The armchair is one of the worst enemies of the elderly. Except that it is the seat of a treadmill designed to do resistance exercises.
There is abundant evidence that aerobic activities are great for the brain of the elderly, but the benefits of lifting weights have been much less explored. We now know that older women who do this kind of training experience an improvement in cognitive functions. And this has been shown in females between 65 and 70 years who had not previously practiced. The work demonstrates just published in Archives of Internal Medicine.
The results are striking, since this is a clinical trial of 12 months duration, conducted in a controlled manner. Participants were divided into three groups. The first two made-legged endurance exercise once or twice a week. The third party executed only gym toning and balance. The researchers measured the cognitive abilities of all of them at baseline, after six months and one year. (more…)
