Do You *Need* Brain Training Software For A Fit Brain?

Brain fitness, brain games and braintraining software seems to be promoted everywhere these days, from the NYTimes to PBS to small blogs (ahem!)

And ok, so you’ve come to understand the importance of brain fitness, and that all these trainers and games are somehow related to it.

But are these software trainers, coaches and games really *necessary*? After all, some of them can be pretty pricey, with the best known programs running hundreds of dollars.

The answer is a bit confusing….

Yes, No, and Maybe!

I know, I know, I’m being unnecessarily obscure here, but the answer really does depend on you.

To better understand how software and game systems help with brain fitness, let’s look at the common analogy of physical fitness.

The physical fitness market is huge, with it’s gym memberships, specialized home equipment, coaches, trainers, DVD’s, and late night infomercials. Many people find these products and services invaluable.

Others believe they are a waste of money.

A Waste of Money? Why?

Because you don’t need a gym membership to get physically fit.

You don’t need a personal trainer, workout video, treadmill, or weight machine. either. You can put in the time and effort to develop your own physical exercise program for free, and so long as you include a variety of different activities that require various levels of effort, and which increasingly challenge you to push harder… you’ll get fit.

The greater the variety of exercises you do on a regular basis, and the more challenging your crosstraining routines are, the more fit you’re likely to get. You can do it all on your own, without any specialized equipment, other than perhaps a good pair of athletic shoes.

But Many Of Us Aren’t That Disciplined

We wind up slacking off over time, or avoiding the exercises that are too ‘hard’. We may wind up focusing on the activities we are best at, and enjoy the most. We get confused trying to build our own programs, or we fail to introduce enough variety, get bored and quit. In addition, the more out of shape we are, the less likely we are to be able to manage our own fitness program to get back into shape.

So most people find products and services from the physical fitness industry useful. They offer us guidance, variety, challenge, and encouragement. The best of them are adjustable for our strengths and weaknesses, offering guidance and easy or even automatic ways to increase the difficulty levels as we gain strength, and we can look for specialized programs that focus on areas we need the most help in… abs, gluts, aerobics, etc.

We don’t need a wealth of physical fitness products to be healthy and fit, but they certainly can help.

The same is true of brain fitness software, trainers and games.

Your brain won’t necessarily go flabby without them. If you have a mentally challenging job/hobby, are constantly challenging yourself in new, different and flexible ways, you’ll likely not only stay cognitively fit, but out perform someone who only uses a software trainer.

But if you’re like the majority of us? The guidance, variety, challenges, confidence and encouragement of cognitive fitness products are pretty darn helpful in our new-found quest for brain health. And just like with physical fitness… once we’ve started losing our mental focus and ability (whether through natural aging, disease, or other issues) it gets more and more difficult to initiate and maintain new levels of cognitive activity.

What Is It That Brain Fitness Software/Trainers DO, exactly?

That depends on the product or service, of course, but the best of them have several things in common.

A good brain fitness product will:

• exercise a variety of cognitive functions
• be easy enough to be do-able, but difficult enough to make you work for success
• provide for increasing difficulty levels and challenges
• allow for decreasing difficulty levels, if you’re having a bad day or week
• provide encouragement in the form of scores, history and tracking performance
• offer guidance on how to most effectively use the product

In short, they’re akin to an automated physical trainer, and a challenging piece of gym equipment, combined.

Because the programs offer guidance, you want to be sure the guidance is quality. Unlike physical trainers, you’re unlikely to harm yourself with poor cognitive fitness programs, but you can still waste time, money and wind up feeling foolish and losing interest in the whole shebang. For guidance on choosing a specific program, look over the 10-question checklist from the folks at SharpBrains.

In Summary?

Most healthy people don’t *need* brain fitness software to be mentally fit, but most will find it useful. People who are suffering from existing cognitive difficulties (whether as the result of normal aging, disease, medication or injury) may find the software especially helpful, and even necessary… but ordinary people can benefit as well, just as they benefit from physical fitness DVD’s and weight machines.

The most important part of brain fitness isn’t what method or products you use, but that you USE your brain… being mentally active in as many ways as you can, as often as you can.

MindTweak: The word aerobics came about when the gym instructors got together and said, “If we’re going to charge $10 an hour, we can’t call it jumping up and down.” ~Rita Rudner