Slow Your Brain’s Aging

Tell me the truth – wouldn’t you love to be smarter, brighter, sharper?

Of course you would! 
Being sharper usually leads to more opportunities in life.

It helps us get things we want. 

Even my 5 year old daughter tells me that she wants to eat more egg yolks because “I want to be the smartest kid in kindergarten!”

Some people turn to various drugs or supplements.
Some hope hormonal support will help – and in many cases, it does. 

If only there was a way to improve our cognition that is proven, safe, accessible, and comes with no negative side effects….

Oh, wait – there is!
Strength training does exactly that.

Studies show that strength training can enhance cognitive functions like planning and organizing, cognitive flexibility, memory, and attention. Some research suggests that it may even protect against cognitive decline and neurodegeneration (progressive loss of cell function in the brain)!

Check these out:

• “Recent studies have suggested that resistance exercise (RE) is an effective strategy for promoting benefits in memory and cognitive function, producing neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects, and reducing amyloid load and plaques, thereby reducing the risk, and alleviating the neurodegeneration process of AD [Alzheimer’s Disease] and other types of dementia in the elderly…. six months of RE significantly improved memory performance, attention, and executive functions, and protected the hippocampus from the degeneration that occurs in AD. These benefits persisted for 12 months after the end of the training period.”
  PMID: 36937673(2023)
  
• “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.”
  Article (2020)
  
• “Recent meta-analysis and review studies concluded that strength training benefits functional brain changes and increases cognitive function in both healthy or cognitively impaired adults and older adults… There are many plausible potential mechanisms that support these benefits. Changes in hormone levels and increases in cerebral blood flow, proteins such as insulin-like growth factor 1, as well as brain-derived neurotropic factor, are some of the suggested mechanistic pathways linking strength training with cognitive and cerebral health benefits.”
  PMID: 35712202 (2022)
  
• “The results showed that the resistance exercise intervention group had significant improvements in depression and global cognitive function compared to the control group. Also, older adults that participated in the resistance exercise program had greater improvements in visuospatial/executive functions, attention, language, and orientation domains than their control group counterparts.”
  PMID: 36975266 (2023)

Like we need more reasons to do regular strength training!
But if you’ve been on the fence about it until now, or you’ve been waiting for just one more reason to hop on the muscle train…. 

Having a sharper mind is a pretty damn good one!