Neuroplasticity After 50: Your Brain Deserves More Than Crossword Puzzles
Updated: Sep 10
Apparently, once you turn 50, society quietly begins preparing you for crossword puzzles, word searches, and Sudoku to keep the mind sharp. Maybe a nice game of Scrabble if everyone is feeling adventurous. And to be fair, there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these things. They all challenge memory, language, reasoning, and pattern recognition.
But somewhere along the way, we seem to have developed the idea that keeping the brain healthy after 50 primarily involves sitting at a table, “talking story” and trying to remember a six-letter word for “ancient Mesopotamian ruler.” I think we can aim a little higher. Why? Because neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to reorganize itself, strengthen neural pathways, and adapt through experience - doesn’t suddenly disappear when AARP begins sending you mail. Our brains continue responding to what we ask of them well beyond our 50s. And one of the best things we can ask them to do is something new.
Neuroplasticity Is Not Just About Memory
When people hear the words brain health, they often immediately think about memory.
Can I remember names? Where did I put my keys? Why did I walk into this room?
And yes, memory matters. But your brain does considerably more than remember where your reading glasses are on a good day. The brain coordinates movement, interprets visual information, controls balance, learns patterns, solves problems, and connects what you see with what your body needs to do next.
So if we want to challenge the brain as we grow older, perhaps we should think beyond traditional “brain games.” We should give ourselves experiences that require us to learn, move, adapt, coordinate, concentrate, and occasionally look slightly ridiculous while figuring something out.
I Took Up FPV Drone Flying
Within the past year, I decided to learn how to fly FPV drones. FPV stands for first-person view. Rather than simply watching the drone from the ground, the pilot wears goggles and sees what the drone sees through an onboard camera. The experience feels considerably less like operating a camera drone and considerably more like suddenly discovering that your consciousness has been inserted into a very small aircraft. And then someone gives you two tiny joysticks and wishes you luck. The first thing I discovered was that knowing where I wanted the drone to go and convincing my thumbs to make it go there were two completely different things.
My brain would say:
Turn left. My thumb would apparently respond:
Excellent suggestion. How about straight into that bush instead?
But this is precisely what makes learning something like FPV interesting from a neuroplasticity standpoint. The brain is being forced to develop a new relationship between vision, spatial awareness, prediction, movement, reaction time, and fine motor control. You aren’t simply thinking. You are learning to translate perception into movement in real time. With practice, movements that initially require tremendous concentration gradually become more natural. Your hands begin responding almost automatically to what your eyes are seeing. That's learning. And underneath that learning, your nervous system is adapting.
The Brain Likes a Challenge
One of the important ingredients of neuroplasticity appears to be challenge. Not overwhelming difficulty or frustration for the sake of frustration. But enough difficulty that your brain cannot simply operate on autopilot. Think about learning to ride a bicycle. At first, almost everything requires conscious attention: Balance, pedaling, steering, looking ahead and not running into the mailbox. Eventually, most of those processes become automatic. The brain has learned the task. This is why doing something you already know how to do is valuable - but learning something new may provide an entirely different kind of stimulus. That doesn’t mean everyone over 50 needs to purchase an FPV drone. However, it does mean we should deliberately continue placing ourselves in situations where we are beginners.
Learn Something You Are Bad At
One of my favorite neuroplasticity exercises is simply engaging in something you currently don’t know how to do:
Learn a language, take piano lessons, try photography, learn chess, take a dance or martial arts class, pick up a musical instrument, or yes - learn to fly something through the air while wearing goggles. The activity itself isn’t necessarily the most important part.
The important ingredients are:
Novelty.
Attention.
Repetition.
Increasing difficulty.
Active participation.
Watching fifty videos about playing guitar doesn’t mean you’ve learned to play guitar. Eventually, you have to pick up the guitar. The brain changes through experience.
Move Your Body
Another mistake is separating brain health from physical health. The brain is part of the body. Physical activity supports cardiovascular health, circulation, coordination, metabolic health, and numerous processes associated with healthy brain function.
Walking is excellent. But occasionally make the walk more interesting. Take a different route.
Notice landmarks. Try remembering the route. Walk on varied terrain if it is safe for you.
Instead of simply moving through the environment, begin observing it. Now your brain is navigating, balancing, remembering, interpreting, and adapting while your body is moving.
Strength Train
Strength training becomes increasingly important as we age. Maintaining muscle supports mobility, independence, balance, and overall health. But resistance training also requires communication between the brain, nervous system, and muscles. Learning proper technique is itself a neurological process.
Your brain learns:
How much force is required?
Which muscles need to activate?
How do I stabilize this movement?
Where is my body positioned in space?
While there's no need to become a powerlifter at 57, bodyweight movements, resistance bands, dumbbells, machines, and functional exercises can all create useful physical and neurological challenges.
Practice Coordination
Coordination is one of the most underrated forms of brain training. Try activities like:
Dancing
Boxing combinations
Tai chi
Yoga
Pickleball (Yes - Pickleball😏)
Swimming
Playing “catch”
And just about anything that involves learning new movement sequences
Think about what happens when you learn a boxing combination: Jab. Cross. Hook. Slip. Cross. At first, you consciously think about every movement, but eventually, the sequence flows. Something has changed and it's not just in your muscles. Your nervous system learned the pattern.
Make Familiar Things Unfamiliar
You don’t need an entirely new hobby every month. Sometimes simply disrupting routine is enough to get the job done.
Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand.
Take another route home.
Cook something unfamiliar.
Move your computer mouse to the opposite hand.
Listen to music from another culture.
Visit somewhere you’ve never been.
Learn five words in another language.
Change the sequence of your workout.
The point is not to make life unnecessarily difficult - there are plenty of factors in our lives already working on that. The point is to occasionally interrupt the automation that we've unconciously adapted. When something becomes unfamiliar, the brain has to pay attention again.
Practice Remembering
Our phones have become remarkably good at remembering things for us.
Phone numbers, appointments, birthdays, directions, passwords, and even where we parked.
Technology is useful, but occasionally, try and make your brain retrieve information before reaching for a device.
Memorize a short poem.
Learn a few lines of something meaningful.
Remember your grocery list.
Recall yesterday’s activities in chronological order.
Learn someone’s phone number.
Try remembering directions before opening GPS.
The act of retrieving information is itself exercise for the brain.
One of the best cognitive exercises requires no equipment whatsoever -
Talk to people.
Preferably people who occasionally know something you don’t. A meaningful conversation requires listening, interpreting, remembering, choosing language, reading social cues, considering alternative viewpoints, and responding appropriately. Talk with someone younger or someone older. Talk with someone from another culture. Talk with someone whose profession you know nothing about. Ask questions and stay curious.
A curious mind rarely becomes a stagnant one.
Meditate
Neuroplasticity doesn’t always require more stimulation. Sometimes the challenge is learning to direct attention intentionally.
Sit quietly.
Notice your breathing.
Eventually your mind wanders.
You realize it wandered.
Then you return.
That return is the practice.
Meditation isn’t about maintaining perfect concentration. It is about repeatedly noticing where your attention has gone and deliberately bringing it back.
Again.
And again.
You are practicing attention and presence itself. Five minutes is enough to begin.
Combine the Brain and the Body
Some of the most interesting exercises require both physical and cognitive effort.
Walk while naming animals alphabetically.
Throw a ball between your hands while counting backward.
Learn a choreographed dance
Navigate a new hiking trail.
Play a sport requiring reaction and strategy.
Or fly an FPV drone.
These aren’t merely intellectual exercises. They require the brain to communicate with the body while interpreting a changing environment. That makes them wonderfully complex.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be a Beginner Again
Reflecting on my own life, I suspect this very well may be the most important part, and I almost overlooked it - As we age, we tend to gravitate toward familiarity. We do what we know. We associate with people we understand and we develop routines.There is definitely comfort in mastery. But neuroplasticity may invite us to occasionally move in the opposite direction. Toward uncertainty. Toward curiosity. Toward something we haven’t mastered yet. Toward being a beginner. Because when you’re learning FPV at an age when society apparently expects you to be working on a 1,000-piece landscape puzzle, something interesting happens. You begin reminding yourself that learning isn’t something you used to do. It’s something you still do.
Your Brain Is Still Becoming
Maybe the goal after 50 shouldn’t simply be preserving the person we’ve already become. Maybe we should continue creating the person we’re becoming.
Do something occasionally that makes your brain say: “Wait…we’ve never done this before!" And then give it time to figure it out. Because growing older does not mean becoming neurologically irrelevant. You are not required to quietly retire from curiosity. And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with crossword puzzles, your brain is capable of considerably more than figuring out 17-Across. Give it something new to become good at.
The brain is still listening.
The brain is still learning.
And you are still becoming.
Stay well,
Ajani
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