The Relationship Between Strength Training and Cognitive Function
Brain Health at the Molecular Level
The more you exercise, the more you are able to exercise. If you don’t use your muscles, you lose your muscles – and your ability to perform physical activities diminishes. Aging, too, affects our performance, though strength training and general physical preparedness can help prevent this.
However, it’s not only your physical self that benefits from improved muscle mass. Scientific research has found that strength training affects the brain. It’s great for our cognitive health – our mental capacity, and ability to acquire and retain knowledge and understanding.
Four ways in which strength training and resistance exercise strengthens your brain
In our previous article, ‘The brain-changing benefits of exercise: how being physically active helps your cognition’, we discussed how exercise is a key contributor to maintaining and improving a healthy brain. It helps to prevent cognitive decline and to do those activities that make us who we are.
Here are four distinct ways in which strength and resistance training can improve brain function and decline what is considered a natural slide caused by aging.
1. Strength training improves cognitive function
In a study published in Australia, a group of men and women were measured for their cognitive ability (attention, memory, and reasoning) at the beginning, third-way through, and end of an 18-month period. The group had been divided into two subsets. One set did weight training for six months, and the other set did stretch exercises.
Cognitive tests were performed at the beginning, at the end of the six-month training period, and then again 12 months later.
Not only did the weight trainers perform better at the end of the training period, but they also retained their improved cognition after a further 12 months. Those who gained the most in their strength did best in their executive functions. Meanwhile, those who did the stretching exercises saw their cognitive outcomes decline.
2. Strength training prevents cognitive decline
Studies show that weight training can protect the brain of older adults against long-term neurodegenerative diseases and mild cognitive impairment, too. In a study conducted in Australia by the University of Sydney, participants were allocated to either computerized brain training, strength training, or both combined. After 12 months, it was found that strength training was linked to protection from degeneration in the hippocampus – and the regions of this section of the brain that were positively affected are those specifically vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Kathryn Broadhouse, who led the study, said:
“Our research shows that strength training can protect some hippocampal subregions from degeneration or shrinkage for up to 12 months after the training has stopped.”
How does strength training work to help prevent neurodegenerative disease?
Aerobic exercise is important because it contributes to the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus. But these new cells rely on blood flow, and resistance (strength) training helps to restore blood flow to the brain. Kind of like watering a seed.
3. Strength training boosts your mood and reduces the symptoms of depression and anxiety
Are you fed up with feeling blue? Then get into the gym and pull some weights!
Strength training might inflate your biceps and triceps, but it can also boost your mood. A study of around 1,800 people found that people who performed strength training at least twice weekly benefited from significantly reduced symptoms of depression.
The science behind these findings is well-known. Resistance exercise helps to boost the feel-good hormones (e.g., dopamine) as well as release endorphins (the body’s natural pain reliever). Forget about anti-depressants. Given the right treatment, your mind and body can and will heal themselves as you:
Sleep better
Become more motivated
Gain a better appetite
Benefit from higher self-esteem
And we shouldn’t forget, when we’re happier in ourselves, we get more pleasure out of the activities in which we participate – and we’re a better company for others, too.
4. Strength training strengthens the mind-body connection
Finally, those who focus on developing strength training don’t tend to do so for the aspect of improving their appearance. Instead, it’s about gaining the strength to do what you wish to do. As your strength improves, you’ll find that you become more aware of your ability and limitations – and that helps you to understand what you must do to get to where you want to be, while also avoiding injury when doing so.
What is strength coaching – how can Reload help?
To be successful with strength training and help your brain gain the most benefit, you shouldn’t go it alone. It’s crucial to have someone with you, helping you to perform the correct techniques, at the correct weights, and aligned to your personal health goals.
Strength coach and occupational therapist Mallory Reilly has always been interested in understanding how the body and mind are connected – the strength and weaknesses in a person’s muscles and nervous system and how it affects them when putting their body into different positions, for example.
When considering the different activities that a client does, it’s important to consider this connection among the components of what they need to “play how they like to play.”
Mallory explains the Reload approach as follows:
“When someone comes in, we interview them first to learn about everything they do in life, everything they want to do and don’t feel they can currently do… I want to know what their beliefs are about themselves… I want to know how their mental health is, about how they feel that they can do something or not do something…”
“A lot of people are really deconditioned. A lot of the problems that people feel are because their aerobic and muscular systems are not strong enough. That manifests in the different pains that a person may feel or the different limitations and abilities that they have.”
This highly personalized approach and meta-analysis are taken with every client, from the 12-year-old girl who broke her elbow and wants to get back to gymnastics, to the 86-year-old woman who is not able to go up and down the stairs, to people in the military, to a stay-at-home mom who wants to be fit and do something for herself.
What can you expect from a Reload Fitness Assessment?
Understanding that everyone is unique forms the basis of our fitness assessment. It’s crucial that we learn about a person’s abilities and mental blocks when designing a fitness program.
We start with simple exercises, and make them harder and harder depending on what the person is capable of doing. We have a phrase, “The hardest thing you can do well’. That’s what we aim to find during the fitness assessment.
“We start on the ground,” says Mallory, “letting our brains get all the information that comes from our hands and feet. We put people there first. We see how someone looks on all fours (what we call the ‘beast position’), we see how they look when they are crawling around, then we break apart hips, feet, calves, toe muscles, shoulders, neck, and even eyeball muscles. We want to know what that person is capable of, and how it then relates back to how they are feeling.”
Reload clients benefit from the coach’s eye
“The cool thing about this assessment is that it is tailored to the person in front of us,” Mallory explains. “We have something we call the coach’s eye that has been trained over time. You won’t actually know everything that we’re seeing. We share information and give education based on what you need to help you: sometimes simple is better.”
To sum up, everyone is unique. Therefore, to build your fitness to the level required to live your unique life it is crucial to start with knowing your personal abilities and mindset currently – and that is what the Reload Fitness Assessment accomplishes. It’s the foundation for success in your unique fitness goals. We will never ask a client to lift weights in randomly assigned exercises.
Would you like to learn more about how exercise could help to transform your brain and cognitive function?
Right now, we are offering a complimentary fitness assessment – it’s your first step to a new and improved you. To take advantage of this, sign up for your complimentary fitness assessment today.
