Brain exercises

After looking at the list of 120 things that one can do to improve their brains I noticed how many of these things are done in a normal day, despite the intentions of doing so. For example, showering with your eyes closed. This is something that I do a lot, and I think that lot of people do anyways because a) it is relaxing and b) you don't want to get soap in your eyes! Other things such as mind mapping and being ambidextrious (spelling?) are both ways to improve your brain, and I think that both things are used frequently without even realizing it. I am definitly a list maker so the mind mapping is a given for people like me. And, when you are eating something that requires a fork and a knife people will often times put the fork in their opposite hand than they are used to with the knife in their dominant hand.
Out of all of the things that I could do to improve my brain, I decided to go after #1: puzzles and brainteasers. I really enjoy brainteasers so I thought that this would be perfect. I went down the list of exercises and preformed/played about six of them. Of the ones that I played I really liked the basketball passing one with the gorilla, and the memory one in which a chimpanzee challenged you.
On the first puzzle I counted 28 times that the balls were passed. I also noticed the gorilla and found it annoying and distracting because he/she kept getting in the way. I looked for the answer to the puzzle and could not find it. Did anyone else get a different one??
For the second game I was really challenged. That stupid chimp kept beating me, but the more I played it the closer I got to beating him. I started the game with an average score of 4 and progressively ended with a 7. What can you do? A chimp has better memory skills than me.
These exercises remind me of the "brain gym" exercises that I did in my class, Issues in Women's Health. We were taought similar things and often practiced cross-training to "spice" up the mind and stretching for the memory. Cross-training is very simple and invovles using both sides of your brain example: touching your right elbow with your left knee, touching your left hand with your right foot. Simple.
I find these different exercises and what not to be very interesting, especially since they all SEEM to be simple, when in reality they are real challenges for our brains. You should try the chimp one...
http://games.lumosity.com/chimp.html