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Why Walking and Chewing Gum at the Same Time Is Actually a Big Deal

Why Walking and Chewing Gum at the Same Time Is Actually a Big Deal

Lyle Agagon
February 19, 2026

EXERCISE 🏋️‍♂️

You’ve probably heard someone say, “He can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.” It’s usually a joke about someone being clumsy or slow.

But walking and chewing gum at the same time is actually pretty tricky. You’re doing two things at once. Your body is moving forward, balancing, adjusting to the ground. At the same time, your brain is managing another task, even if it seems small. It’s handling rhythm, timing, and coordination. That takes focus.

Doing a movement and a mental task together is called dual-task training. It blends physical movement with thinking. You move and think at the same time. That combo strengthens coordination, sharpens focus, and trains your brain to stay steady under pressure.

It’s simple. It’s powerful. And you can start today.

What is Dual-Task Training?

Simple answer: you train two things at once. Usually, it’s a combination of:

A motor task (a physical movement).
A cognitive task (a brain game or thinking challenge).

Instead of just walking on a treadmill while listening to music, you might walk on a treadmill while doing a crossword puzzle in your head. Or instead of just doing squats, you might do squats while counting backward from 100 by sevens.

The goal is to force your brain and body to work together at the same time. It’s like a multitasking workout for your entire system.

Upgrading Your Brain’s Processor

Think of your brain like a computer’s processor. It has a certain amount of “power” to work with. When you’re just walking, your brain uses a small amount of that power to keep you balanced and moving.

But if a friend stops you to ask a complicated question, your brain has to shift some of its power away from walking to focus on answering. For most of us, this is fine. We slow down a little, maybe we stop walking for a second, and then we answer.

But as we get older, or if someone has a brain injury or a condition like Parkinson's disease, that “processor” isn’t as fast. It has less power to go around. If they have to think hard while walking, their brain might pull too much power away from the walking part. That’s when people can stumble, lose their balance, or fall.

Dual-task training is like upgrading your brain’s processor. It helps it become more efficient at sharing power between movement and thinking.

The Benefits of Training This Way

1. It Makes You Safer
This is the biggest reason. Life is not done in a quiet room. You walk while talking. You carry bags while thinking. You step off curbs while checking traffic.

Training your brain to think while moving improves:

Balance
Reaction time
Stability

That can mean fewer falls and faster recoveries when you trip.

2. It Builds a Stronger Brain
Just like a new exercise challenges your muscles, a new thinking challenge builds new connections between your brain cells. Dual-task training is a powerful form of brain training.

Research shows this can improve:

Memory
Focus
Processing speed

It keeps your mind sharp.

3. It Makes You Better at Sports
Every sport is a dual-task. A basketball player has to dribble (motor task) while watching the defense and deciding who to pass to (cognitive task). A soccer player has to run while keeping their eye on the ball and the other players. Dual-task training can help athletes make better decisions faster while their body is in motion.

4. It Preps You for Real Life
Life is one big dual-task test. We are always doing two things at once: carrying groceries while looking for your keys, walking and talking on the phone, cooking dinner while helping a kid with homework. Training this way makes you more efficient and less frazzled in your daily life.

Easy Ways to Try Dual-Task Training

The key is to start easy and slowly make it harder. Safety first! Make sure you’re in a safe space where a fall won’t hurt you.

Here are some simple ideas, going from easier to harder:

Level 1: Sitting Down
- While sitting on a sturdy chair, do some arm curls with a light weight.
- At the same time, name as many animals as you can that start with the letter "C."
- Safe. Controlled. Brain + body.
Level 2: Standing Still
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- While holding onto a counter or chair for balance if you need it, recite the months of the year backward (December, November, October...).
- This challenges your balance system while your brain is busy working.
Level 3: Moving Slowly
- Walk in a straight line in a hallway.
- While you walk, try to count backward from 100 by 3s (100, 97, 94...).
- This is the classic "walk and chew gum" test. It forces you to keep your balance and pace while your brain is doing hard math.
Level 4: Get Creative
- Do some standing marches. Each time your right knee goes up, say a word that rhymes with "cat."
- Practice balancing on one foot while listing all the things you need to buy at the grocery store.
- Toss a ball against a wall and catch it while spelling your full name backward.

Simple But Powerful

Dual-task training is a simple but powerful idea. By combining physical and mental exercises, you can build a body and brain that work better together.

It’s not just for athletes or people in rehab. It’s for anyone who wants to move more confidently, think more clearly, and be ready for the multitasking demands of everyday life. So, the next time you go for a walk, try adding a little brain challenge. You might be surprised at how much of a workout it really is.

NUTRITION 🥑

Feed Your Head: A Simple Guide to MCTs, Exogenous Ketones, and Brain Fuel

Ever hit that afternoon wall? You read the same sentence three times. You walk into a room and forget why. Your brain feels slow and heavy.

We usually blame it on needing more coffee or not getting enough sleep. And sure, those things matter. But there’s another big piece of the puzzle: the fuel you are (or aren’t) giving your brain.

But there’s another piece: fuel. Your brain runs on energy. If the fuel is unstable, your focus will be too.

For a long time, we thought that fuel was only one thing: glucose, which is a type of sugar that comes from carbs like bread, pasta, and fruit. But scientists have found that your brain can actually run on a different, and in some ways better, type of fuel. It’s called a ketone.

Your Brain’s Two Fuel Choices

Think of your brain as a high-performance sports car. To run its best, it needs the right kind of fuel.

To understand this, imagine your brain has two fuel tanks.

Tank #1: Glucose. This is the regular fuel. It’s what your brain uses most of the time. You eat a bagel for breakfast, your body breaks it down into glucose, and that glucose goes to your brain for a quick burst of energy. The problem is, this energy can be a bit unstable. You get a spike of energy, but then you crash a few hours later, leading to that foggy, tired feeling.

Tank #2: Ketones. This is the premium, high-performance fuel. Ketones are created by your liver when your body doesn't have enough glucose to burn. This usually happens when you fast or when you follow a very low-carb diet like the keto diet. When you run on ketones, many people report having super steady, clear energy all day long. No crashes. No fog. Just a smooth, consistent hum.

So, how do you actually get some of that premium fuel without having to starve yourself or give up all carbs forever? That’s where MCTs come in.

What are MCTs? (Your Brain’s Fast Food)

MCT stands for Medium-Chain Triglycerides. Simply put, it’s a special type of fat. You can find small amounts of them in coconut oil and palm oil, but MCT oil is more concentrated.

Here’s why this matters. Most fats you eat take a long, slow route through your digestive system before your body can use them. MCTs take a shortcut.

Instead of going through the usual long process, MCTs move quickly from your gut straight to your liver. Once they get there, your liver rapidly converts them into ketones. That means you get faster ketone production and quicker access to brain fuel.

This is why many people add MCT oil to their coffee. It can help create steadier mental energy without the spike and crash that often comes with sugar.

Think of MCTs as raw material. They give your body what it needs to make its own clean-burning brain fuel.

What About Exogenous Ketones?

MCTs help your body produce ketones. But what if you want the benefits of ketones right now, without waiting for your body to produce them?

This is where exogenous ketones come in. "Exogenous" means "coming from outside your body."

So, exogenous ketones are man-made ketones that you can drink as a powder mixed with water. When you drink them, the ketones go straight into your bloodstream, and your brain can start using them almost immediately.

It’s like pouring premium fuel directly into your car’s gas tank. You don’t have to wait for your body to make it; you just add it, and you’re off.

Why People Use Them

People use exogenous ketones for a few reasons:

Instant Focus: Need to nail a big presentation or power through a study session? A dose of exogenous ketones can provide an immediate boost in mental clarity.
Getting into Ketosis Faster: If you are starting a keto diet, your body can feel pretty rough for the first few days. It’s called "keto flu". Drinking exogenous ketones can help your brain get that premium fuel right away, making that transition much smoother.
Extra Endurance: Some athletes use them for a steady stream of energy during long workouts or races.

MCTs vs. Exogenous Ketones

They are not the same tool.

MCTs help your body make ketones.
Exogenous ketones give you ketones directly.

Think of it this way. MCTs are like stacking wood on a fire. Exogenous ketones are like tossing on lighter fluid. One builds steady fuel. One acts faster.

Know Your Options

Your brain needs energy to think clearly. Glucose works, but it can be unstable. Ketones offer another option. Many people find them smoother and more consistent. You don’t have to choose one fuel forever. You just need to understand your options.

If brain fog is a regular problem, it may not be a motivation issue. It might be a fuel issue.

BIOHACKING⚡

Giving Your Brain a Tiny Battery Boost

Your brain runs on electricity. Every thought, every memory, every movement happens because tiny electrical signals move between brain cells.

Most of the time, this system works smoothly. But sometimes it feels sluggish. Focus fades. Learning feels harder. Mental energy dips.

Now imagine if you could gently adjust that electrical activity. Not with caffeine or supplements, but with a small, controlled current. That’s the idea behind transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS.

What is tDCS?

Let’s tackle the big name first. "Transcranial" just means "across the skull." "Direct current" refers to a steady, one-way flow of electricity, like what you get from a battery. And "stimulation" means to encourage activity. So, tDCS is basically a way of sending a very, very weak electrical current across your scalp to encourage your brain cells to be more active.

It uses a small battery-powered device connected to two pads placed on your head. When turned on, a tiny amount of electricity flows between the pads. This current is very weak. You usually don’t feel much. It doesn’t force your brain to fire wildly. It simply makes certain brain cells a little more likely to send signals.

Think of it like a long garden hose. Normally, the water (which is the signal) flows at a regular speed. tDCS is like someone coming along and gently squeezing the hose behind the water. That squeeze adds a little pressure, making the water shoot out a bit faster. The device doesn't add new water. It just gives the existing flow a gentle push.

What is it Used For?

For many years, doctors and scientists have studied tDCS as a tool to help people with brain injuries or conditions like depression, chronic pain, or the effects of a stroke. The idea is to gently "wake up" the parts of the brain that aren't working as well as they should, helping them reconnect and learn new patterns.

But in recent years, the conversation around tDCS has moved from just the doctor's office to the living room. Healthy people—like students, video gamers, and artists—have become interested in using it to try to boost their own brain power. They call it "brain hacking."

They hope it might help them:

Learn faster: By stimulating the parts of the brain involved in learning, you might memorize vocabulary or piano scales more quickly.
Focus better: Giving a nudge to the focus centers could help you zone in on work without getting distracted by your phone or the TV.
Boost creativity: Some people try it to get out of a creative rut and come up with new ideas.

Does it Actually Work?

The honest answer is: sometimes, for some people, and we’re not totally sure why.

Studies have shown that, under the right conditions, tDCS can have an effect on the brain. But the results are all over the place. One study might show it helps with math skills, while another study finds no effect at all.

Why is it so tricky? Because everyone’s brain is different. The shape of your skull, the exact placement of the electrodes, your age, your mood, and even what you ate for breakfast can all change how the electricity flows and what effect it has. It’s not like flipping a light switch; it’s more like adjusting a very sensitive dimmer knob that works differently for every single person.

The Big Warning: Don't Try This at Home

Because tDCS devices are relatively simple, you can find instructions online for how to build your own with a 9-volt battery and some wires.

Please, do not do this!

Here’s why it’s dangerous:

You can hurt yourself: Using the wrong amount of current or leaving the device on for too long can burn your scalp. Electricity is nothing to play with.
You can wire it wrong: Placing the electrodes in the wrong spot could stimulate the wrong part of your brain. Instead of helping you focus, you might mess with your balance, your mood, or your memory.
We don't know the long-term effects: What happens if you do this every day for a year? Nobody knows. It could have effects we can't predict.
It's a medical device: In many places, tDCS devices are meant to be used only under a doctor’s supervision for approved treatments. The devices you buy online from a random website may be cheap, unsafe, and not work at all.

The Bottom Line

tDCS is a fascinating window into the future of neuroscience. The idea that we can gently guide our brain's activity with a small electrical current is amazing. It holds real promise for helping people heal from serious medical conditions.

For the average person, though, it’s still a tool for scientists in a lab, not a gadget for your desk. The best way to give your brain a boost right now is still the old-fashioned way: get enough sleep, eat well, exercise, and challenge yourself by learning new things.

So, the next time your brain feels foggy, maybe just grab a cup of coffee or go for a walk. Leave the battery packs to the professionals.

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I put together a short, plain-English guide called
The Longevity Money Playbook.

No jargon. Just clarity.

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Just reply to this email with the word “LONGEVITY” and I’ll send it over personally.

CHALLENGE💪

Challenge of the Week: The "Walk & Talk" Test

This week, we’re taking dual-task training and turning it into a real-life experiment. Your mission is simple: try doing two things at once and see how it feels.

Here is your challenge:

Step 1: Find a quiet, safe space where you can walk back and forth without any obstacles. A hallway or a sidewalk works great.

Step 2: On Monday, just walk. Pay attention to how it feels. Is it easy? Do you feel balanced? Probably yes.

Step 3: Now, here is the hard part. Walk again, but this time, add a thinking task. Try one of these:

Name all the U.S. states you can think of.
Count backward from 100 by 7s (100...93...86...).
Recite the words to your favorite song or poem from memory.

Step 4: Ask yourself these questions:

Did you automatically slow down?
Did you stumble or have to focus more on your feet?
Did your thinking get slower or harder?

The Goal: Don't worry about being good at it. Just notice what happens. If you found it easy, try it again tomorrow, but walk a little faster or try a harder brain task (like spelling your full name backward).

Give it a shot this week and see how your brain and body handle a little multitasking.