← Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning
Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning
The Movement Loop: How Movement Activates the Brain for Learning, Adaptation & Performance
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- [00:03]
A
Welcome Back to season 16 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I'm Andrea Samadhi and this is where we bridge neuroscience, social and emotional learning, and human performance so we can create measurable improvements in our well being, our achievements, our leadership, productivity and results. And if you're just joining us, season 16 explores phase three of our brain's operating system for human performance. We call it the movement loop. And this season asks one central question. How does movement change the brain? How does adaptation change the body? And how together they create measurable improvements in performance. And if you'd like the full overview of the five phases, how they all work together and come online one at a time, I encourage you to start with episode 402 from last week. In episode 402, we introduced phase three of our brain's operating system where we introduced the movement loop. And we discovered one powerful idea. Movement is actually the input. When you move, your body sends a powerful biological signal to the brain that, that says you've got to prepare, you're going to activate now, and then your body will adapt. So adaptation is the actual process of what's happening with movement, repetition and recovery. The brain and body strengthen, they rewire and they become more efficient. So performance is the output. The change becomes visible in everyday life, will see clearer thinking, better decisions, stronger health, and improved performance. And then the loop begins again. So today we're asking the next question. Why does movement come first? Not simply because exercise is good for our bodies, but because movement is one of the most powerful biological signals that we can send to the brain. Before we can focus, before we can learn, before we can even adapt, the brain must first of all be activated. It's why movement isn't the outcome, it's the beginning. And when we first interviewed Dr. Chuck Hillman on episode 123 back in April of 2021, I wanted to understand how his neuroscience research inspired Paul Zentarski's revolutionary zero hour PE program. That's famous. Naperville Central High School in Chicago. It was Naperville's extraordinary performance on the Trends in International Mathematics and science study TIMSS that caught the eye of Dr. John Rady. Naperville District 203 entered the international comparison as if it were its own country. And it ranked number one in the world in science and number six in the world in math. And those results made Dr. Rady ask, why? What are they doing differently? And that question ultimately led him to Naperville, Illinois, where he discovered Paul Zentarski's zero hour PE initiative. And made it the opening case study in his book Spark. And we'll cover this story on our next episode. And years later, we revisited that conversation just recently on episode 397. Through the Lens of motivation. Exploring how movement is increases engagement and helps us to want to move more. But looking back now through the lens of phase three, I realized I'd been asking the wrong question. The bigger question isn't whether movement motivates us. The bigger question is what happens inside the brain the moment we begin to move. And that's the question we're answering today. And it's the reason that movement sits at the beginning of the brain's operating system for human performance. So let's begin where every performance story begins, with movement. And as we begin phase three, Dr. Chuck Hillman's research helps us to understand why movement is the first step in the movement loop. In our interview, he mentioned that his lab had consistently demonstrated that even a single single bout of physical activity can improve attention, cognition and academic performance. But what fascinated me most wasn't simply that exercise works, it's why it works. So listen carefully as Dr. Hillman explains how movement acts as a positive biological stressor that prepares the brain for learning some of the things you're working on. Can you just share what you're working on at your center for Cognitive and Brain Health right now?
- [05:12]
B
Sure. The center for Cognitive Brain Health in Northeastern University now has five faculty in it. And we're not just interested in physical activity. That's certainly my area of interest with picking children and my colleague, our Kramer, his interest as well in older adults. But we have interests in early childhood experiences, both positive and negative music, and then mental health related issues as well. With some of the other faculty in there, the two projects I think you're referring to, one is a longitudinal study of physical activity involvement in older adults. And so there we have the IGNITE trial. It's headed up by my colleague Kirk Erickson at University of Pittsburgh. And, and it's a multi site trial between Pittsburgh Northeastern and University of Kansas Medical Center. And we're bringing in 639 older adults for a year long physical activity intervention with testing at baseline 6 months and 12 months. And it's a comprehensive battery from cellular, molecular and genetics to multiple modes of imaging, including mri, FMRI and PET scans to a huge cognitive battery. And we're trying to understand whether different doses of physical activity, so people get either 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, which is the physical activity guidelines for Americans, or they're getting a larger dose, 225 minutes a week or they're, they get stretching and flexibility training. So it's not aerobic. It's, it, it's, it's health based physical activity training, just not aerobic. And we're looking to see whether there's differences, you know, at six months in a year following this inter, these intervention arms. And so that's that and that's, those are 65 to 80 year olds. And then the kids study is more about this, it's called sneaky and it's more about this acute dose idea and that we're, we know now through multiple published findings that single doses of exercise benefit brain and cognition, acne performance in kids. What we don't know is what the mechanism is. And so this particular study is focusing on salivary alpha amylase and cortisol to stress markers that we think may underlie the benefits. Maybe the mechanistic reason in which physical, a short dose of physical activity benefits brain function and cognition in kids. Exercise is a stressor. It's a positive stressor. And so we believe that we're upregulating these neuromarkers or these biomarkers that benefit both the function of the brain and cognitive output.
- [08:00]
A
So, and when you were talking about your aging study, are you doing anything to show how exercise is slowing down cognitive decline? Are you seeing, measuring maybe bdnf, anything like that?
- [08:17]
B
Yeah. So I mean, you know, we are collecting all those cellular molecular markers, BDNF, IGF1, you know, we're looking at different, different genetic, you know, variables as well, telomeres, you know, so forth. And the idea is, is that, you know, we'll know at the end, we're still collecting data. And so, you know, with this is actually I should step back, say this is the largest randomized controlled trial of exercise in older adults in the history of nih. And so, you know, we're not able to crack into the data until we're done collecting it. Everyone's, you know, blind and all those good things that happen with randomized controlled trials. But the idea is to look at these variables and see what are the markers that are benefited by physical activity. Are they simply curbing cognitive aging or are they actually ameliorating and benefiting the brain and not just slowing down the cognitive aging process? And so these are open questions.
- [09:14]
A
Got it. And it's such an interest for me going from the child, making that child a lifelong exerciser, or for the benefit of the health in the future to Prevent Alzheimer's and aging and everything. It's a whole big spectrum.
- [09:31]
B
Yeah, I mean, I, I guess, you know, if we go back to your first question, one of the main reasons I really wanted to study kids is cause I didn't want to wait until someone was in their 60s to say, hey, exercise is good for your brain. Let's, you know, let's get you going to ameliorate these cognitive aging effects, you know, or worse, dementia. Right. Onset dementia or things like that. And so I want to look and see whether we could, you know, we could benefit the brains early, build up a neural reserve or a cognitive reserve. And maybe we never had that sedentary adult that, you know, is suffering from age related, you know, decline.
- [10:05]
A
So to summarize this clip, movement is the first signal. So as we begin phase three of the brain's operating system, the first question is simple. Why does movement come first? And Dr. Hillman has spent his entire career studying how physical activity changes the brain from childhood through older adulthood. His research doesn't just focus on exercise, but on understanding how different life experiences shape brain health across our lifespan. And one insight from our conversation completely changed how I think about movement. Dr. Hilleman explained that even a single session of exercise can improve attention, cognition and academic performance in children. And his team is now studying why that happens, exploring how exercise acts as a positive stressor that activates biological pathways supporting brain function. But what struck me even more was why he chose to study children in the first place, rather than waiting until someone reaches their 60s and begins experiencing cognitive decline. His goal is to help children build a stronger brain from the very beginning to create what he calls a cognitive reserve that may protect brain health throughout their entire lifespan. And that idea captures exactly what phase three is all about. Movement isn't simply something we do to stay fit. It's one of the earliest investments that we can make in our future health and performance of our brain. And this is the first piece of the movement loop. Movement isn't valuable because we eventually become fitter. That's what many of us used to think. I can't be alone in this way of thinking. I used to move for fitness alone until I started to study the brain and learned that it's valuable because it immediately changes the state state of the brain. So before learning improves, before memory improves, before our performance improves, the brain has to be activated. And that's exactly what movement does. So some key takeaways from Dr. Hillman. There's three ideas I'd like us to all remember from his first clip number one, movement is information. The neuroscience behind this. Every movement you make sends information throughout your entire nervous system. As your muscles contract, they don't just move your body, they communicate with your brain. Your heart pumps faster, blood flow increases, oxygen and glucose are delivered more efficiently, and neurons begin communicating more actively. So movement changes your brain's neurochemistry. Exercise increases the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, which helps to regulate attention, motivation, mood and learning. And at the same time, it stimulates the production of growth factors like brain derived neurotrophic factors, or bdnf, which supports neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to form and strengthen the new neural connections. And that's why I like to think of movement as sending a message to the brain. It's telling us to wake up, to pay attention and get ready to learn. Movement isn't simply just burning calories. It's providing our brain with the biological conditions it needs to perform at its best. Takeaway 2 Stress isn't always harmful. Here's the neuroscience behind this. When we hear the word stress, we usually think of chronic stress or too much cortisol, too little recovery, the negative effects that follow. But the brain actually needs short, manageable challenges to become stronger. And exercise is an example of what we often call eustress or positive stress. When you exercise, your brain briefly increases stress hormones like cortisol and activates your sympathetic nervous system. At the same time, it stimulates beneficial signaling molecules and growth factors that help the brain to adapt. Dr. Hillman's research explores how these temporary changes, including biomarkers like cortisol and salivary alpha amylase, may help explain why even a single bout of exercise improves attention and cognition. The important part is that stress is temporary. When it's followed by recovery, your brain and body adapt. Without recovery, stress becomes harmful. But with recovery, stress becomes the signal that drives our growth. And that's why adaptation sits in the middle of the movement loop. The challenge isn't the goal, the adaptation is. And then takeaway. 3. Activation comes before performance and the neuroscience behind this. One of the biggest misconceptions about learning is that we can simply decide to pay attention. The brain doesn't work that way. Before, the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for focus, planning, decision making and executive function, can perform well in it must first of all be activated, and movement helps to create that activation. Exercise increases cerebral blood flow, raises arousal to an optimal level, and improves Communication across large scale brain networks involved in attention and cognitive control. So think of it like warming up an orchestra before a concert. Before the musicians can perform together, they must, first of all, need to tune their instruments. And movement helps the brain to tune itself. And that's why research consistently shows improvement in attention and executive function immediately after moderate physical activity. Performance doesn't begin when you sit down to work. Performance begins the moment you prepare your brain. One final thought. Movement isn't magic. It changes the brain because it changes the brain's biology. It increases blood flow, it changes neurochemistry, it activates neural networks, it stimulates neuroplasticity. And when those changes are repeated over time and supported by recovery, they become adaptation. And that's why movement is the input. Adaptation is the process of what's happening, and performance is the result. So what can we do with this research? Here are three simple ways to put the movement loop into practice this week. Number one, Move with purpose. Before asking your brain to perform, prepare it with a 10 to 20 minute walk. Ride your bike, do a short workout, climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Don't think of movement as taking time away from your work. Think of it as a way to step toward doing your best work. I always park my car at the back of the parking lot. Not afraid to add bits of movement into the day? See where you can add just 10 to 20 minutes of movement. Number two, prepare the brain before expecting to learn. Whether you're a parent, a teacher, a coach, or a leader, create opportunities to move before asking anyone to think. Movement isn't a reward after learning, it's the preparation before learning. And I've discovered this one early on with this podcast. I can't focus on this topic without moving first. And tip three, Start measuring your brain's performance, not just your physical performance. Next time you move, don't just ask yourself, hey, how many calories did I burn with that exercise session? Ask yourself, did I think more clearly today? Did I focus more easily? Did I feel more energized? Did I recover better tonight and am I becoming more resilient? Those are the real returns on your investment of movement. Movement for me, is at the root of each of these questions. If I lacked movement and sometimes I just can't fit it in, I'll notice it will show up in one of those questions and I know how important it is to get back on track. Remember, movement is the input. It's what we do. It's every step you take that sends a message to your brain. Tells you to prepare, to activate, and to adapt. The more consistently you send that signal, the more opportunities your brain and body have to change. And over time, those changes become visible. You think more clearly, you learn more effectively, you recover more efficiently, and you perform at a higher level. But here's the part I find the most fascinating. When I look at the movement loop, I don't stop at performance. I look at the end of the circle, and that's confidence. Because confidence is what keeps the loop alive. And I'll be the first to say that I can't always do this. Something gets in the way of me doing a movement loop. It's not always easy to move. Some days we're busy, some days we're tired, and some days we simply just don't feel like it. But every time you complete the loop, you collect another piece of evidence. You say to yourself, I showed up. I felt better afterwards. I handled challenge differently. I became stronger than I was yesterday. And those movements become evidence. And evidence builds your confidence, and confidence makes it easier to begin again tomorrow. That's how lasting change happens. Not through one workout, not through one perfect week, but by repeating the loop again and again and again. Because every movement today is an investment in the person you're becoming tomorrow. Then let's look at clip number two with Paul Zentarski. Paul Zentarski explains in this clip how Naperville Central High School achieved remarkable academic results through his zero hour PE program and the use of heart rate monitoring. His work around getting students to move was inspired by Dr. Hillman's research. And in this clip, Paul Zentarski described how Chuck Hillman's research transforms physical education from something schools did for physical health into something that they could use to improve learning itself. And the research that ignited him showed that just after 20 minutes of walking, students demonstrated measurable increases in brain activation and performed better on cognitive tasks. So for Paul, this wasn't simply evidence that exercise works. It explained why movement belongs at the beginning of the school day. Movement wasn't taking away from learning. It was preparing the brain to learn. Now, looking at this through the lens of the movement loop, we can now see what was happening biologically. Movement activated the brain. An activated brain was better able to pay attention. And better attention improves learning. And repeated learning creates adaptation. And over time, those adaptations translate into stronger academic and and life performance. And that's why movement is the first part of phase three.
- [22:30]
C
Dr. Chuck Hillman, what he was doing at the time at the University of Illinois, was doing MRI scans on students and what he found is that students brains were more active taking a test after merely doing a 20 minute walk. So they sat down, they took the test, they took a 20 minute walk, took the same test and their brain started scans just were vibrant colors. I mean it was just lit up. So that really got me excited. He took the study, went a little bit further. He separated kids into two groups, higher fit students and lower fit students. And the criteria wasn't very hard. If you were an 8 or 9 year old and you could run a quarter mile without stopping, you were a high fit student. If you had to stop and rest, you were a low fit student. I mean really a very low standard if you ask me. Anyway, then he put them through and again the tests were not cognitive tests. They're a flanker and switch tests. If you're familiar with something like lumosity, there's a red square. The next thing you see is either a red square or a different shape, whatever, and you react. And again, the higher fit students, their brains just lit up when they were taking the test as opposed to the lower fit students when they got down to the harder test, their brains were all red. It was just all lit up in that. Lower fit students still couldn't recruit enough brain power to do well on the test.
- [23:47]
A
And some key takeaways. The brain activation is the bridge between movement and performance. Movement doesn't improve learning or performance directly. It changes the brain into a state that's ready to focus, ready to solve problems, make decisions and learn. So whether you're in the classroom or, or on the athletic field or leading a team at work, performance begins with brain activation. Takeaway 2 Readiness comes before instruction, teaching or learning. And one of Paul Zentarski's greatest insights was that not every student needed more movement. Sometimes they needed more recovery. And by monitoring students heart rates, he learned to recognize when a student was physiologically ready to learn and when the brain and body needed time to recover. And that's a lesson for all of us. Teachers can observe energy before beginning a lesson. Coaches can balance challenge with recovery. And leaders can recognize when their teams need a reset before asking for peak performance. The question isn't simply what am I teaching? It's are people ready and able to learn? Takeaway 3 Small actions create lasting adaptation. One walk, one movement break. One active lesson one walking meeting. None of these seem significant on their own. But repeated consistently, they become the biological signals that that drive adaptation. Small actions repeated often create lasting change. Takeaway 4 Performance begins long before that movement matters. A student's success doesn't begin when they open the exam. An athlete's success doesn't begin when the whistle blows, and a leader's success doesn't begin when the meeting starts. Performance begins much earlier when we prepare the brain to perform and takeaway 5 movement isn't a break from work. It's preparing for better work. Whether you're teaching a lesson or coaching a team, leading a meeting, or solving a complex problem, movement should be viewed as part of the performance process, not time taken away from it. So how do we implement these tips? Number one Prepare the brain before expecting any performance, before teaching, coaching or presenting, ask one question. Is the brain ready to perform? And sometimes the best way to improve performance is to begin with 5 to 10 minutes of purposeful movement. Tip 2 Build movement into the rhythm of the day. Instead of viewing movement as a separate activity, make it a part of how you work and learn. Teachers can begin lessons with movement. Coaches can use dynamic warm ups with a cognitive focus. Leaders can replace one seated meeting each week with a walking meeting. Movement becomes the signal that says it's time to focus. And finally, Tip three Balance Challenge with recovery Paul didn't simply encourage students to move more. He also recognized when they needed recovery. High performance isn't created by constant effort. It's created by alternating challenge with recovery. And that's true in classrooms. It's true in sports and true in the workplace. And Tip four Think beyond fitness. Don't ask, how do I fit exercise into my day? Instead, ask how can movement improve everything that I do afterwards? That one shift changes movement from another task on your calendar into the first step towards better thinking, better learning, better leadership, and better performance. So every time we move, we're sending a message to the brain to prepare, to activate, and then adapt. That's why movement isn't just something we do for our bodies. It's one of the most practical performance tools available for teachers, coaches, leaders, parents, and anyone who wants to think more clearly, learn more effectively, and perform at a higher level. Because in the end, movement is the input. It's what we do. Adaptation is the process. It's how the body and brain change. And performance is the result. It's what we're capable of becoming. Paul Zentarski didn't change physical education at Naperville High School. He changed the purpose of physical education. Instead of asking, how do we build fitter students, he helped us to ask, how do we build brains that are ready to learn? And as we review and close out this episode, I'd like to leave you with one final thought. When we first interviewed Dr. Chuck Hillman, I was fascinated by what exercise did for the brain. And when we interviewed Paul Zentarski, I was inspired by how he translated that research into a school that changed students lives. But looking back now through the lens of phase three, I realized that they were teaching us something even bigger. They were teaching us where human performance begins. Not with talent, not with intelligence, not by being motivated. It begins with a biological signal. Movement. Every step you take, every walk, every work workout, every hike, every time you choose to move, you're telling your brain to prepare, activate, and adapt. And that's the first instruction that your brain receives. From there, everything else becomes possible. Movement activates the brain. An activated brain pays attention. And attention is what makes learning possible. Learning creates that adaptation. And adaptation improves performance. And finally, performance builds that confidence. And confidence is what inspires us to move again tomorrow. And that's the movement loop. Now, this season has become personal for me. For years, I interviewed experts and shared their research. And over the past year, I began testing these ideas, their research, in my own life. Not to become a better athlete, not to chase perfect numbers on my wearable device, as much as I'd love to have them be perfect, but to actually see whether the neuroscience showed up in everyday life. And it did. The more consistently I moved, the more consistently I allowed recovery, the more my brain and body adapted. My recovery improved. Resting heart rate dropped, my hikes became easier, my thinking became clearer. And they weren't isolated improvements. They were evidence that the movement loop was working for me. With every small improvement, my confidence grew. Not because someone told me I was improving, but because I could actually see it. I could measure it, and I could feel it. And the confidence became more than just the result of the movement. It became something I began carrying into other areas of my life. Into my work, into my relationships, and into the challenges I was willing to take on. And that's when I realized something. Confidence doesn't just end the motivation loop. It becomes the beginning of another part of the brain's operating system. But that's a conversation for another episode. And to close out this episode, I'd like to leave you with a simple challenge. Don't focus on changing your life overnight. Begin with the loop tomorrow morning, before work, or before studying or before an important conversation. Just move. Even if it's for 10 or 20 minutes. Then ask yourself one question. How did that movement prepare my brain today? Start paying attention. Notice your focus. Notice your energy. Notice how you think. Because once you begin looking for the changes, you'll start seeing them everywhere. Write down what you notice, because if you don't write things down, you won't remember that the change occurred. And looking ahead on our next episode, we'll continue exploring phase three with one of the pioneers in the field, Dr. John Rady, the author of the book Spark. If Dr. Hillman showed us that movement activates the brain, Dr. Rady will help us to understand why exercise has been called miracle grow for the brain and how movement literally changes the brain's ability to learn, adapt and grow. And we'll continue building the movement loop one step at a time. And until next time, remember that movement is the input. It's what we do. Adaptation is the process. It's how that we change our brain and body, and performance is the result. It's the measurable improvement that we experience in our thinking, our learning, our health, leadership and daily lives. And perhaps most importantly, confidence is what keeps the loop alive. Because every step you take today is building the brain you'll depend on tomorrow. By the end of this season, my hope is that we don't just understand the neuroscience of human performance, but that we put it into practice. That we begin moving with purpose, that we notice how our brain and body respond. And then we embrace adaptation as part of this process and we experience measurable improvements in our thinking, our learning, health, leadership, and everyday performance. And if you've stayed to the end, I want to thank you for listening and I'll see you next time. If you're enjoying the Neuroscience meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll stay up to date with our new episodes. While you're there, please feel free to give us a review or a five star rating as it helps others find us. For more information on our programs, books and tools for schools and the workplace, Visit us at www. AchieveIt360.com.