Swim Smart

In this week's Rundown, swim goggles get smart, a little exercise improves brain function and meditation helps us make less mistakes.

The Rundown

Swim Smart. Fitness is all about smart functioning these days so it’s no surprise that swimming has joined the tech action. Form’s Smart Swim Goggles have a transparent in-goggle display that shows real-time metrics including time, distance and pace as you glide through the water. In the pool, no watch is required. In open water mode, you connect the goggles to a compatible Garmin or Apple Watch to see distance and pace. You can choose the metrics you want to see and switch the display between the right and left lens. The goggles also feature guided workouts, post-swim tools and feedback access to the Form swimming community.

Small Steps to Better Cognition. Research from the University of Georgia suggests that even small amounts of exercise benefit our cognitive abilities as we age. The study, published in Sport Sciences for Health, (read the abstract) had 51 older adults perform a six minute walking test where they walked as quickly as they could to cover the most distance possible within the time limit. Their intensity, number of steps and distance covered was measured through a wearable device and they underwent tests to measure cognitive function and MRIs to assess brain function.

The researchers found that even light physical activity improved executive brain function. Lead author of the study, Marissa Gogniat, stressed that radical change in your fitness routine wasn’t necessary to get the benefits. “Maybe just take the stairs on the way to work. Stand up and walk around a little bit more. That’s where you get the most bang for your buck, not crazy, high-intensity exercise.”

No Mistaking Meditation. Meditation is part of many people’s fitness routines and a study from Michigan State University found that it could help you become less prone to error. Published in Brain Sciences, the research tested how open monitoring meditation altered brain activity in a way that suggests more error recognition. Unlike forms of meditation that focus on a single thing, like the breath, open monitoring meditation asks you to pay attention to everything going on in your mind and body without getting too caught up in what’s happening.

For the study, 206 female undergraduates who had never meditated were guided through a 20 minute open monitoring meditation while the researchers measured brain activity through EEG. They were then given a computerized distraction test. Because EEG measures brain activity at the millisecond level, the scientists were able to precisely measure neural activity right after mistakes. A specific neural signal, called the error positivity, happens about half a second after an error. The study found that the strength of this signal increased in the meditators.

Jason Moser, a co-author of the study, said the findings “are a strong demonstration of what just 20 minutes of meditation can do to enhance the brain’s ability to detect and pay attention to mistakes.” He added, “It makes us feel more confident in what mindfulness meditation might really be capable of for performance and daily functioning right there in the moment.”

Replay

Vintage moments in fitness culture.

Crystal Light National Aerobic Championship, 1988.