I was in the gym pedaling on the LifeCycle. My heart rate was in the 140 area—full tilt for a geezer. The sweat was starting to come. Though I wasn’t plugged into the audio, or even watching really, I was zoning out and into the many TV screens, a welcome respite from the Mac screens that usually devour my mind and time.

And WTF? Ideas paraded through my brain… my next enewsletter began taking shape in my head… several blog post ideas… a pretty rocking headline for an eBook… a funny concept for this direct response campaign I’m on.

For what must have been the millionth time in my depressingly long, er, I mean, impressively long career as a copywriter and creative director, it dawned on me again that escaping the office is the best way to uncork the cranium.

You don’t have to sweat ideas out.

Brain lubricants come in many forms. Some obvious, some not. Some will work for you, some won’t. I thought this through and created the infographic below. Check it out. Print it out. Tweet it out.

But now back to our sweat fest. Get a load of this…

Sweat is like WD-40 for your mind-–it lubricates the rusty hinges of your brain and makes your thinking more fluid. Exercise allows your conscious mind to access fresh ideas that are buried in the subconscious.

I didn’t write that. A world-class athlete did. But not just any jock. His name is Christopher Bergland, an accomplished endurance athlete, coach, and author. He’s the three-time champion of the Triple Ironman (and world record holder with a time of 38 hours and 46 minutes).

Yes, he  swam, ran and biked 38+ hours in a row. I know, it’s exhausting just to read.

Chris writes for Psychology Today, not because he’s psychotic, but because he connects the dots between exercise and neuroscience like nobody’s business. For more on the connection between sweating and unleashing brain waves, read Bergland’s article, “The Neuroscience of Imagination—Aerobic Exercise Stimulates Creative Thinking.”

Rather not busta’ move?

Try a few of these.