"Brain Endurance Training (BET), a combined cognitive and exercise approach, has been shown to significantly improve cognitive and physical performance in older adults."
That grabbed my attention.
Another day finding my way on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route with paper maps. And I thought I was just out for a ride. (image by Paul Brasby) |
As I understand from a rudimentary reading of some published reports, BET is an approach to exercise both the brain and the rest of the body in a structured, complementary training program. This can be achieved with separate mental and physical workouts, but also with cognitively fatiguing tasks during demanding physical workouts. Although developed for elite athletes, it recently has been shown to apply more broadly, including to those in the MediCare race category.
One report summarized BET as follows:
"BET's core principle revolves around using cognitive stress as a catalyst for a broad spectrum of physiological adaptions, extending beyond mere task efficiency to encompass increased mental resilience, enhanced decision-making capabilities under fatigue, and overall physical endurance."
"Brain endurance training is not merely about getting better at specific cognitive tasks. Instead, it's about expanding an athlete's cognitive and physical capabilities, enabling them to perform at higher levels, with less perceived effort, and make better decisions under fatigue. The misconception that improvement in task performance is equivalent to athletic enhancement misses the core objective of BET: to forge athletes who can outlast and outperform their competitors by cultivating a more resilient and capable neural engine." Understanding BET: It's Not About Task Mastery, It's About Capacity Expansion, Soma Technologies, March 21, 2024.
Wow.
What gravel cyclist/bikepacker does not want to increase mental resilience, decision-making capabilities under fatigue, and physical endurance?
I read one example of BET training as solving mathematical problems during an endurance bicycle ride at 80-85 percent effort. That sounds to me like most any gravel race of 100-200 miles or more, especially when navigating by cue sheets. Or most any day bikepacking remote roads and trails, when navigating by paper maps.
From riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, navigating only with paper maps and an odometer, I know that both physical and mental resilience improved significantly over the course of seven challenging weeks. Here's what I wrote shortly afterward:
"Working through a difficult first two weeks, I eventually found my rhythm and rode stronger, longer, higher, and faster as the weeks passed, even as the roads and conditions deteriorated significantly in New Mexico. At the end I believed I could have continued to ride even stronger for many, many more weeks." The Great Divide - Believe, BlackHillsBackBone.blogspot.com, April 5, 2022.
This merits more research.
In the meantime, I'll keep riding with those paper maps.
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