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It’s 7:30 a.m., I’m looking for my keys, grabbing my bag and herding everyone out of the door as we hurry off to school and work. Wait! One more trip back into the house for the forgotten homework assignment, a lunchbox and … it seems I have forgotten several things. Is it stress, lack of sleep or just the natural aging process? Regardless, it seems I need a memory-boosting workout.

Exercise is no longer just for affecting the size of your muscles, but also the size of your brain. As we age, the volume of our brain naturally decreases. However, in people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, one of the numerous cognitive diseases under the dementia umbrella, there is a more marked decrease in brain volume. Being physically active has been shown to slow or even stop the decrease in brain volume in older people, even among those at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans issued by the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services state that adults should get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity—such as walking, running, swimming and cycling—each week to promote and maintain health. These and other forms of moderate-intensity exercise have also been positively linked to maintenance of memory and learning as we age.

According to a recent study in the research journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia, reaching recommended physical activity goals has substantial effects on brain volume. Ninety-one adults ranging from ages 50 to 74 wore an accelerometer, a device which records and measures the wearer’s steps and speed of movement, for seven days. Subjects who performed physical activity for 150 minutes or more per week had temporal lobe sections that were 5–6 percent larger than their sedentary counterparts. The temporal lobe of the brain is associated with learning and memory. This sustained brain volume associated with physical activity was noted among people with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, those who have the Alzheimer’s associated gene and those who were not at high risk.

The moral of the story? Get up and move. Your brain will remember to thank you.

 Jessica C. Taylor, PhD, is an assistant professor of physiology in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Miss.