Training and development of reactions - exercises, games, secrets. How to train your memory, simple exercises

Many people, especially over the years, have encountered an unpleasant situation where extremely important information simply disappears from their minds. This can be justified in different ways: teenage changes, senile sclerosis, poor memory from nature - however, the human brain has special methods of remembering that are not affected by time. These include motor (or motor) memory.

Developed motor memory is extremely important for athletes and dancers, but is also important for remembering information. A region called the “reticular activating system” is responsible for the formation of this memory in the human brain. A striking example of developed motor memory is a secretary quickly typing text on a keyboard. By the way, it is curious that during touch typing such a secretary usually concentrates his attention on the information, and not on the keys he presses. In addition, scientists claim, and experience confirms, that when we record lectures, we most often try to paraphrase the material, i.e. we become more and more involved in the learning process, and motor memory works on its own... Mysticism, right?

What is motor (motor) memory

Despite advances in technology and the 21st century, it is still not completely clear why a person has this or that ability. Such miracles include motor or motor memory, which makes it possible to remember and reproduce various movements or combinations thereof. This type of memorization helps, for example, dancers, electronic typists, assembly line workers, and even bicycle and car enthusiasts. Without motor memory, every time a person starts an already familiar task, he would have to master it “from scratch.”

Motor memory is especially important for people whose jobs involve making precise, subtle, and complex movements. Such people include surgeons, acrobats and many others. To achieve success in their business, these people develop motor memory.

People who play any musical instrument professionally have a good command of motor memory. A familiar situation: a person who has not picked up his favorite instrument for a long time and has not repeated previously learned pieces for a long time plays immediately and without a single blot. “Hands remember,” he happily justifies. But we are already educated people and we know that motor memory is responsible for the so-called hand memory.

A person with a well-developed motor memory easily masters the most complex movements in sports, music, and dance. With information it is more difficult - in order to “add” it to motor memory, you must first comprehensively consciously comprehend and interpret it. That is why, in order to remember a lecture, you need to either write it down or speak it out loud - you can do it quietly.

How to train

Motor memory is a skill acquired with practice. To consolidate it, no sophisticated exercises are required. If you want to acquire a certain skill, you should monotonously repeat the same action, trying to perform it equally correctly each time. At the same time, when practicing a skill, you should concentrate on the information or the action itself.

There are also general exercises for training motor memory. The question arises - why is it needed in everyday life? As it turns out, motor memory exercises are an excellent salvation for those who constantly have their head in the clouds and miss important information. Moreover, these workouts do not take much time and can even be interesting.

1. Exercise "mushroom-glade". Starting position: one hand, symbolizing a mushroom, is put forward and looking up, clenched into a fist. The second hand is a clearing, the palm is completely straight and is located directly under the “mushroom”, that is, the elbow of the second hand. And then you should suddenly change hands - the “clearing” becomes a “mushroom”, and the “mushroom” becomes a “clearing”. The shoulders remain in the same position, only the forearms, hands and fingers work. For better results, the pace of the exercise can be accelerated.

2. Place your hands at face level and, as if holding the handles of two large wheels, begin to rotate them in different directions in a circle - one “wheel” toward you, the second away from you. Having realized that you have gotten the hang of it, you should change directions. The sooner you learn to change them, the better.

There are other ways to develop motor memory. For example, the author of this video gives interesting exercises:

Good day to you, our dear readers! Irina and Igor are with you again. Has it ever happened to you that you made a promise to someone or yourself, but were unable to fulfill it? For example, they promised to start running with a friend in the morning, but she still runs alone.

Or you promised yourself to lose weight and squeeze into old jeans, but you still can’t pass by the pie shop on the way home.

“I didn’t have enough willpower!” - excuses are often made in such situations. Today we just want to talk to you about how to train willpower.

What is willpower?

If you imagine that a person is a garden, then the gardener who tirelessly cares for this garden and makes it more and more blooming every day is willpower

- This is a saying of William Shakespeare.

Willpower is a person’s ability to find energy, tirelessly move towards achieving goals and turning them into reality. It is the possession of this quality that can make you a successful person.

Each person has their own desires: for some it is to quit or use, for some it is to lead, for others it is to lead, for those who need to build their own business, and for others they want to travel.

Every person understands that in order to achieve success in a particular business, he needs to start by changing himself, changing his habits, overcoming his fears and weaknesses, and learning to manage his emotions. And for all this you need willpower.

Strength of spirit will help you not to turn onto the “beaten path”, but to pursue your dream to the end. But what if you are not particularly strong-willed?

It needs to be developed! Many will say that this is nonsense and you either have willpower or you don’t. But that's not true! Willpower can be trained, and we will tell you how!

Lao Tzu said:

He who conquers others is strong, and he who conquers himself is powerful.

There are several ways to increase your mental strength. Let's look at them all in order.

Doing something that is unpleasant

The first way to train your spiritual qualities is through an exercise where you need to do those things that give you the least pleasure, but their implementation is necessary.

For example, you don’t like cleaning floors, force yourself to wash the floors every day.

Bring this difficult activity into your life. You can start small by mopping your floors once a week, and gradually add more times a week until you are doing it every day.

This method will also help you develop self-discipline and develop healthy habits. But don’t rush to immediately “shove” all the unpleasant but necessary things into your schedule. Enter no more than one task per week.

Plan

If it’s difficult for you to immediately make a plan for tomorrow, then start by writing down at the end of the day all the things you’ve done.

See which things take more time and which you can spend less on. Try to make a plan for tomorrow based on the previous day.

It is not necessary to strictly follow the plan; you can change the order of the actions performed, replace and modify them.

is one of the ways to learn to control your time, as well as get excellent results.

In order to master planning techniques and effective time management, you can use the video course “Time management, or how to increase your efficiency” .
You can also read our articles on the topic of time management and increasing personal efficiency.

Meditative practices

It’s not for nothing that meditation is called a spiritual practice, because it helps to expand your spiritual capabilities.

You can start with simple things, such as perseverance training. To do this, you need to sit in a separate room and sit for several minutes with your eyes closed. At first glance, this seems like a very simple exercise, but it can be very difficult to sit for even two minutes without doing anything.

You will want to lie down or open your eyes, it will seem that time is passing so slowly. Try concentrating on your breathing while doing this. Once you have mastered this technique, you can increase the time or make the exercise more difficult, such as trying to hold a glass of water at arm's length for several minutes.

Develop new habits

There is an opinion that if you do something every day for a month, it becomes a habit.

For example, young children are taught to observe by performing teeth-brushing rituals every day in the mornings and evenings. Your new habit could be introducing a new species, reading books or something else.

This rule can also be applied to those habits that you want to get rid of. For example, if you are a fan of computer games, set yourself a time limit for playing per day, or completely refuse to play on a certain day of the week.

The hardest thing comes first

Don’t put off difficult things for later, try to do them first.

Sometimes people spend a lot of time on all sorts of nonsense, leaving absolutely no time for important things.

For example, you need to write a term paper or a welcome speech, fill out a resume, but instead you have been sitting on a social network for the second hour and drinking tea.

Yes, sometimes it is difficult to force yourself to do something, especially when there is a lot of work to do, but you just need to effectively distribute your time resources, set specific deadlines for yourself and follow them.

A video course can help you with this “The Master of Time - highly productive time management according to the system of Evgeniy Popov” .

Keep your promises

Train yourself to keep your word. Always! No matter how difficult your promise may be, keeping it should be your main goal; don’t cut yourself any slack.
Look for hidden resources to do it, not reasons to mentally give it up. Learn to overcome laziness and lift yourself up for action.

In order to conquer yourself, you need to constantly work on yourself, develop and not stop there.

If our advice is not enough for you, we can recommend you the book by Kelly McGonigal "Strength of will. How to develop and strengthen" , which will reveal to you all the secrets of strengthening your spiritual strength.

How are you doing with your willpower? Do you always finish your tasks? What methods have you used to strengthen your spirit? Share your opinion with us!

Don’t forget to show this article to those who still promise you to “start running with you in the morning”! Don’t forget to show this article to those who still promise you to “start running with you in the morning”! And also don’t miss new interesting topics that will appear on our blog soon! See you soon!

Best regards, Irina and Igor.

Memory is a person’s ability to remember, store, record and recognize all kinds of information. This ability can be called a skill. It is like a muscle: the more actively you train it, the better it develops.

What hinders and helps you remember?

First, let's figure out why many people have very bad memory. In fact, everything is simple here: if a person has few interests and does not engage in mental work, then he simply has nothing to remember - there is no such need. Before training their memory, these people should start reading more and finding some hobbies. Only after this will it be possible to begin special exercises.

Introducing images and taking notes

It is easier to remember any information if you present it in the form of some kind of image. But the most important thing is to thoroughly understand what needs to be recorded in your head.

Don’t try to remember something in a short time - yes, perhaps you will achieve results, but the effect will be short-term, very soon you will forget the information. It is important to constantly repeat and scroll through the necessary information in your head. It would be great to keep a diary to record all sorts of events, interesting thoughts, plans for the future. It is also useful to take notes on new information. As you write, you reflect on your notes and your brain begins to function better and more efficiently.

Healthy lifestyle

It is also recommended to improve blood circulation in the brain. To do this, you should walk more on the street, follow a daily routine, do not smoke, do not drink, and play sports. If you do not comply with these simplest conditions, then no memory exercises will help you.

Foods good for memory

You also need to think carefully about your diet. What you eat? Think about this, since various foods can also help train your memory.

1. Whole grains. To improve, regularly eat wheat germ, bran, and cereals.

2. Nuts. They are rich in vitamin E, which is also found in lettuce, cabbage, seeds, whole grains and brown rice.

3. Blueberries. When consuming this berry, you can rest assured that your memory will not let you down.

4. Tomatoes. It is a source of an antioxidant called lycopene, which helps eliminate the negative effects on cells that cause dementia. Before learning how to train a person’s memory, stock up on these tasty and healthy vegetables.

5. Blackcurrant. It contains vitamin C, which can make you a witty person with a good memory.

6. Sage. Very useful for the brain, which begins to work with double strength, thanks to the oil contained in this plant.

7. Broccoli. This vegetable is rich in vitamin K. If it is contained in the body in the right amount, then there should be no problems with memory and learning.

8. Pumpkin seeds. The zinc contained in them has a beneficial effect on the brain. It is enough to eat just one handful a day. The seeds also have a slight antidepressant effect, so you may feel an improvement in your mood and well-being.

Training your memory

Of course, you should not overeat the above foods, but sometimes it is recommended to eat them. But proper nutrition alone is not enough. How to train your memory? You will have to work hard for this.

There are some methods and rules that must be strictly followed, and after 30 days you will be able to evaluate the first results.

1. Read a book or listen to a teacher, delve into this process completely. Don't look around, don't do unnecessary things at the same time.

2. Recall forgotten information on your own. Forgot your friend's address, the name of the actress? Don’t even think about looking in a reference book, dictionary or the Internet! Yes, it will be difficult to remember, but you try.

3. Learn poetry. Make it a rule to learn at least one poem every day. Even if it consists of four lines, it’s better than nothing. And when the whole family gathers at the table, you can tell it. Having trouble learning difficult poems? Find something for children. Do not ignore this method, as it helps train memory and thinking very well.

4. Always come up with associations for some images or phenomena. Let them be unusual, funny, funny: it will be more interesting for you.

5. Do you think that knitting and embroidery are the prerogative of older women? Well, no, you are wrong about that. You can’t even imagine how beneficial these activities are to the brain. Try beading and macramé too.

6. Read as much as possible. Give preference to serious literature. After finishing reading, write down the names of the characters and the plot on a piece of paper. A few lines will be enough. This is a wonderful memory exercise. This way you can keep the plots of many books in your head.

7. Remember: imagination can help you remember new information. There are people whose work requires them to keep large numbers in their memory. Do you know what their secret is? They actively use their imagination. For them, each number is a specific image. These can be objects, animals, flowers. For example, eight is a tumbler, one is a branch, two is a bird, six is ​​a castle. Some even make sentences in their minds with these images. For example, you need to remember the number - 222-18-00. You can come up with the following: three birds sitting on a branch noticed a tumbler chewing two dry nuts.

8. Learn foreign languages. Experts believe that this helps prevent senile dementia. And it trains your memory very well.

A few more ways

1. Engage in mental work. Stop being lazy, learn science, learn new things. You won’t notice how your memory will noticeably improve.

2. Develop your visual imagination. Of course, people are different: some people remember better what they read, while others remember what they hear.

But experts say that preference should be given to listening to information, and at this time you need to imagine the corresponding picture in your head. If you must read on your own, still imagine what is happening in the book.

3. Train your ears. Exercises aimed at improving it also develop the ability to remember. How to train auditory memory? The simplest thing: listen to monologues and memorize them.

4. Protect yourself from depression and negative emotions. Negative experiences and stress have a devastating effect on brain cells, and accordingly, memory becomes worse. Exercise has been proven to help relieve depression. Pay attention to running. Your mood will improve, and your brain will begin to work more productively.

5. Travel more, be interested in the hitherto unknown. Everything new, exciting and extraordinary attracts attention, inspires, and develops memory. You will have a taste for life, a desire to rejoice and create.

Training memory and attention

1. Come up with several associations for different words. Write them down and read them a couple of times. Try to remember them, then have someone check how you remember them.

2. Write down on a piece of paper several situations that could happen in life. Next, have an assistant read them out loud to you, and you try to imagine them in the form of images. Rest for a few minutes and then try to write down everything you imagined.

3. Are you interested in how to train an adult’s memory? Make it a rule to remember and scroll through your head the list of purchases in the supermarket, the patronymics of friends, the last names of colleagues, their birthdays, the faces of fellow travelers, their conversations, and so on. This will be beneficial for your brain. You will see: you will achieve results very soon.

4. When talking with a person, try to remember any little things. Look at what he is wearing, pay attention to his appearance, notice his features. By regularly performing this exercise, you won’t even notice how one day you will be able to memorize new information much faster and more efficiently.

An integrated approach is required - alternate training of hearing, thinking and memory. These methods are truly miraculous: they will develop your mental abilities in such a way that you will surprise yourself.

How to train a child's memory?

It is necessary to develop a baby’s memory literally from the first weeks of his life. Children are delighted with the fun exercises, and mom and dad cannot get enough of their child's success.

First you need to find out what type of perception the baby has. Experts have developed tests that can help with this. It is necessary to go through them with your child.

But you can practice all the methods at once if you have difficulties passing the test. Perhaps it will be even better this way. For example, show your child a photograph, tell him what is captured on it, and you can describe this object in an interesting way. Then you and your child can mold it out of plasticine or draw it.

What needs to be done to ensure that the baby’s memory is good?

So, for ease of perception, we will write everything down point by point.

1. Learn songs and poems by heart.

2. Ask your child to retell stories he has heard.

3. Show your child the object and let him draw it from memory. The child will probably enjoy this exercise, since training visual memory is very interesting.

4. Show photographs, captivatingly describing what is captured in them.

5. Guess riddles with your child.

6. Come up with fairy tales and interesting stories together.

7. Learn dances. Preference should be given to Russian folk ones.

It is also important to start teaching your child reading, basic mathematics and foreign languages ​​on time. The famous doctor Glenna Doman believes that by the age of seven, the child’s brain has already completed its formation. This means that up to this age one should very actively teach the child everything.

1. It is better to conduct classes when the child is cheerful, so he will have a more positive attitude towards learning.

2. Let learning be like a game, come up with something new every time.

3. Pay attention to what your baby is interested in. If, for example, he loves motorcycles, add and take them away, talk about the different brands and their production. If he likes birds, talk about them.

Now you know how to train your memory, what exercises to do and what to eat. Don't doubt yourself and you will succeed!

We have translated several important knowledge from scientific language into human language that will help you grow muscles as efficiently as possible.

We believe that almost everyone who reads fitness texts understands that exercise can increase both strength and muscle size. However, there is a clear difference between strength training and training aimed specifically at increasing muscle size.

How muscles grow

Weight training itself does not cause muscle growth. But the load received during training causes fatigue and stimulates physiological mechanisms, which, mainly during rest, cause the muscles to increase. Growth occurs as a result of an increase in the thickness of muscle fibers and the volume of fluid in muscle cells.

The ability to gain muscle mass depends on gender, age, weight training experience, genetics, quantity and quality of sleep, nutrition and fluid intake, and even stress levels can affect the ability to gain mass. For example, work overload or insufficient sleep can significantly reduce muscle growth, despite proper training and nutrition.

Mechanical and metabolic stress

There is no doubt that if you regularly and correctly lift iron, this leads to an increase in muscle volume and strength, however, scientists still have not decided what exactly causes muscle growth.

Training causes two specific types of stress: mechanical (microtears in the muscles - read more: "") and metabolic (triggering chemical repair processes due to the energy spent by the muscles), and they both can provide the necessary stimulus for muscle growth.

The challenge for research is that both mechanical and metabolic stress act in tandem, and isolating the effects of each separately on muscle growth is not easy.

"Slow" and "fast" muscle fibers

To design an exercise program to maximize muscle growth, you need to understand physiology.

There are two main types of muscle fibers: slow-twitch and fast-twitch. Fast-twitch fibers are larger in diameter than slow-twitch fibers and, accordingly, occupy a more prominent place in your muscles.

“Slow” fibers are also classified as aerobic, due to their high oxidative abilities, which enable them to contract for a long time. They are best suited for long-term activities that require minimal effort (such as long-distance running).

Fast-twitch muscle fibers have a high firing threshold as well as a high conduction velocity and are better suited for fast efforts (which is why sprinters look athletic compared to distance runners). In other words, these are the fibers you need to successfully jerk a heavy barbell.

Repeated effort method. If you want to grow, do sets to failure

It's not enough to just lift weights at high reps unless it causes muscle failure. The body stores and uses energy very efficiently, so repeating exercises with a constant load can limit the amount of mechanical (roughly speaking, they will tear badly) and metabolic stress (little growth hormones will be released) on the muscles and minimize the results of the workout.

Simply put, to maximize muscle growth, it is advisable to do exercises until muscle failure (I can’t do it anymore!)

3 types of training

Scientists Zatsiorsky and Kremer in 2006 identified three fundamental types of training: the maximum effort method, the dynamic effort method and the repeated effort method. The first two methods are good for their purposes, but are not the most effective for muscle growth.

1. Maximum effort method

This method uses significant weights to increase the activity of “fast” muscle fibers (which we wrote about in more detail above). Roughly speaking, the maximum effort method is associated with lifting the maximum possible weight (and therefore a small number of repetitions per set).

The main stimulus from the maximum effort method is mechanical (aimed at creating micro-tears in the muscles), myofibrillar hypertrophy with a significant increase in strength and a moderate increase in muscle mass.

The maximal effort method is effective for developing strength, but it is not the most effective means of increasing muscle mass.

2. Dynamic force method

Dynamic force training does not use maximum weight, but rather focuses on moving the weight as fast as possible to stimulate the motor units.

This method is most effective for increasing the rate of force development and contractile power required in many sports or dynamic activities. However, it does not provide enough mechanical or metabolic stress to the muscles needed to stimulate growth.

3. Repeated Effort Method

The repeated effort method does not involve maximum loads, but the need to do exercises until muscle failure occurs (when it is no longer possible to perform any further repetitions in the set).

The last few repetitions, which have to be done through the burn, can involve all the fibers in the target muscle into contraction and cause significant overload. When using the repeated effort method, slow motor units are activated at the beginning of the approach, and as they tire, the “fast” muscles will also be activated.

The repeated effort method of performing an exercise to failure is most effective for muscle growth, says science. It is important to work until failure. If the load is insufficient or the approach is not performed to failure, stimulation of the “fast” motor units (as you read above, they are the ones that mainly give volume to the muscles) does not occur or the necessary metabolic conditions that promote muscle growth are not created.

Sleep and recovery are just as important as training and nutrition itself.

Rest is the most underrated element of training. No matter how long you endured the pain of those last reps or how diligently you sourced protein and calories from your diet, it is not as important as the time it takes for nutrients and hormones to promote muscle protein synthesis after exercise.

Exercise and food are an important part of the muscle growth equation, but they're not the whole story. Adequate recovery is very important - it is necessary to give the muscles enough time to replenish glycogen stores and undergo the processes of reconstruction and creation of new muscle tissue.

The recovery required for muscle growth is 48–72 hours between training sessions for a particular muscle group. This scientific argument, by the way, speaks in favor of split training - when each muscle group receives the main load, for example, once a week.

Inducing mechanical and metabolic stress during your gym training will only make sense while the hormones and substances necessary for muscle growth are released during REM sleep. This means that a full night’s sleep is important for muscle growth after training. Inadequate sleep and recovery will ruin your efforts in the gym and at the dinner table. Moreover, lack of sleep can increase adrenaline and cortisol levels, which can also reduce the ability to form new muscle tissue.

Lack of sleep, poor appetite, long-term illnesses, and loss of growth as a result of exercise are all symptoms of overexertion that can significantly impact a person's ability to achieve their fitness goals.

“Underrecovery” is another reason to think about overexertion. “To promote muscle growth, you need time for rest (active rest) to allow for full recovery,” says Schoenfeld (2013).

Training program for gaining muscle mass

Number of repetitions

Science suggests that for maximum muscle growth, select the weight so that you do 8-12 repetitions until muscle failure - it’s good that almost every trainer in the gym seems to know this simple fact. True, now, unlike you, not everyone knows why exactly.

Amount of rest between sets

Short to moderate rests between sets (30 seconds to 2 minutes) can cause significant metabolic stress.

Number of approaches in each exercise

According to scientists, performing 3-4 approaches provides the most effective mechanical tension for all muscles involved.

Travel speed

Scientists recommend performing movements with maximum effort faster - 1-2 seconds (for example, lifting a barbell), and the eccentric phase of the exercise (for example, lowering a barbell) for a longer period (2-6 seconds). Slower execution of the eccentric phase is necessary to ensure sufficient mechanical tension - it is this “easier” phase of movement that is most important for muscle growth. “From a hypertrophy perspective, eccentric contraction has a greater impact on muscle development. In particular, eccentric exercise has been associated with greater increases in protein synthesis” (Schoenfeld, 2010).

Free weights or machines

Scientist Schoenfeld argues that each type of resistance plays a role in optimal muscle growth: "Free weights, which involve a large number of muscles, help increase muscle density, while the stabilization provided by machines allows for greater loading of individual muscles."

Preparing for serious training

When training for muscle growth with a large metabolic and mechanical effect, it can cause serious muscle damage and is recommended for people with at least one year of training experience.

It is necessary to start with a dynamic warm-up, loading the core muscles (abs, stabilizer muscles and others) to prepare the muscle tissue for the stress of high-volume training.

Exercise order

It is preferable to start training with complex movements with free weights to engage the maximum number of muscles (for example, squats with a barbell, deadlifts are best done at the beginning of training), and during the course of the session gradually move on to machines that affect individual muscles.

Extreme exercise

The last exercise in each workout must be performed in a weight-loss machine: after all repetitions of the approach to failure, the weight is reduced and the maximum possible number of repetitions must be done with it until failure.

Weight loss approaches can cause significant mechanical and metabolic stress, as well as significant discomfort, and should be performed at the end of the session.

It is important to dose the load that is necessary for you, because “overload” can be no less harmful to muscle growth than “underload”. For example, in the program recommended by scientists for muscle growth (see below), cardio load is limited. According to Schoenfeld, "too much energy expenditure can reduce muscle growth."

The exercise program presented below is based on the latest scientific research related to increasing muscle mass.

Attention: RM – repeated maximum

Day 4. Rest or low-intensity cardio exercise

Sometimes life depends on the speed of reaction, but even without extreme conditions, the ability to quickly respond to external events will be useful. Activate your reactions and your movements will become coordinated and precise.

Responsiveness is the brain's ability to quickly respond to external stimuli. Reaction speed is the time that passes from the moment of action of an external stimulus to the body’s reaction to it.

First, our senses perceive a stimulus and react to it: nerve impulses are transmitted from receptors (nerve endings) to the cerebral cortex. Here signal recognition, processing, classification and evaluation take place. Then the zone that controls body movements is connected, and the muscles are included in the work. Each such stage takes time.

All people have different reaction speeds. There are also extremes when the behavior of some resembles slow motion, while the reaction of others is lightning fast. For example, the Japanese secretary Miit puts 100 stamps in one minute. The fastest shooter in the world, J. Miculek, fires 5 shots from a revolver in half a second. Japanese Makisumi solves a Rubik's cube in 12.5 seconds.

It is curious that the fastest muscle reaction is in cold-blooded animals. For example, a palm salamander, having noticed a prey, throws out its tongue at a speed of 15 m per second. Mongooses have a quick reaction - thanks to it they have earned the reputation of the best snake hunters. Our beloved cats also have lightning-fast reactions.

For a person, a quick reaction, it would seem, has lost its former vital importance: he no longer needs to quickly dodge the paws of wild animals so as not to be eaten, or, conversely, hunt for them so as not to be left without lunch.

However, it would be a mistake to think that a quick reaction is of no use to us. It is necessary for athletes - football players, hockey players, tennis players, boxers, judokas, etc. And not only in order to set records, but also to avoid injuries. Quick reactions are required by representatives of many professions - pilots, drivers, captains, machinists, surgeons, etc. People with quick reactions are also preferred by many employers, for example in areas where it is necessary to quickly respond to market changes.

In fact, everyone needs a quick reaction in order to protect themselves as much as possible on the street and at home: to behave correctly in a critical situation that poses a threat to health or life.

Reaction speed is measured in ms - milliseconds. 1 second is 1,000 ms. The smaller this value is, the higher the reaction rate will be. For most people it is 230–270 ms. Indicators of 270 ms and above indicate a slow reaction. Fighter pilots and sports stars show results of 150 – 170 ms.

The fastest response occurs in people between approximately 18 and 40 years of age. Its speed increases in the middle of the day - during the period of highest performance. In a tired person it decreases. This may not be noticeable if the work does not require quick reactions, but when performing complex actions, the possibility of making a mistake increases.

The reaction also slows down under the influence of alcohol and drugs. In addition, a person’s mental state matters: negative emotions depress nervous activity, which adversely affects his reactions, while positive emotions significantly accelerate them.

The type of stimulus also affects the speed of reaction: people react fastest to tactile and sound stimuli, somewhat slower to visual ones.

How to become faster

There are several ways to learn to respond faster:

1. Keep your brain busy

In older people, the processing of information entering the brain from the senses slows down. This happens for various reasons, including because most of them stop studying, do not strive to learn new things and do not want to leave their usual comfort zone. Idleness, watching meaningless programs that do not force the brain to strain, trigger the process of personality degradation, which also affects the speed of reaction.

To prevent the brain from atrophying over time, you need to constantly load it with work, set new tasks for it, and then you won’t have to complain about a slow reaction.

2. Eliminate bad habits

A person who has, as they say, “overindulged” has the false impression that under the influence of drinking he becomes more relaxed, free and is able to concentrate and control his behavior. But practice shows the opposite: due to the lack of quick reaction, drunk people very often become victims of crimes and participants in accidents.

3. Get enough sleep

It is impossible to constantly be in a state of maximum focus and concentration. A failure will certainly occur when we are unable to respond to danger in time. Therefore, periods of concentration should alternate with periods of relaxation. And proper sleep is a great opportunity to give the nervous system a “reboot” and replenish its energy reserves. In addition, with a lack of sleep, visual acuity decreases, which also negatively affects the speed of reactions.

4. Controlling emotions

First of all, you need to learn not to give in to fear. On the one hand, fear signals danger. On the other hand, it does not mobilize a person, but inhibits the process of information processing in the brain. Many people are familiar with the feeling when, in moments of danger, a person feels as if paralyzed and unable to move. His reactions are slow and he is unable to give an adequate response. It is possible to react correctly and quickly to a stimulus only in a state of absence of fear.

Thanks to special training that carries a semantic load, that is, simulating danger in real life, you can get rid of some fears and acquire quick response skills that will be useful in a difficult situation.

For example, the sound of a click made by a partner can imitate a gunshot and serve as a signal to quickly jump to the side, duck down, or fall to the ground. The effect must be sudden - we must not control the stimulus, that is, the actions of our partner.

A pre-developed “plan” will help you get rid of fear, in particular falling on ice. For example, when falling on our back, we must quickly press our chin to our chest so as not to injure our head. In this case, we can replay our actions mentally. This will speed up our reaction, so that if we do fall, we will avoid injury.

5. Let's play

Games of football, volleyball, table tennis and tennis are great for developing quick reactions, so you should choose the one you like and start playing. You can practice juggling.

It is interesting that computer games also improve reaction speed, as scientists from one of the American universities have proven. During the experiment, players showed high results in quick decision-making not only in the game itself, but also in tests to determine reaction speed.

6. Let's train

Exercises will be advisable only if you do them daily, and not from time to time.

Our subconscious, intuitive reactions (the right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for them) are faster than the conscious, analytical ones, which are controlled by the left hemisphere. The huge role of the latter is undoubted, but at critical moments the subconscious is the first to react. And since it is the one that responds to the stimulus first, you can train your reaction speed by repeating the same movements many times – up to 200 at a time.

When starting training, it is worth deciding what exactly we will increase the reaction speed to: hearing, touch or visual stimulus. At first it is better to separate them, and only then train them all together.

We train the speed of auditory reaction. For example, two people are sitting at a table where some object lies. The third one walks around them and suddenly claps his hands. At this signal, everyone should try to be the first to grab this object.

We train the speed of reaction to touch. The one who is training should not see his trainer (you can blindfold him). One person is sitting at the table, the second, whom he does not see, should suddenly touch him on the shoulder. In response, he should clap his hands, jump to the side, etc.

We train the speed of visual reaction. This is very important because most information enters the brain through vision.

A game of firecrackers. The two stand opposite each other, both have their arms bent at the elbows and raised, palms facing their partner. One strikes the palm of the other with his palm. His task is to guess and remove in time the hand that his partner wants to hit.

Alternatively, both hands lie on the table in front of you. Each person takes turns trying to cover the other’s hand with one hand, and the other must have time to pull it away.

By the way, many people are familiar with these games from childhood.

But, of course, the most effective way to increase your reaction speed is to take up team sports, tennis or martial arts.