We all know that walking can make us more fit. Now it appears it can make us smarter, too. According to a University of Illinois study, reported in the journal Nature, an invigorating walk can help boost memory and sharpen judgment. A six-month experiment at the university studied 124 previously sedentary men and women ages 60 to 75. The volunteers, who participated in either a walking program or a stretching and weight-lifting program, underwent a variety of simple tests that focused on their brainpower, particularly memory and judgment abilities. Results indicated that walking does indeed give older people—and their brains—a good workout. Unfortunately, stretching and weight-lifting did not produce the same memory-boosting results.