Weight Training Makes You Smarter

Nobody Said Parenting Was Going To Be Easy.

Weight Training can be good for the brain in at risk people.

I’ve always believed in the power of Strength and Conditioning. I’ve always held to the idea that “It starts in the gym.” That if we want to make a positive change in our lives, the first place to do that is with our bodies. Getting in better shape, developing muscle mass, increasing cardio-respiratory capacity ALL helps us to become a better human being.

NOW there is evidence to prove it!

Researchers at the University of Sydney have found that six months of strength training (lifting weights) can help protect brain areas especially vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease up to one year later.

The long-term study found that strength training led to overall benefits to cognitive performance, benefits linked to protection from degeneration in specific subregions of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a complex structure in the brain with a major role in learning and memory.

The hippocampus subregions targeted by the strength training were those especially vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease. In the control condition, where no strength training was undertaken hippocampal subregions shrunk by 3-4 percent over the 18-months, whilst those undergoing strength training saw only 1-2 percent reductions, and in some areas, none at all. 

“What we found in this follow up study is that the improvement in cognition function was related to their muscle strength gains” said lead author Dr Yorgi Mavros, from the Faculty of Health Sciences, at University of Sydney.

“The stronger people became, the greater the benefit for their brain.”

The findings have been published this month in the specialist journal Neuroimage: Clinical.

“The more we can get people doing resistance training like weight lifting, the more likely we are to have a healthier ageing population,” said Dr Mavros.

“The key however is to make sure you are doing it frequently, at least twice a week, and at a high intensity so that you are maximising your strength gains. This will give you the maximum benefit for your brain.”

In a meta-review by the European Review of Aging and Physical Activity they state:

“Notably, growing evidence points towards a relationship between cognition and measures of muscular strength and muscle mass. Based on this emerging evidence, resistance exercises and/or resistance training, which contributes to the preservation and augmentation of muscular strength and muscle mass, may trigger beneficial neurobiological processes and could be crucial for healthy aging that includes preservation of the brain and cognition.”

A different study published in 2019 in the journal Psychological Research, people who performed resistance exercises such as lifting weights experienced gains in attention, reasoning and memory.

The results of the study revealed positive effects of resistance training on composite cognitive scores , screening measures of cognitive impairment, and executive functions.

Researchers believe that resistance training is particularly helpful at targeting your hippocampus, the part of your brain that's responsible for memory function and learning. As we get older, your hippocampus gets less blood flow and tends to shrink. Performing resistance exercises can help restore blood flow to this region.

Exercise promotes the creation of new blood vessels and encourages the brain to form new neurons from stem cells in the hippocampus.

Resistance Training increases the production of key neurotransmitters, including serotonin, which regulate mood, sleep, cognition, memory, and learning.

Weight Lifting also increases the production of brain proteins that are associated with enhanced cognitive function and brain plasticity.

So, we already know that resistance training will get you JACKED!

But, resistance training will also help your BRAIN HEALTH!

Moral of the story….GET TO THE GYM!