Can lifting weight slow your brain’s aging?

Stephen Turner
4 min readFeb 11, 2021

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Indeed, there is a direct link between physical work out and cognition. Lifting weights enhances the functioning of the brain and slows the aging process of brain cells.

According to research, people with slight cognitive impairment and significantly slowed neurodegeneration related to Alzheimer’s disease experienced cognitive improvements due to six months of strength training. It’s a severe mental disorder that has to be treated and taken care of timely to recover fast. Dementia affects 47 million people all over the world and is rising.

Lifting weights can boost the brain from deteriorating, and its benefits last for long after many months of training.

Regular workout is recognized to boost cognition, but there has been little research into the effects on old age people with MCI. They can carry out their daily activities but are inattentive and further susceptible to acquiring dementia.

After the six months of training, there was a significant effect on cognitive ability in the participants who were regular. After the training ended, researchers established that cognitive benefits were maintained, and loss of volumes in the hippocampus was significantly prevented among the strength training group participants.

There seems to be a delayed effect on the brain, especially those six months of training.

Endurance workout significantly stimulates an anti-inflammatory type of agents in the body.

Beneficial workouts

It is difficult to precisely tell what exercises are the most beneficial for the brain’s effective functioning. Strength training and aerobics share common biological mechanisms and specific mechanisms as well. However, it is not easy to tell which exercise is more beneficial as exercise promotes an entire combination of physical alterations in the blood.

In research, it has been ascertained that workouts accelerate the brain’s arousal and alertness centers. Part of the brain centers which underlie arousal or alertness is thick in the brain, and they have explicit connections to the certain hippocampus regions, which were found preserved. Particularly this track of the study will assist in understanding the research discoveries.

Raising weights can boost endurance and balance, but how it influences mental ability?

All the muscles are interrelated in the body; each part strengthening contributes to overall bodybuilding and cognitive abilities too. So the forming of endurance mass must be part of everyone’s strategy to reduce the threat of decline in cognitive abilities. Experts suggest that people verge on losing approx 1% of their muscle mass yearly as they grow older. Low muscle mass integrated with too much fat becomes the reason for metabolic issues related to a decline in cognitive abilities. It’s a proven fact that whatever happens in the body affects brain health. There is a direct relationship between the hippocampus and the size of the belly. The belly size gets larger, the hippocampus receives slighter, as a result of that, cognition deteriorates.

According to a detailed study of neurology in 2019, Specialists experimented at the link between brain volume, waist to hip percentage, body mass index. Physical training can grow brain cells and enhance brain function.

According to new research published for Alzheimer’s, they have claimed that modifications in the lifestyle, including endurance training and different physical workouts, and dietary changes, can improve cognitive function and reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s and dementia in the future. However, regularly exercising is essential for the improved functioning of the mind.

Incorporate Superfoods in Diet

Dietary changes such as incorporating superfoods in your diet can bring a positive difference in overall cognitive abilities. Consult a dietician for superfoods’ specific needs; they will suggest you some foods such as kale, sweet potatoes, almonds, walnuts, and many more, improving brain function. Superfoods has such kind of minerals and micronutrients that are excellent for cognition.

Take the help of a physical trainer

Reach out to a certified therapist who can enable them to build muscle, trim fat, and balance their metabolism. As far as an aging issue, people must try to work out up to 30 minutes, daily jog or brisk walk of about 40 minutes, and moderate-intensity physical workouts as much as possible, preferably daily — strength training exercises for all muscle groups minimum twice a week for 40 minutes. The suggested physical training schedule starts from intense aerobic exercise like crossfire, and towards the end the gentle stretching. Slowly begin and work your way up with weights, dumbbells, and circuit machines.

Conclusion

A significant outcome of the research is that you can reduce the risk of dementia by changing your sedentary lifestyle. Physical workouts are essential not only for the body muscles, nerves, bones but also for cognitive abilities, mind power. Including superfoods in the diet and taking the help of the trainer certainly help in improving cognition.

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Stephen Turner
Stephen Turner

Written by Stephen Turner

SEO Expert. SERP Expert. Social Media Strategist. Love Reading books, listening music. Wine Lover.

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