Cannons Gym in the City of London is like no other gym I have ever seen, though it's fair to say I haven't been to that many. It has a cafe, several mini-gyms, a swimming pool and a sauna, and is tucked away under the railway arches at Cannon Street, so that whenever a train rattles overhead the whole building shakes slightly. It also has on offer a series of puzzles for members to tackle during their exercise, as part of their "train your brain" promotion. The idea is that the fitter you get, the brainier you get, making your time in the gym doubly useful - or, another way of looking at it, doubly gruelling.
To assess this system as scientifically as possible, I begin by taking IQ and fitness tests before embarking on a month of personal training, during which time I will do puzzles from a book of brainteasers while exercising. At the end of the month I will retake both tests. Hopefully, by the end, I will be both fitter and more intelligent, though as I warn the trainer at the beginning, I am already very clever and very unfit, so the link may be in the other direction. But in theory at least, as my fitness goes up, so will my intelligence - something, the gym's manager says to me, that is about increased blood flow to the brain as I exercise, helping the brain develop while I do the puzzles.
At my initial IQ test I score 127 on the Weschler scale. I finish the test with the usual grumpy defensiveness people taking IQ tests tend to adopt, crowing about how they don't reflect real intelligence, until I find out that my score is an indicator of "very superior intelligence". Alas, I do rather less well on fitness, although Sarah, my personal trainer for the month, is very encouraging. "Most people are exhausted by this stage," she says, writing "level 2" on her sheet. Sarah, in fact, is enthusiastic at all times, even when we break from the treadmills so I can do some puzzles. "That looks like a hard one but you can do it," she says as I chew my pen. I don't think she realises that I am taking longer on purpose so I can get my breath back.
I tire of the puzzles, but Sarah and I design other ways to work my brain. While using the punchbag, my favourite form of exercise, we give each type of punch a number. Sarah calls out a number and I punch accordingly. This may not sound difficult but as I get more and more tired, it gets harder to remember which punch goes with which number. When Sarah is not there I design my own puzzles. While swimming lengths I name the American states in alphabetical order. On the step machine I go through the countries of Europe and their capitals, and then the counties of England. In the true geek style of someone more at home in the library than the gym, I feel far more pleased with myself for being able to do this than I do for running or cycling certain distances.
On the punchbag I switch to the provinces and territories of Canada. Alberta. Bam. British Columbia. Jab. Manitoba, New Brunswick. Bang, bang. Newfoundland. Right hook. Northwest Territories. Jab. Nova Scotia. Bam. Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, bang, bang, Quebec, wham, Saskatchewan, bang, Yukon Territory. I collapse exhausted. I save the 15 former Soviet Republics for another day.
Professor Adrian Taylor is an expert in exercise and mental health at the University of Exeter and he has looked at whether exercise helps develop intelligence. "There have been suggestions that there is a change in the neural networks in the brain associated with exercise," he says. "There is some evidence that after exercise people have better cognitive functioning as a short-term effect. Exercise is thought to stimulate oxygenation of the brain which, in turn, improves cognitive functioning."
This may be because the need to process information while exercising is stimulating and helps to keep mental functioning going. But, says Taylor, "you could argue the same about bingo." There is, however, some evidence that people who remain physically active fare better at staving off dementia.
Taylor believes that my experiment of doing puzzles and repeating lists while exercising may have a positive effect on my brain in addition to that of the exercise itself. "If you just sit on a bicycle and don't think about anything at all, the physical motion of the body might have some properties that translate into something [beneficial] in the brain. If you do an activity where you're mentally challenging yourself as well as physically challenging yourself, the benefits might be greater."
Dr Martin Hagger, associate professor in social psychology at the University of Nottingham, agrees that there may be a link between physical activity and getting better at the kind of puzzles found in IQ tests but suggests this may just be that the kind of people who go to gyms tend to be better at that kind of task: "The people drawn towards exercise are driven people, highly motivated and better at applying themselves to this sort of task. You might also argue that people who exercise tend to look after themselves a lot more so may have a better diet rich in foods, which help the brain."
Other effects of exercise may also help you to feel cleverer, says Hagger: "There are lots of physiological changes that occur in the body due to exercise, including a release of adrenaline and that's been shown to increase alertness, a bit like having a cup of coffee. The release of endorphins that make you feel good may mean you are more positive towards your application when you're exercising."
He also points out the law of diminishing returns, where if you exercise too much the effect of fatigue may outweigh any benefits of the exercise. I don't think this will ever apply to me. But after a month in the gym, doing occasional puzzles and reciting my lists, I do feel marginally fitter, a fact borne out by my doing slightly better on the fitness test the gym gives me. And when I take my second IQ test, I am slightly cleverer too, albeit by an almost negligible two points. Damn those flaky IQ tests.
