--- title: People Who Exercise May Have Bigger Brains description: A new study shows people with good physical fitness in midlife had bigger brains 20 years later compared with their peers. canonical: https://time.com/collections/guide-to-exercise/4215695/fitness-brain-size/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-10T21:00:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:13:04.597Z article:section: Health og:title: People Who Exercise May Have Bigger Brains og:description: A new study shows people with good physical fitness in midlife had bigger brains 20 years later compared with their peers. og:url: https://time.com/collections/guide-to-exercise/4215695/fitness-brain-size/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62cdf085affcab74/6988d4724ee26241fe30e01d/time-magazine-exercise-fitness-health-bethan-mooney-11.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: People Who Exercise May Have Bigger Brains og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Who Exercise May Have Bigger Brains twitter:description: A new study shows people with good physical fitness in midlife had bigger brains 20 years later compared with their peers. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62cdf085affcab74/6988d4724ee26241fe30e01d/time-magazine-exercise-fitness-health-bethan-mooney-11.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Feb 10, 2016 # People Who Exercise May Have Bigger Brains > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin  Bethan Mooney for TIME Here’s good motivation to get up and move more, even in the dead of winter: a new study published in the journal _Neurology_ found that people who weren’t as physically active in midlife had smaller brains than their peers 20 years later. In the new study, the researchers looked at 1,583 men and women who didn’t have dementia or [heart disease](http://time.com/3709816/moderate-exercise-is-best/). They worked out on a treadmill to assess their fitness levels. Then, 20 years later, the people in the study did another treadmill fitness test and had brain scans. **Read More:** [_The Best Way to Survive a Heart Attack Without Drugs Is Exercise_](http://time.com/4201850/heart-attack-drugs-exercise/) The brain scans revealed that people with a lower exercise capacity — defined as the amount of time people could exercise on the treadmill before their heart rate hit a certain threshold — in midlife were more likely to have smaller brains years later, compared with people who had high fitness levels in middle age. They also found that people whose blood pressure and heart rate went up more during exercise were more likely to have smaller brains down the line. Higher-than-average blood pressure and heart-rate spikes could indicate a lack of physical fitness. People in the study only had brain scans at the end of the trial, which means the researchers couldn’t say whether their brains had gotten smaller over time. But past research has shown that [exercise makes the brain better able to combat cognitive decline](http://time.com/3968683/exercise-treatment-for-alzheimers/). It’s not yet known at what point in life exercise is most critical for brain volume, the authors say. “We are not able to tell from our study whether fitness in midlife or later life matters more,” says study author Nicole Spartano, a postdoctoral fellow at the Boston University School of Medicine. “In future studies I would like to explore this distinction, to see whether one is more important than the other. 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