Your Brain on Exercise
Overview About the Author

Your Brain on Exercise

Fitness professionals have the opportunity to join allied health professionals in addressing cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This session will review the research on how certain exercise modalities can deferentially affect the brain, and provide an initial framework for the assessment and programming of cognitive health within exercise programs.

Ryan Glatt

Ryan Glatt is a Certified Personal Trainer and a National Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach with over a decade of experience. He currently practices brain-based strategies for cognitive enhancement at the Pacific Brain Health Center in Santa Monica, California in both clinical and research settings. Ryan constantly seeks to learn about health neuroscience research and practical strategies in both health coaching and personal training contexts. Ryan has pursued education from the Amen Clinics, The BrainFirst Training Institute, the Neuroscience Academy, and the Academy for Brain Health & Performance. He has completed the Master's of Applied Neuroscience program at King's College of London. He is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Leadership: Health & Human Performance at Concordia University of Chicago. He has worked with a wide variety of populations with various neurological considerations, including those with MCI, dementia, TBI, and Parkinson's. Ryan focuses his practice and research on slowing cognitive decline for those with cognitive complaints and those who want to prevent neurodegenerative conditions. He actively consults for technology companies that seek to enhance physical activity with cognitive training through Virtual Reality, mobile technology, and various hardware/software applications. Recently, Ryan has released the Brain Health Trainer course, which is the first comprehensive course to be released on the topic of brain health and exercise. The course has already enrolled over 1,000+ health and fitness professionals. Ryan continues to work to distill neuroscience research into the fitness and health industries in hopes of preparing them to play a role in slowing the global burden of cognitive decline.
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Learning Objectives


  1. Describe how cardiovascular, resistance, motor, multicomponent and dual-task exercise training can benefit the brain.
  2. Apply exercise programming strategies for both specific and general brain-health outcomes.
  3. Identify the neurobiological mechanisms through which the brain benefits from exercise.
  4. Define dual tasking and how it can improve both functional and cognitive outcomes in the brain.
  5. Identify the neurobiological mechanisms involved in dual-task exercise.

Course Procedure

  1. Enroll in the course.
  2. View the course content.
  3. Take the test. (You must score 80% to pass. If you do not pass, you may retake the test.)
  4. Print your certificate of completion.

Course Content

  • Your Brain on Exercise
  • Your Brain on Exercise - Handout
  • Your Brain on Exercise

Available Course Credits

ACTION0.2
ACSM2
AFPA2
AFAA2
BCRPA2
CHEK2
FAI/ISSA2
IFPA2
NASM0.2
NAFTA2
NAFC0.2
NCEP2
NCCPT2
NCSF1
NESTA0.2
NETA2
NFPT0.4
NIEW0.2
NSPA2