Typically when we hear "neuroplasticity," we imagine neural excitability, circulating signaling mechanisms, and connectivity. Neurobiological and biochemical, for sure, but maybe not mechanical changes. Yet movement is a fundamental property of being an animal, and the movement itself may help reinforce moving about.

Way back when I was doing my Ph.D., I was in a seminar on neuroplasticity. One of the other trainees asked the professor an interesting question—how elastic is the spinal cord? Obviously, lots of spinal cord injuries arise from exceeding biological limits, but they went on to explain that they wondered how the spinal cord got longer as we grew up from childhood and how we are able to bend and twist the way we do. It was an interesting question with very little data to explain what was obvious—there's a link between our activity and the physical properties of our nervous system.

Similarly, when we think of the benefits of physical exercise, the first things that may come to mind........

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