"brain training" industry may be a placebo but brain training is real. I have yet to understand why people think that you can have a very good brain if you don't train. In sports it's a given: if you want to run fast, you have to train, you have to eat right, you have to sleep rigth, you have to take breaks to not destroy your body.
But somehow people that work with their brain think that the brain, the organ, does not work like the rest of the body and that you are smart no matter what an so on. You are smart if you trained, if you sleep right, if you eat right and in general if you take care of yourself.
People say "it's just a puzzle". It's like a football player would say "why do I have to do squats?! I never have to do one while I play". Sure, at some point the puzzle becomes too easy. Thats why they do squats with weights.
Keeping your brain fit is important, and the study isn't arguing that. The way that these games do it is not useful.
Just liking training running will make you good at running, training those puzzles will make you good at... those puzzles. That's not what those game companies sell it as, people want better general intelligence and instead they are just getting really good at matching shapes or solving crosswords.
In your football example, a squat is full body exercise that strengthens numerous different muscle groups. These "brain training games" are not full mind exercises.
But somehow people that work with their brain think that the brain, the organ, does not work like the rest of the body and that you are smart no matter what an so on. You are smart if you trained, if you sleep right, if you eat right and in general if you take care of yourself.
People say "it's just a puzzle". It's like a football player would say "why do I have to do squats?! I never have to do one while I play". Sure, at some point the puzzle becomes too easy. Thats why they do squats with weights.