Customer Reviews

The Brain Fitness Program

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I donated to PBS and got the set of Brain Training items. This dvd is just the PBS program all over again. It is NOT a brain training program with exercises you can do, etc. It's talking heads plugging how great their program is. It's marginally interesting on first viewing but I can't see wanting to watch it again. Just watch it on PBS and save your money.

The actual brain program this dvd touts is very expensive and available on the website. It came w/ my donation and it's very well made, but is truly boring, as the other reviewer stated, I dread doing it (and in fact, haven't in a week or more). It's focus is auditory not visual which is ok but it'd be better if it had both. I haven't done it enough to give a thorough review of it or it's benefits.

After watching the program on PBS, I thought the DVD would have the brain exercises, which it didn't. I was disappointed.

The title of the DVD is "Brain Fitness Program" and if you read the back cover it suggests that you are going to get an excercise program designed by "50 leading scientists to help improve your brain" . However when you actually get the dvd it is simply an hour long documantary about recent studies showing that the Brain can be improved. Nowhere on the dvd is any "fitness program" or any "mental excersizes". I am surprised at this being that it was originally a PBS show and yet it comes across as a bit if an hour long promotion or infomercial and by the end you are interested and intrigued and also angry at the lack of the "program" that the title and description seem to promise.

Oddly the only place they refer to an actual program is in the title and back cover. The people in the documentary don't really even refer to it. I did enjoy the documentary but I felt ripped off.

The DVD is a repeat of the PBS program, which was good, but has nothing to do with exercising your brain.
A very misleading sales statement

Thought this would be some exercises and things to do to improve the brain. It says Brain fitness Program. It turned out to be a copy of the PBS program and not a program for brain fitness. Hana

The "Brain Fitness Program" has a good motive--- to keep people's minds nimble and fit. Exercising the mind IS important, and unfortunately, neglected. "Brain Fitness" manages to blend an otherwise good idea and common sense with pseudo-science and a boring presentation.

"Brain Fitness" is mainly lots of talking heads (this is a PBS program,after all!) Peter Coyote,once prominent in the hippie/psychedelic movement and the world of mind-altering substances,provides lackluster narration. He's as bored out of his mind as the hapless viewer.

"Brain Fitness" doesn't address the tricky question of brain chemistry. It naively suggests that their repetitive exercises can miraculously help people recover from strokes, dementia, and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) They tell the story of a widower who suffered from a stroke. Through the exercises, he miraculously recovered and is now happily remarried. It's presented as a cure-all! If you can sit through it.

"Brain Fitness Program" takes an otherwise good concept, presents it in a dull infomercial way,and backs it up with pseudo-science. Read a book instead.

This DVD is a bargin, especially for seniors like myself.

In my opinion, applying these findings to one's life style is one of the best ways to stay young and engaged.

I could not digest all this information in one viewing so the dvd really comes in handy because one of the foundations in learning new skills is repetition.

The DVD shows that science can now provide images of what parts of the brain are engaged when the subject is performing various mental tasks. I found is really interesting as it provides more facts about how our brains actually work. My hearing could be better, but I turned captioning off on the TV (my eyes were replacing my ears). Now i try harder with my ears, ha,ha.

Yeah! New challanges for learning; I recently got a new digital camera and find that the more I use it the more motivated I become in learning how to take and make great images and then view them in hidef on the new TV. Build those synapse connections! Yeah.

One last point, the program stresses keeping your heart strong. I hike 3-4 miles every day, its not hard once one gets out, yes, it does take time, but my dog and camera come along also, so its not boring (for me), and I see and enjoy much more walking than I ever did driving.

I don't know what some people were expecting. This is an overview of recent research on the subject of brain plasticity. As far as the name, I see nothing wrong with that. Did some of you reviewers really expect a comprehensive program with a explicit recipe to change your life after sitting down for an hour in front of the TV screen? You should be able to put 2 and 2 together though, and figure out a lot of self evident principles from viewing this, to guide you in making changes to improve your mental fitness. A few of these are; (1) Your long term mental fitness will be determined both by genetic and environmental factors. Learning new mental skills will likely serve to avoid or delay eventual mental deterioration, but the learning has to be new and different learning from what you are accustomed to...if you have been doing cross word puzzles all your life, continuing to do them will not be of help. If you have not done them, beginning to do would be beneficial in this respect. Learning a 2nd language would probably benefit most minds. Physical activities that require physical coordination (such as new complex dances) would benefit. You get the idea, you have to keep learning new things to get the benefit. (2) Apparently one can significantly maintain neural functions by exercise, but it needs to be more extensive (5 days a week) and higher intensity than perhaps most people who exercise are accustomed to go at. Personally I suggest pushing yourself for say one minute every four minutes, and building from that until you can sustain a higher intensity level. (3) We can improve our mental functions, train ourselves, break addictions, by simply stopping the activity. One has to catch oneself and resist the dopamine release, and stop acting on the impulse that leads to undesired responses. Your mind will naturally rewire eventually if you persist, and the unwanted response will weaken. (4) Concentration is key, the mind is much more adaptable when you focus, very inflexible when you don't. There is more, but I will stop with those three items. I learned a lot from this DVD. It also exposes you to some of the leading advocates of this line of thinking, for further reading. No it is not perfect. The presentation format gives you the impression that it is an infomercial, but in fact it is not that at all. Perhaps had they thought this through and presented in in a manner more typical of PBS, this misconception could have been avoided.

This is a fascinating documentary about the human brain, how it functions, how it ages, and how to slow that process. However, the title is misleading. I was expecting specific exercises to sharpen the viewer's mind, maybe some memory or concentration drills. But there is none of that on the disc. The viewer is left to pretty much figure out what to do on their own, although it is mentioned that physical activity helps keep the brain younger.

There are several extra features running from 1-25 minutes each, which may be leftover material from the main feature. A "play all" feature should have been included for those, since all together they are less than an hour.

If you enjoy documentaries, such as programs that run on the Discovery or National Geographic Channels, this is an interesting study of the brain. If not, you may find it dry or boring.

If you're looking for an actual brain fitness program with exercises to do, this is not it.

I was a little disappointed in that I thought the DVD would give specific exercises to do to enhance the working power of my brain. It did in a general way, but left the rest up to me to find new ideas of brain useage. When one is already doing all the things one enjoys it is hard to think of, or find time, to include any more activities.
The tape was very informative and certainly gives one food for thought. Maybe I was just looking for the wrong information. It has got me thinking along different lines, where that will lead to I do not know.
Corals