Does exercising the executive function improve it, in the same way as exercising a muscle?
If so, what exercise-recovery time frame is ideal? is it similar to weight training, of sets, pushing to exhaustion, with brief recovery (of the order of minutes) in between, and on a longer timeframe, rest days?
Or does the executive function respond quite differently to exercise?
Unfortunately, the article doesn't list the specific research papers, but it suggests that consistent exercise over time increases it ("using your nondominant hand to brush your teeth for two weeks can increase willpower capacity"); the article gives no word on whether exercising willpower to exhaustion is a better or worse strategy, though.
This is great. I wonder if it's possible to measure the tiredness level with a simple test? That way I would know when to stop coding ang go have some social contact instead.
But then I would also know when to get back to coding!
It seems that most of us aren't explicitly aware when our brain is "tired" (as opposed to our muscles). But we have to decide that we are too tired to make decisions. In some cases, that may be non-trivial.
If so, what exercise-recovery time frame is ideal? is it similar to weight training, of sets, pushing to exhaustion, with brief recovery (of the order of minutes) in between, and on a longer timeframe, rest days?
Or does the executive function respond quite differently to exercise?