Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) includes alterations in cerebral blood flow and may cause memory deficits, present in up to 30% of cases. It has been reported that exercise improves memory by increasing the volume of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. This study evaluated the effects of aerobic exercise, before and after an ischemic cerebral event, on spatial memory. One-month-old Wistar rats were divided into five groups: sedentary, exercise, ischemia before learning, ischemia after learning, and ischemia after exercise. According to the group, the rats performed a voluntary exercise program on a wheel for three weeks. Then, the common carotid artery was bilaterally occluded for 15 minutes. Learning and memory were assessed using the Barnes maze. Finally, ischemia survival was evaluated in rats with and without exercise, considering P<0.05 as significant. During short- and long-term memory tests, the ischemia and exercise groups showed a significant decrease (P<0.05) in latency to find the escape box compared to the sedentary group. A significant increase in ALT levels was observed after ischemia, lasting up to three weeks (48.33 ± 11 UI/L) compared to baseline values (21 ± 3.94 UI/L). Regarding survival, the exercise + ischemia group survived an average of 12 hours, while the sedentary group reached 65% survival at 60 hours. In conclusion, both ischemia and exercise improve memory. However, survival after ischemia decreases with exercise, possibly due to adaptive factors.