Most of us exercise with broad health goals: body composition, stress management, cardiovascular health, chronic disease prevention and overall longevity among others. But how many of you exercise with the specific goal of better brain function?

It probably wouldn’t surprise you if I said higher levels of physical fitness are correlated to improved levels of cognitive function. But what if I told you a simple 2-minute walking test could give you a quick indicator of your capacity for memory, reasoning, sharpness and judgement?

A new study revealed a definitive link between physical fitness and improved cognition through a simple 2 minute walking test.

Over 1000 healthy young adults walked as quickly as they could in 2 minutes. The distance achieved was recorded by researchers in feet and inches. Then study participants were asked to conduct a variety of cognitive tests. And lastly, they underwent an MRI to measure certain characteristics of their brain.

The researchers found physical fitness is clearly associated with preserved white matter microstructure and better performance in a wide range of cognitive domains. This white matter portion of the brain allows for improved cognitive flexibility, processing speed and fluid intelligence.

Essentially physically fit people have “fitter” brains and better cognitive function.

And these findings were in healthy, young people! This suggests our ability to directly impact our cognitive function through physical fitness may be stronger than what clinicians and researchers would have previously thought.

Eager to see how you stack up on the 2 minute walk test?? We certainly were. I tested myself along New st in front of the clinic, grabbing a bunch of strange looks along the way. And Steph did it in her platform shoes…against my advice to grab a better pair of footwear!

Here’s what you need: something to time yourself and a way to measure your distance. Any running app using GPS will likely be suitable. I used my free Under Armour Map My Run app, but there are many others like it that would suffice.

The rules are simple…walk as quickly as you can for 2 minutes! You can’t jog. One foot on the ground at all times.

What’s the goal?

The mean distances for men in this study were 660 feet for men and 640 feet for women, but the average age of the participants was 28 years old. So, if you want to be better than the average 28 year old in this study that’s your goal.

Want to aim a little higher? Check out the chart below to see how far (in feet) you have to make it to be among the top 2.5% in your age group.

Men                                          20-29    748
Women                                    20-29     692
Men                                          30-39     682
Women                                    30-39     607
Men                                          40-49     649
Women                                    40-49     659
Men                                          50-59     640
Women                                    50-59     620
Men                                          60-69     646
Women                                    60-69     581
Men                                          70-79     571
Women                                    70-79     502

Oh and in case you’re wondering Steph walked 740 feet in 2 minutes in platform shoes…lol…I saw it with my own eyes! Please don’t try that at home 😊