14 years on Strava, Personal Bests and keeping your brain healthy
It's all about the intensity!
One of my wife’s (single) friends recently shared a question she was asked on a first date: “Are you on Strava?”
I suppose it makes sense as a way of profiling interests in common but - and maybe this just dates me - still, I was surprised. However, I guess I shouldn’t have been. Strava has been around since 2009 and so is now very well established with 135 million users across over 190 countries (the total of paid susbcriptions is a more tightly held metric).
I joined Strava in 2011, so next year will be my 15th anniversary. I came across it when talking to colleagues in San Francisco who were early users and it sounded like fun and clever tech. I didn’t join Strava for the community aspect of it although I introduced a number of people to it in the early days. I joined simply to track the data from my bike rides, and the app has come on leaps and bounds since those early versions.
One core feature of Strava is personal bests (PBs), not just across whole ride or run routes but also segments within them. Matching or, even better, beating PBs has been a fun and motivational part of training, especially on a favourite hill or sprint segment.
In my head I’m still 26, not 56. That same level of denial is applied to personal bests. “Whadya mean I can’t ride as fast as I did 20 years ago?!”
The body is a Judas sometimes. But that got me to thinking about the importance of PBs as we get older.
Exercise and cognitive decline
The original motivation for this blog was driven by my desire to better understand the risk factors associated with my father’s cognitive decline (Alzheimer’s, in his case) and what I could do - to the extent it’s possible to do so - to minimise them.
Research into exercise and any protection it may provide against cognitive decline - as well as a treatment for those people already suffering - is growing at a rapid click with a 2.5 fold increase in the last decade.
This research shows compelling evidence that exercise has beneficial effects and the conclusions point to several mechanisms by which this happens:
Increased neuroplasticity and brain function - exercise can increase the size of the hippocampus (especially aerobic exercise) and improve the brain’s ability to change and adapt as we age
Enhanced neurogenesis - exercise promotes the growth of new neurons and synapses
Increased neuroprotective factors - such as BDNF (a protein that supports neuron survival and plasticity) and reduced inflammation and oxidative stress
Vascular and metabolic benefits - exercise of any time will increase blood flow to the brain and strength training has been shown to improve memory, focus and function
So why are PBs helpful?
One study found that optimal BDNF production can result from aerobic exercise at 60-70% of max heart rate for 30-40 mins, 3-4 times a week.
The generally accepted formula for calculating max heart rate is (220 - your age) so for me, at 56, it would be 164. Women tend to have a slightly lower max heart rate but their heart rates also tend to decline more slowly than men as they age.
60-70% of 164 = 98 to 115 beat per minute
This is a range where you should be able to hold a conversation while exercising, be that riding a bike, jogging etc. [Please don’t try holding a conversation if you’re a swimmer…..] To be clear, it’s not walking - even at a brisk pace - which would typically get you into a materially lower heart rate range (unless you have a lot of hills). Walking at lower levels is great for recovery but it’s not what we are seeking to do for this purpose.
Additionally, strength training also has beneficial effects but targets the brain through different mechanisms to aerobic exercise. Strength or resistance training targets executive function and frontal lobe health. Moreover, strength training has been shown to slow cognitive decline where it’s already present in ad individual. [An interesting aside - strength training was the fastest growing sport type among women in 2024 with a 25% increase in uploads - which is great news]
In other words you need to do both types of exercise [see my SAFR post for how to structure this].
However, turning it up a notch can have a profoundly positive impact.
Two research papers in particular (but among many) showed that high intensity interval training (HIIT) may be better for maintaining cognitive abilities and perhaps reducing the risk of dementia.
In fact, one study in Aging and Disease highlighted that “importantly, improvement was retained for at least 5 years following the initiation of HIIT, suggesting that the changes seen in hippocampal volume and connectivity (following the inception of the exercise regimen) underpin this long term maintenance”.
Rhonda Patrick (and I’d encourage anyone to follow her research dissemination) recently shared some additional insights in a podcast with Rich Roll which pointed to findings that you can significantly reverse the impact of aging on the heart through HIIT. See the video for more.
Another study found that just 6 minutes of high intensity exercise drove BDNF so if you don’t have time for the steady state aerobic sessions then a bout of HIIT may well do the trick. HIIT has also been found to improve blood flow to the brain more than steady state, especially in older adults.
So, to answer the question I posed earlier, PBs are essentially a way of pushing you to perform at a higher intensity whether that is part of a HIIT programme or just pushing yourself that bit harder to get your intensity level up in a non-HIIT session.
I know that I will generally be unable to improve on the PBs I have set over the last 15 years. On a day when I am well fuelled, well rested, and the stars align (and Brentford wins the Premier League) I might be able to beat one. [Actually, I did recently beat a 4 year standing PB - although Brentford lost their legendary manager that same week].
However, generally it’s not going to happen.
But - and this is the point, for me at least - the fact that I can get close to them indicates to me that I am, more than likely, slowing down the rate of performance decline as I get older and hopefully that’s helping to protect my brain health as much as possible.
For the £1 a week I spend on Strava Premium (equivalent of the annual subscription price in the UK) I consider that money bloody well spent. And maybe Brentford will win the league this season…?