Building Your Mental Muscle With Resistance Training

Could regular visits to the weight room help older adults who have mild cognitive impairments?

- Tiffany Gust BS, FMSC, CPT, USAT

For years we have been told all the benefits of regular resistance training. These benefits include: increased metabolism, building lean tissue, improved self-efficacy, improved balance and posture, decreased risk of injury, increased body density, strength and reduction of osteoporosis, improved sense of wellbeing, etc. Recent studies are suggesting that there may be a link.

According to the Mayo clinic, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is “an intermediate stage between the expected cognitive decline of normal aging and the more-serious decline of dementia.” MCI, affects memory, judgment and thinking beyond normal levels of age-related decline. This condition may increase a person’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.