In a recent post, I talked about cross-training your brain. Following up on that theme, I thought it might be fun to tease your little gray cells a bit. Here are five riddles that ought to challenge your synapses to fire with stimulation. So take a gander, give them your best, and then scroll down to see the answers.

1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires. The second is full of assassins with loaded guns. The third is full of lions that haven’t eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him? 

2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be? 

 3. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away? 

 4. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday? 

 5. This is an unusual paragraph. I’m curious as to just how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so ordinary and plain that you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is highly unusual though. Study it and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out. Try to do so without any coaching! 

THE ANSWERS TO ALL FIVE RIDDLES ARE BELOW: 

1. The third room. Lions that haven’t eaten in three years are dead. That one was easy, right? 

2. The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, 

developed it, and hung it up to dry (shot; held under water; and hung). 

3. Charcoal, as it is used in barbecuing. 

4. Sure you can name three consecutive days– yesterday, today, and tomorrow! 

5. The letter e, which is the most common letter used in the English language, does not appear even once in the paragraph.

Unfortunately, like the rest of our body, our brain can get a bit flabby with age. Yep, there’s no denying it—going gray doesn’t necessarily help the little gray cells. But the good news is that we can do something about it!

Just like lifting weights on a regular basis is good for muscle tone, routinely lifting mental weights is good for toning up your gray matter. Mental tasks that require focus and concentration are thought to stimulate and even generate new connections between brain cells. The more complex this web like activity, the sharper and more alert you’ll be.

And, just like exercise physiologists suggest you cross-train your body so that certain muscles don’t become over used while others are ignored, brain specialists recommend the same idea. Even mentally stimulating activities that don’t stretch your abilities and knowledge aren’t all that helpful because they’ll consistently exercise only a certain part of your brain. In order to maximize your potential, you need to vary your mental workouts.

So, try some new things. Even simple activities like putting together a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, memorizing the words to a song, or brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand will tickle the synapses and make them very happy campers. Variety is the spice of life and an array of games and activities that require you to focus and learn new skills will certainly spice up your brainpower!