Cool article, this reminds me of how the memory championships mentioned in Joshua Foer's book "Moonwalking With Einstein" (http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Rememberi...) all workout and watch their personal fitness in order to optimize their mental performance. Gary Kasparov used to also exercise a lot too prior to chess competitions.

Moonwalking with Einstein (the book by the article's author) is a really interesting read. I recommend anyone who liked the article to check it out.

There are some interesting ideas related to Joshua's 'deliberate practice' that can be applied to software engineering as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Rememberi...