharedlingo.com

🌐 Interpals - online language exchange
An online service that will help you find pen pals in 100 languages ​​for communication and practice of a foreign language. Website: www.interpals.net

🌐 Omegle - talk to a stranger
An interesting and easy-to-use Internet service that allows you to randomly find someone to communicate with. This online platform can be useful both for improving your language skills and for communicating and finding new friends. Website: www.omegle.com

🌐 italki - online language learning
The site offers live chats and text checking. Most services are free: search and communication with language partners on the site pages, entries in the Notepad section, correct answers and edits from other users. But professional teachers and community mentors charge for their classes. Website: www.italki.com

Self-development sites:

🌐 website - Baihou Project
This is the site you are currently on. Website of English tutor Alex Baihou, dedicated to self-development and learning English. On it you will find a lot of systematic material, articles, books, videos, collections on self-development and learning English. Permanent site link:

🌐 Vikium - a brain trainer
A simulator for the development of memory, attention and thinking. The goal of Vikium is to create, restore and strengthen neural connections in the brain.

🌐 Lifemotivation - a site about self-knowledge and improving the quality of life
A site that will help you get to know your inner self, see your fears and complexes, and set your priorities and goals correctly. Website: lifemotivation.ru

🌐 4Brain - online developmental trainings
Educational online service for the development of useful mental skills, such as speed reading, development of creative thinking, memory, public speaking, logic, foreign languages, negotiations, sense of humor, financial literacy. Website: 4brain.ru

🌐 Netology – online university
An online university where you can master a profession or undergo additional training in areas such as marketing, business and management, design, programming, data science. Website: netology.ru

🌐 Lumosity - games and brain training
A site with exercises for developing so-called “soft skills”: memory, attention, flexibility of thinking, reaction speed and problem-solving ability. Website: www.lumosity.com

🌐 Quantified Mind - what makes you smarter?
A free online platform that allows you to test the effectiveness of indicators such as reaction speed, motor functions, short-term memory under a certain influence. Website: www.quantified-mind.com

🌐 Brainexer - brain training exercises
A large number of tests and exercises for mental arithmetic, memorization, attention and thinking. Website: www.brainexer.com

🌐 Dad Helped - online business magazine
An online business magazine for aspiring entrepreneurs, which maximally covers topics on making money on the Internet, entrepreneurship, and investments. This site is ideal for those who want to improve their financial situation. Website: hiterbober.ru

🌐 Life is interesting - stories of change
The project collects stories of change based on personal experience. Authors and heroes share techniques, skills and experiences that help them live rich, meaningful lives. A good online resource from the “self-development sites” series. Link: interesno.co

🌐 Your yoga - a site about self-development
The Your Yoga website is dedicated to self-development, self-knowledge, unique practices and meditation. On its pages you will find materials, videos, audios that will help you be better, take the path of enlightenment, and awaken hidden possibilities. Website: youryoga.org

🌐 Fit4brain - fitness for the brain
On this online platform you will find positive, motivating, interesting, educational, inspiring articles that will help you spend time productively with a cup of tea. Website: fit4brain.com

🌐 Boostbrain - develop while playing
An online service aimed at improving a person’s mental abilities. With the help of this site you can develop memory, attention, thinking using special training games. Website: boostbrain.ru

🌐 Openyoga - online university for yoga
A powerful combination of axiomatics (theory), yoga history and practice. Knowledge is given in courses one after another. The progress of learning and the choice of courses becomes independent from a certain point. Website: openyoga.ru

🌐 Smotriuchis - online trainings and distance courses
An online platform that contains courses in various disciplines and activities. The range of courses offered is unlimited; online lessons will help you renovate an apartment, learn the secrets of Italian cuisine, develop a mobile application, master a professional massage or do a beautiful photo shoot, or learn a foreign language. Website: smotriuchis.ru

🌐 30 Day Challenge – a collection of 30-day challenges
A site that contains challenges for physical, creative and spiritual self-development. Website: 30-day-challenge.ru

🌐 Successfulperson – site about personal growth
A site about personal growth, where you will find many useful ideas from various books on self-development, rules for success of famous billionaires, tips for developing character and inner core. Website: successfulperson.ru

Websites for online education in various disciplines:

🌐 Coursera - free online courses
The largest online education portal providing free online courses from more than 140 leading universities. Website: coursera.org

🌐 Uopeople - online university
The world's first free accredited online university. This site provides an excellent opportunity to receive a full-fledged higher education at the American level. Website: www.uopeople.edu

🌐 Universarium - a platform for interuniversity education
A platform of free online courses from the best universities in Russia in business, entrepreneurship, electronics and robotics, physics, cybernetics, and nanotechnology. Website: universarium.org

🌐 Lektorium - open knowledge platform
Online library of video lectures from lecturers at Russian universities on computer science. Website: www.lektorium.tv

🌐 Lectoriy - video lectures from Physics and Technology
Video lectures and open educational materials of the Physics and Technology Institute are a project of students, graduate students, graduates and employees of the Physics and Technology Institute, aimed at preserving the creative heritage of MIPT lecturers and providing free access to it. Website: lectoriy.mipt.ru

🌐 Uchinovoe - online courses
An online project that provides step-by-step instructions and courses that allow users to master a particular skill. Website: uchinovoe.ru

🌐 Microsoftvirtualacademy - online courses from Microsoft
Free online courses from Microsoft experts on modern technologies, software development, data processing and analysis theory, and system administration. Website: mva.microsoft.com

🌐 Khanacademy - online lectures
The Academy's website provides access to a collection of more than 4,200 free micro-lectures on various disciplines and sciences. Website: www.khanacademy.org

🌐 Intuit - free distance learning
There are many free courses, advanced training and professional retraining programs, interesting reports and other useful information. Website: intuit.ru

🌐 Openlearning - online learning
A project for receiving free online education. On the site you will find many courses and training materials. Websites: English www.openlearning.com; Russian-language openlearning.ru.

🌐 Edx - free online courses
A portal where you can take free online courses from the world's best universities. Website: www.edx.org

🌐 Connections Academy - online school
An online program that provides its students with a full range of tools to achieve their learning ambitions. Website: www.connectionsacademy.com

🌐 Udacity - free online lessons
Distance free high-quality courses in various areas. Link: www.udacity.com

🌐 InternetUrok - school curriculum lessons
An online portal that provides video lessons on school subjects. Website: interneturok.ru

🌐 Teachvideo - computer video courses
An extensive collection of video tutorials for gaining useful knowledge in computer technology: from office programs and website creation to serious video editors. Website: www.teachvideo.ru

🌐 Hexlet - practical programming courses
Practical courses on programming and development, video lectures, tests and exercises. Website: ru.hexlet.io

🌐 Codecademy - programming training
A portal that gives you the opportunity to learn programming in English. Website: www.codecademy.com

🌐 Javascript.ru - online JavaScript tutorial
An excellent all-encompassing site that teaches scripting from the very basics. Direct permanent link to the javascript tutorial: learn.javascript.ru

🌐 Html Academy - interactive online courses
Interactive online courses on HTML and CSS. These two “languages” are the basics of website building and the creation of any Internet project. Website: htmlacademy.ru

🌐 Vse10 - keyboard trainer
All10 (in the sense of typing with all ten fingers) is an online simulator that gives you the opportunity to learn how to touch-type text on the keyboard using all 10 fingers for free. Website: vse10.ru

Just interesting and good sites:

🌐 HowICook - family kitchen recipes
The site’s authors are true cooking fans: they read, watch shows, and most importantly, try to cook all the recipes in their own kitchen, which is a unique feature of this site.

🌐 Glavred - service for improving text
The service helps clear the text of verbal garbage and checks for compliance with the information style. Glavred helps to find stop words in the text, without which the text becomes understandable, short and informative. Website: glvrd.ru

🌐 Boomstarter - raising funds for your project
A crowdfunding platform for attracting funding for creative, technical and other types of projects with an ultimate goal, analogous to a Kickstarter project. Website: boomstarter.ru

🌐 Lifehacker - life advice site
A blog about how to use gadgets, websites and technology so that you can finish your work ahead of schedule by finding simple and elegant solutions to complex problems on the site. Website: lifehacker.ru. There is also an English version.

🌐 Adme - website about life
Information publication about advertising, creativity and marketing strategies. A lively and interesting online resource where articles on a wide variety of topics are published with taste and creativity. Website: www.adme.ru

🌐 National Geographic - online magazine about the planet
The most famous popular science geographical publication in the world. Some of the best scientists, writers, journalists, and directors have worked and are working on the project. The main topics of the site: science, travel, nature, adventure. Website in English: www.nationalgeographic.com. Website in Russian: www.nat-geo.ru

🌐 Discovery - educational online resource
A satellite and cable television network whose TV channels are available for viewing in many languages ​​and in many countries around the world. The founder of the educational and entertainment genre on television. Website of the Russian version: www.discoverychannel.ru

Brain fitness is what I called this article because it will talk about how to train your cognitive functions of the brain. It is obvious to me that for self-improvement it is important to train your brain through various exercises, thanks to which it develops: memory, attention, thinking, reaction speed, concentration, intuition, etc. Today, thanks to high technology, a project has been created that makes smart games for brain development.

This program was developed jointly with scientists from Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov and clinical psychologists from famous Moscow clinics. It uses gaming technologies, which are based on the most effective methods for developing cognitive functions of foreign and domestic researchers.

Brain fitness will be useful at any age: it will help children and teenagers develop memory, increase intelligence and reach new heights in the learning process. For middle-aged people, training cognitive functions increases productivity, improves attention and working memory. In old age, mental work is maintained at a high level.

Brain fitness with BrainApps

I present to your attention "BrainApps"- smart games to develop your brain.

A few months ago I registered with "BrainApps" and began to do training almost every day using the games that this company developed.

What’s interesting is that every day the program offers you to play different games and move through levels from simple to more complex, developing your brain. Within a few weeks I noticed the first results. For example, I began to remember phone numbers the first time, read faster and more easily absorb and remember information. There is a feeling that these games form new neural connections and the brain begins to work more efficiently every day!

These are the skills these games develop.

Going to the gym, morning jogging, lifting weights in the gym helps our body maintain athletic shape, makes a person strong, healthy and visually attractive. The human brain needs similar training; it must be constantly kept in good shape, developing and improving cognitive abilities: attention, logical thinking, memory, accuracy of actions, speed of perception and processing of information, its comprehension.

Brain training

The above training process does not mean frequent viewing of TV series, spending many hours on social networks and other similar situations. The quality of thinking and even the duration of human life depend on the efficiency of the brain. The development of such abilities makes a person more successful, allows you to quickly analyze the situation and make the right decisions. An increase in brain activity will allow you to quickly find a way out of any situation, analyze and work through it.

Brain fitness for the brain originated in the USA about 30 years ago. Initially, this was a technique for the rehabilitation of people with various diseases, on the basis of which it was possible to obtain a clear picture of the state of mind at the current moment in time, for which biological feedback was used.

Since then, this area has begun to actively develop, with the American government investing millions of dollars in it every year. Using this method, pathological conditions such as depression, sleep disorders, chronic fatigue, frequent headaches and hyperactivity are now successfully treated.

Website for mental fitness - simple and accessible

If the use of this technique only helped sick people, perhaps its use would be known only in narrow circles with limited access to such information. Modern psychology has long adopted the use of such approaches, and mind training has been actively used for various groups of people.

Based on statistical data, only 10-11% of people manage to complete all previously planned tasks during the working day. More than half of working people suffer from forgetfulness; many have difficulty communicating and conveying their point of view to others. In all of the above situations, brain fitness can provide real help.

With Vikium you can organize the process of brain training (brain fitness) according to an individual program

Using this method will help achieve the desired result. A person can gain practical skills in the following situations:

• achieving success;
• promotion up the career ladder;
• planning life situations;
• correct analysis of what is happening around.

This is just a short list of what you should strive for. In fact, you can get a much greater result that will exceed all your expectations.