22 Brain Exercises That Keep Kids, Adults, and Older Adults Mentally Sharp

Brain-training exercises can improve your cognitive skills, including working memory, verbal memory, and global functioning. Challenging yourself with new activities can also improve brain functioning through a process called neuroplasticity, in which the brain forms new neural pathways and connections.

14 Brain Exercises for All Ages

1. Do Jigsaw Puzzles

Completing a jigsaw puzzle can be a fun solo or group activity. Research shows that when done long-term, jigsaw puzzles also improve visuospatial cognitive skills, such as:

• Constructional praxis

• Episodic memory

• Mental rotation

• Mental speed and flexibility

• Perception

• Reasoning

• Working memory

What Is Neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity is the modifiability of the brain, through changes in neuron numbers, control, migration, formation of new connections, and more.

2. Play Sudoku

Sudoku is a popular number placement puzzle that may have cognitive benefits. In one study of 19,078 adults ages 50 to 93, those who performed number puzzles at least once a day had better cognitive functioning on skills such as:

• Attention

• Episodic memory

• Executive function

• Information processing

• Reasoning

• Working memory

3. Play Cards

Playing card games can help improve your brain performance. One study of 7,308 older adults found that those who regularly or occasionally played cards had better cognitive functioning—particularly in attention, calculation, and language—than those who never played cards.

4. Take Up Coloring

Coloring in a coloring book may seem like an activity for kids. However, it's recently become more popular as a calming activity for adults, including older adults living in assisted living facilities. Coloring requires cognitive skills like spatial awareness, concentration, focus, hand-eye coordination, working memory, and visual perception.

5. Use Your Nondominant Hand

Switching to your nondominant hand for tasks is a quick and easy way to exercise your brain. It's going to feel a lot less natural to write, draw, clean dishes, or brush your teeth with your opposite hand. Practicing with your nondominant hand for even a short period of time can lead to neuroplasticity and lasting changes in the brain.

6. Participate in Exercise

Regular exercise is well established as important for brain health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), regular exercise can:

• Improve memory

• Reduce anxiety and depression

• Reduce the risk of cognitive decline, including dementia

7. Start Dancing

Dancing is a fantastic way to train your brain because it involves physical and cognitive skills. You must remember choreography and have spatial awareness and coordination.

One study compared six months of dance training to similarly intense exercise training.

Both groups improved in physical fitness to the same degree. However, the dance group had an increase in levels of plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is a protein involved in neuroplasticity.

8. Learn a Language

Learning a language requires different types of memory, concentration, and creativity.

Research shows that learning a second language can improve these areas of cognition:

• Attentional switching

• Functional connectivity

• Inhibition

• Working memory

9. Play an Instrument

Learning to play an instrument is, in many ways, similar to learning a new language. It challenges you to read music while you memorize the techniques to play the instrument, integrate multiple senses, and coordinate your movements and fine motor skills.

One study compared adults ages 60 to 85 who learned to play the piano or did not. The piano group significantly improved memory, information processing speed, mental planning, verbal fluency, and other cognitive functions.

10. Try a New Skill

Learning a new skill can improve cognition by challenging you to think in new ways and problem-solve. This brain exercise creates new neuron connections, or in other words, neuroplasticity.

Learning a language or an instrument are both examples of learning a new skill. Other skills you can learn include:

• Ceramics

• Coding

• Construction

• Cooking a new meal

• Juggling

• Knitting

• Painting

• Photography

• Sewing

• Sports

• Woodworking

11. Start Meditating

Meditation is a centuries-old mindfulness practice in which one disconnects from superficial thoughts and focuses on the mind. Research has found that meditation can trigger neuroplasticity. It can also improve cognitive functioning and reduce age-related brain degeneration.

12. Play Chess

Chess is a logic-based game known for being challenging and strategic. A meta-analysis pooled results from 24 studies and found that chess could improve cognitive abilities, particularly math performance, among schoolchildren.

13. Read Books

Reading books benefits brain function across all ages and protects against age-related cognitive decline. A longitudinal study of 1,962 adults ages 64 and older examined reading practices and cognition over 14 years. The researchers found that frequent reading was associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline.

14. Travel to New Places

Traveling introduces you to new people, places, and cultures. It also challenges your brain to navigate new environments, plan, and adapt to new situations.

Brain Exercises for Brain Injury

People who are recovering from traumatic brain injury or damage from a degenerative brain condition can also benefit from brain exercises. However, each exercise may have to be modified to fit the individual's current skill level while maintaining the right level of difficulty.

Everyday tasks can also be a form of brain exercise, such as creating grocery lists, doing laundry, paying bills, or sequencing the steps required to shave or brush your teeth.

Therapists call these activities of daily living (ADLs) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). They can improve cognition while remaining functional and relevant to the person's daily life.

5 Brain Exercises to Benefit Older Adults

1. Play Bingo

People of any age can play bingo, but it is particularly popular in assisted living and memory care facilities and senior centers. It is a recognizable, accessible game that requires you to remember what your board looks like, recognize and recall the called numbers and letters, and respond appropriately.

2. Do Crossword Puzzles

Crossword puzzles are another popular brain exercise that may be particularly effective for older adults. They can be found in newspapers, crossword books, or even apps.

In a recent randomized control trial of older adults with mild cognitive impairment, researchers found that crossword puzzles were superior to digital games in improving memory and cognitive functioning over 78 weeks. The crossword group also had less shrinkage in the brain's hippocampus and cortex regions.

3. Try Tai Chi

Tai chi is an exercise routine that originated in China and is based on martial arts. It is low impact and requires balance and focus, making it highly accessible to older adults. It can also benefit your brain because you must mirror and remember sequences and coordinate your body.

One systematic review of 33 randomized controlled trials shows that tai chi improves overall cognition and memory.

4. Play Bridge

Bridge is a much-loved card game, played in pairs. It requires problem-solving and critical thinking while also offering a social outlet. It is also popular among older adults.

5. Reminisce

Reminiscence is a therapeutic activity often practiced by older adults with dementia. It involves using the senses (smell, touch, sight, sound, or taste) to trigger old memories and lead into discussions.

For example, smelling a tube of sunscreen and feeling the grit of sand might trigger memories and lead to a discussion of past beach vacations.

Research shows that reminiscence can, to a small degree, improve cognition, communication, and mood among people with dementia.

Brain Exercises for Older Adults

As you age, your brain naturally changes, and you may notice differences such as more difficulty with short-term memory. The onset of dementia and other memory conditions also becomes more common. Brain exercises can help keep your short-term memory and other cognitive skills sharp during this time.

3 Brain Exercises to Benefit Children

1. Play Pretend

Pretend or imaginative play is fun for children and essential to their cognitive development. Playing pretend can help a child develop abstract thought and improve their cognition, language, and social skills. Playing can also enhance a child's self-regulation skills.

2. Try Simon Says

Simon Says is a typical game that children play or that adults lead children in at schools or day care facilities. It involves the leader saying, "Simon Says do this," and the children copying the action. When the leader says "Do this" without saying "Simon Says," the children who still perform the action lose the game.

In short, children who play Simon Says have to practice important cognitive skills, such as attention, listening, language, comprehension, self-regulation, following directions, decision-making, and more.

3. Engage in Sensory Play

Incorporating multiple senses into play has been shown to improve children's cognitive skills. Sensory play can be creative and is essentially any type of play in which touch, taste, smell, sound, or vision are involved. Examples include finger painting, identifying toys in a sandbox, or playing with musical blocks.

How Do Brain Exercises Affect Mental Health?

You may find that challenging your brain with these activities can positively affect your mental health and self-esteem. For instance, completing a complex crossword puzzle may give you a sense of achievement. Attending a weekly dance class may make you feel creative and connected to your community.

Research has found that brain exercise's effects on neuroplasticity may contribute to improvement in certain mental disorders. However, the exact mechanisms are unclear.

All of these exercises can have positive carryover effects on other areas of life besides cognitive functioning.