Twenty minutes of moderate exercise preserves automatic motor learning, study finds

A within-subject study of 26 healthy young adults found that a 20-minute session of moderate stationary cycling (keeping heart rate at 65–75% of max) prevented the typical rest-related decline in implicit sensorimotor adaptation and sped up overall response time. After cycling, participants’ implicit adaptation (post-rotation bias) remained near baseline (about 2.40–2.45°) compared with a drop after rest (2.20° from 2.93°), and total response time fell ~4% (555 ms to 532 ms), suggesting aerobic exercise primes the nervous system for automatic motor learning and rehabilitation.