If I'm stuck, I go for a walk and DING!  The answer presents itself.  If I'm feeling offensive/aggresive I ride my bicycle and concentrate on form and flowing with whatever comes my way.  When I'm stressed I put a pack on my back and hike and camp or sleep in the backyard.( I live in the frozen tundra of the midwest)

Many studies have shown that moving the body while memorizing a pattern is the strongest connection for decreasing chances of dementia, etc.  So dance, is excellent.  I've been teaching Jazzercise for 23 years and have students in their 70's and 80's who still remember to come to class!!!  Something's working here!!  

Although there may be a link, it is not necessarily that exercise CAUSES these effects on intelligence.  It could be that people who are able to exercise in certain ways have certain levels of intelligence, and both of these could be caused by something else entirely.  When two things are positively correlated doesn't mean that one causes the other.  This type of wooly thinking can lead us to wrong conclusions.  Why not conclude being intelligent makes people fitter?

Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method, was a genius - photographic recall, deeply knowledgeable in multiple disciplines, with degrees in physics, mechanical engineering. As a practitioner of his method I've always felt it improved intelligence, as do many others involved with the Method, but not necessarily in the obvious ways like improved blood circulation to the brain etc.

Some hints can be found in a few popular Feldenrkais sayings....

....exercise is doing over and over what you already know how to do

....the body is the brain....Einstein said he did put anything on paper until he first felt it in his body

....never read a book that you can easily understand. Books like that are written by men who have read many books and write another one based on all that they have read. You already know it, they are just saying it in a fresh way. You waste time reading such books. 99% of the books in a library are like that. Very few original contributions by original thinkers, where the material came from silence, from non verbal thinking, from insight, not thought.

....To make an original contribution, you need to learn to think without words, without linear thinking which is very slow and cumbersome - and this is not necessarily difficult, it is how pre-verbal babies experience the world - and those little guys are doing a LOT of movement exploration, which is what Feldenkrais works with, primarily.

...a quiet cortex will allow you to meet the present moment without baggage from the past

...you can only be as creative and intelligent as your tightest unconscious muscle

....no moment is the same as any other, and our body organization and brain state likewise must be malleable enough to respond appropriately. No amount of learning about the past, reading books, degrees, etc will give you that. The question becomes, what does?

True intelligence is to know what to do, do it at the right time, in the right way

The PACE program by Dr. Sears is tremendous!  I highly recommend it.

Marie

Feldenkrais also said, as neurologists confirm today, that the electrical activity in the brain - 95% or more of it is related to human movement - proprioception, balance, counterbalance, visual orientation, anticipation of effects of movement on balance and position in space, neurological inhibition, coordination, etc. It is vastly complex. The conclusion the Feldenkrais drew was that to think of improving intelligence, or intuition, or physical health, or whatever, without working with human movement would be to ignore the most important tool at your disposal: the BRAIN.

Further, Feldenkrais taught that how babies learn - it is awesome, they can learn multiple languages, emotional intelligence, they learn how to move, sit, stand and walk which involves an almost inconceivably hugh amount of learning - is something we can use to improve our own learning. So, in the Feldenkrais work we create the same conditions in which a healthy baby learns - (and this would describe the optimal learning kind of exercise, which is the same as Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement): comfort nicely balanced with challenge,  lots of slow unhurried movement (but not to the exclusion of fast or other types of movement), non goal directed movement, never try your best, explore, pay attention to your support, keep your attention free to do, sense or feel whatever is appropriate (don't fix it with will), stop whenever you want to rest, don't do a movement if you don't like it, be playful, yet present. Most exercise systems violate this "baby credo" in multiple ways. If you ever actually experience an hour of such movement (which takes a trained teacher to create such an environment, since it is SO different than yoga or any other kind of exercise) afterwards you feel brain tingles - something nice happened, and not just to the "body". This is called Awareness Through Movement and there are classes available if you search for them.  

Try Russian Kettlebells!  I use them and look how smart me is.  For every 1,000 Turkish get-ups, you gain 1 IQ point.

Seriously, many (if not most) kettlebell drills require that you concentrate or you may end up getting brained by the big piece of cast iron you are holding over your head.  They also have the wonderful trait of working the body both in resistance and aerobically at the same time.

Dr. M has mentioned using Dragon Door/Pavel products in the past, but also check out Art of Strength by Anthony Diluglio.

When we visited China, i noticed that in addition to seeing ppl doing tai chi outside, some individuals take a stroll, walking backwards, with their heads turned back so they could see where they were going.

When i asked about this,  i was told it is considered good exercise for the brain.

It could be that exercise relaxes the mind and body, so that solutions filter to the top, and are more easily identified.

However, don't give up on weight training, for strengthing the bones and muscles.

Swimming away from a shark provides a great cardio workout and it also does wonders for your gratitude receptors in the brain.

The best aerobic exercise I know is - SEX!  I do think I'm smarter because of it (haha).

I have been teaching exercise classes for 29 years and currently I teach a very advanced step class 3 times a week that challenges me more mentally sometimes than physcially.  My brain feels worked out and amazing when I'm done.  My students also tell me they have to focus more mentally when they take a class that's just as mental as it is physcial.  Awesome stuff!!

I have many 'aha' moments while walking... but I also get them while I'm riding my elliptical, and while I'm working out with weights. But if I'm stressed, lifting weights surpasses everything else in easing my tension!

When my kids need to memorize something, they bounce on the trampoline or jump rope at the same time.  So, I do not agree with the stairmaster/studying study.  

But, if you really want to pump up the brain, look into BrainGym.  

These simple exercises connect the body & brain in record time!