Stronger muscles improve memory in seniors

A new study has found that building muscles in seniors can help improve memory. The study included 100 people aged 55 to 86 with mild memory and thinking problems. The participants completed weight training exercises twice a week for six months and saw significant improvements in mental function.

The benefits of the exercise lasted for about a year after they stopped the supervised weight training sessions.

Lead author Yorgi Mavros said, “What we found in this follow-up study is that the improvement in cognition [mental] function was related to their muscle strength gains. The stronger people became, the greater the benefit for their brain.”

“The more we can get people doing resistance training like weight lifting, the more likely we are to have a healthier aging population. 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 maximizing your strength gains. This will give you the maximum benefit for your brain,” Mavros concluded.