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Your brain is the most trainable organ in your body. Most people never bother.
Thousands of people have joined Train Your Brain Games. Here’s what happens here.
What this is
Train Your Brain Games delivers one Micro-Game every Friday and one brain science article every Wednesday. The games are short, usually around 20 minutes, but they’re not casual. They range from physical balance challenges to digital speed drills to old-school analog memory tasks. They’re built to push you into the zone where your brain actually grows.
I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, a double board-certified family and lifestyle medicine physician. After years of watching patients struggle to keep their brains sharp, I dove into the science of neuroplasticity and landed on something that surprised me. The research on what actually builds new neural connections isn’t complicated. But most of what’s out there makes it feel like homework. So I built games instead.
The science of neuroplasticity tells us something most brain games won’t. If you’re solving puzzles easily, you’re not building a better brain. You’re just accessing the one you already have. Real growth requires real challenge. You need to be failing about 20% of the time.
That’s what these games are designed for. Not entertainment. Training.
The Friday Micro-Game (paid)
Every Friday, paid subscribers get a single game built around a real cognitive skill. Pattern recognition, working memory, processing speed, mental flexibility. Your goal isn’t a perfect score. Your goal is to find the point where you start making mistakes and stay there. That’s the adaptive difficulty zone, and it’s where neuroplasticity kicks in.
The games come with timers. They’re meant to feel hard. If they don’t, you’re not playing them right.
The Wednesday Fantastic Voyage (free)
Every Wednesday, everyone gets a free article exploring one piece of your brain’s anatomy and physiology. How memory forms. Why you can’t concentrate after bad sleep. What happens inside your skull when you learn something new. Think of it as a guided tour through the most incredible three-pound organ you carry around, one discovery at a time. Wednesdays show you how the machine works. Fridays let you take it for a spin.
What’s free and what’s paid
Free subscribers get the Wednesday Fantastic Voyage article every week. No paywall, no catch.
Paid subscribers get both. The Wednesday brain anatomy and the Friday Micro-Game, plus full access to every game in the archive, games you can play anytime you want an extra session between Fridays.
For $8 a month or $80 a year, you get a weekly cognitive training session designed by a physician who actually understands how your brain builds new connections.
Who this is for
You don’t need to be a neuroscience nerd. You don’t need to be young. You don’t need to have a “good brain.” Neuroplasticity doesn’t care how old you are or where you’re starting from. It cares about reps. If you can commit to twenty minutes on a Friday, your brain will do the rest.
Part of a bigger ecosystem
Train Your Brain Games is one of three publications I run. If you want to go deeper into metabolic health and the science of habit change, The Habit Healers is my flagship newsletter with four articles a week, printable protocols, and a weekly physician Q&A every Friday. If you want a twice-weekly meditation practice to calm your nervous system, One Tiny Healing Meditation delivers physician-crafted guided meditations on Sundays and Wednesdays. Each publication stands on its own, and together they cover the full picture.
Welcome. Your next game drops Friday. Bring your sweatband.
Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA
Founder, Train Your Brain Games