Fitness and improved Mental Aquitity
Ive always heard that improving physical fitness is good for mental well being. Better circ etc. I never had a way to quantify it before I started riding my meager mileage though. This may not be the place for this discussion but Ive noticed an improvement that just boggles my mind.
Like many here, I have other interests. Chief among them is Ham Radio. For five years a friend in Boston and I have been practicing the arcane practice of sending Morse Code manually-no computers. We began at near twenty words per minute with a goal of sending and receiving 40 words per minute. We practice one hour per day and have not missed a day in five years barring scheduled vacations etc. Over the course of that number of hours one gets to understand how the mind and body work over a period of concentration. For instance the second half hour was always miserable with sending errors etc. We both suffered this and we both commented on it many times.
My friend plays tennis and hikes. He is older than I be perhaps 2 years. Im turning 67 on Aug 1st. In our normal regimen of exercise nothing changed complete with the miserable second half hour of high sending error rates for those five years. This week I made a step change in my exercising. I added to what I was already doing by adding a five mile cycle ride into my YMCA regimen. That was sufficient enough a change to make a noticeable difference in my focus/concentration/small motor muscle coordination to improve the whole hour error rate. I saw it again last evening and was astounded. This may not seem like a big deal to someone that has not experienced it but it is to me. It was like turning on a lamp switch. I certainly do not know if this is a proxy for improved fitness (how could that be in such a short time?) but it was an amazing alteration and quite noticeable.
Mostly we practiced during daytime hours as I tend to fall asleep early-like 9 PM. This week we have been meeting at 8 PM local time and I find I am not drowsy and much more alert. No send half hour of high errors and sloppy sending. I can attribute this to nothing else save increased physical activity.
Life is a strange journey of discovery. Anyway the thought stands until it doesn't I suppose. I hope this isnt obvious to everyone and this post provides some info that others find useful.
Best, Chas