5/16 Whole Life Wednesday

Our masters athletes are an amazing bunch! We had 4 Masters make the podium at the Festivus Games. Yep - we build strong old people;-) 
Our Whole Life Challenge Weekly Well-Being Challenge is to play a mental game every day this week. The instructions are simple:

1. Complete 10 minutes of whatever type of mental challenge or brain exercise you like. It can be different each day.
2. Some suggestions are crossword puzzles, Sudoku, memorization challenges, logic puzzles, or a challenging game with some decent science behind it like Dual N-Back.
3. You do not need to be able to complete the puzzle you choose in 10 minutes to get credit for doing the practice.

I LOVE this Well-Being challenge. When I was in graduate school I completed a crossword puzzle every day. Yet, after I graduated I let this practice go and I really miss it. James likes to play sSudoku or Lumosity on a regular basis. I look forward to getting back into a regular practice on mental play. 
The WLC folks think this is an important well-being practice because:

"While the brain is not technically a muscle, it does need exercise to avoid going “soft.” Just like your body, your brain responds to challenges with new growth — in learning, ability, associations, and facility with different kinds of information. Voluntarily engaging with things you don’t know how to solve easily flips on your creativity and helps you learn to incorporate new ways of understanding the world.

Even if the link between puzzles and the brain is poorly understood, it is observed over and over that people who engage in puzzle solving can increase their mental quickness and even slow cognitive decline.
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The brain is a fantastic organ — the most complex one we have. Just like repetitive daily movement can hinder your body’s growth and health, subjecting your brain to the same kind of repetitive activities day in and day out can result in a kind of mental atrophy. So this week’s Well-Being Practice is about getting your brain to the gym and seeing what kind of weight you can lift."

You can expect to play some kind of mental game in today's class:-) 

Click Here for the WOD