Learning - Your Path to a Healthier Brain

There is a profound comfort in the familiar. The weight of your favorite coffee mug, the muscle memory of your daily commute, the comfort of rewatching your favorite sitcom. Our brains are brilliant at executing these routines—they're efficient, they build a sense of safety, and they allow us to navigate a complex world on autopilot. We build a life on this foundation of comfort, and for good reason.

But when it comes to maintaining brain health throughout life, comfort becomes the enemy. We need more than routine. We need novelty.

The Brain Aging Reality

Our brains contain trillions of connections between neurons. As we age, the insulation surrounding these neurons weakens, and neural connections slowly decrease over time. The result? Older individuals often become less sharp, take longer to remember things, and have more difficulty concentrating or performing intensive tasks. For many, this progression leads to more serious concerns—dementia affects 1 in 6 women and 1 in 10 men over 55.

This is typically seen as "normal" aging. But just like the "common" loss of strength with age—which we now know can be slowed and nearly stopped with strength training—the brain works similarly. We can greatly slow the effects of aging through learning and movement.

The problem? Most of us don't. And most of us stop learning at predictable points in life.

When We Stop Learning

Look at your own life trajectory. There are typically three predictable times when our learning dramatically slows down. By the time we reach retirement, this multi-decade hiatus from learning starts to show its effects.

The Mid-to-Late 30s: Career and family obligations peak, making the time and energy required to learn something new feel like an unaffordable luxury. We double down on what we already know and do. Research shows formal learning participation peaks around 55% during this decade.

The 50s: Careers stabilize and children gain independence, creating potential opportunity. However, this is when we become masters of routine—our hobbies, friends, and comfortable patterns are established. The energy needed to enter completely new territory feels higher than ever, and learning participation drops to 41%.

Retirement: The gift of time becomes a paradox. Without job demands, it's easy to shift toward less mentally demanding activities. For the majority of us, participation in learning a new skill plummets to just 22%. Perhaps the most telling statistic about this period is that 25% of older adults report feeling they've "done enough learning."

These three phases create a cumulative pattern where each life stage pulls us further from the novelty our brains desperately need for long-term health.

Why Your Brain Craves Novel Challenge

Remember those weakening neural connections and declining insulation we discussed? Novel challenges directly combat this process.

Your brain follows the same fundamental principle as your muscles: use it or lose it. But unlike muscles, which can maintain strength through familiar exercises, your brain needs novelty to stay healthy. Your brain doesn't just need to be used—it needs to be challenged in new ways.

Here's where the science gets exciting. Your brain has the incredible ability to change, reorganize, and adapt its structure throughout life, forming new neural connections in a process called neuroplasticity. The more you learn, the stronger and more interconnected your brain becomes. This extra "brainpower reserve" acts as protection—if aging damages some areas, other well-developed areas can step in to maintain your mental abilities.

This isn't theoretical. Research following individuals over years has shown that those with lifelong patterns of cognitive engagement perform on tests as well as less-engaged individuals who are 7-10 years younger. When age-related brain changes occur, people with higher cognitive reserve maintain better function.

Without this reserve? Age-related changes have a greater impact on your cognitive function.

But here's where it gets interesting—not all learning creates equal cognitive protection. When it comes to building the strongest neural networks, your brain craves a specific type of challenge.

Why Movement-Based Learning Wins

When you learn golf, martial arts, dance, or a musical instrument, you're simultaneously training motor control, spatial awareness, timing, strategy, and real-time adaptation. This means you're engaging more of your brain and creating more neural connections than you would by learning a new language or doing puzzles. While reading, advanced puzzles, and language learning can be beneficial, they don't have the same powerful brain effects as movement-based skills.

The research is compelling. Movement-based learning triggers 2-3 fold increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor—fertilizer for your neural networks. Dance training has been shown to be superior to conventional fitness training for increasing brain volume in older adults. Martial arts practitioners show enhanced attention networks that get sharper with years of practice.

This is why activities like golf, tennis, rock climbing, or learning an instrument create such powerful cognitive benefits. They force your brain to integrate multiple systems simultaneously in ways that purely cognitive challenges cannot match.

Knowing this research is one thing. Living it is another.

Practicing What I Preach

At 35, I found myself in the exact demographic we just discussed—someone who had drifted away from novel learning. For two decades, my approach to movement had been consistent: weightlifting and running. While these activities provide massive health benefits for both brain and body, they had become routine, predictable patterns I could execute on autopilot.

If I was going to write about the importance of cognitive reserve, I needed to practice what I preach. To really build cognitive reserve, I needed to do exactly what the research suggested: engage in something genuinely new and challenging.

So I chose golf and began working toward my Titleist Performance Institute certification. To my powerlifting brain, the rotational, finesse-based golf swing might as well be a foreign language. While I assess movement patterns, understand force transmission, and apply biomechanics daily in my practice, approaching these concepts through the lens of golf has been humbling and often frustrating.

Perfect. That confusion and struggle is my brain building new pathways.

Making Time for Your Future Brain

The biggest barrier isn't time—it's the misconception that learning a new skill requires massive time commitments. Consistency matters more than duration.

Two to three focused sessions per week, treated as non-negotiable appointments, can create meaningful change. The key is viewing this as devoted time focused on learning without distractions. Think of it as essential maintenance for your brain, not optional enrichment.

The Research-Backed Payoff

The evidence for lifelong learning's protective effects spans decades and involves hundreds of thousands of participants. The 2020 Lancet Commission report identified multiple modifiable risk factors, including education and physical activity, which collectively account for an estimated 40% of dementia cases worldwide. Studies show that even starting new learning activities in later life can support cognitive function. Research consistently demonstrates associations between higher education and reduced dementia risk across multiple studies.

This isn't just about preventing disease—it's about thriving. The participants in these studies maintained sharper, more capable minds throughout their lives.

Your 80-year-old brain is being built by today's choices.

Your Next Move

When did you last feel genuinely confused while learning something physical?

If it's been years, your brain is ready for a new challenge.

Choose complexity: Musical instruments, martial arts, dance, rock climbing, tennis. Activities that force your brain to integrate multiple systems simultaneously. For me it was golf.

Embrace the struggle: Cognitive growth happens when you're confused and working to figure something out.

Stay consistent: The protective benefits build over months and years of regular practice.

Start now: Brain changes begin within weeks, but real cognitive reserve builds through consistent challenge over time.

Most people treat brain aging like it's inevitable—the same way people used to think muscle loss with aging was just "normal." We now know better about both.

Cognitive reserve isn't built through puzzles or brain games—it's built through the beautiful, awkward process of becoming a beginner again.