MensHealth
  • News
  • Health
  • Fitness
  • Sex
  • Nutrition
  • Style
  • Weight Loss
  • Life
  • Podcasts
  • Motoring
  • Video
MensHealth
  • News
  • Health
  • Fitness
  • Sex
  • Nutrition
  • Style
  • Weight Loss
  • Life
  • Podcasts
  • Motoring
  • Video
Bjornsson Deadlifted 1,026 pounds On The Elephant Bar To Win 2020 Arnold Classic
Watch 0:10

Bjornsson Deadlifted 1,026 pounds On The Elephant Bar To Win 2020 Arnold Classic

{headline}

{headline}

These Are The Worst Training Mistakes You Can Make, According To Bodybuilders

These Are The Worst Training Mistakes You Can Make, According To Bodybuilders

How Surf God John John Florence Rehabbed His ACL In Record Time

How Surf God John John Florence Rehabbed His ACL In Record Time

Just One Energy Drink Can Increase Heart Attack Risk

Just One Energy Drink Can Increase Heart Attack Risk

This Guy Trained Like Chris Hemsworth For 90 Days, And His Results Were Insane

This Guy Trained Like Chris Hemsworth For 90 Days, And His Results Were Insane

{headline}

{headline}

Is It Healthy To Combine Intermittent Fasting With Keto?

Is It Healthy To Combine Intermittent Fasting With Keto?

Why 30/10 Is The Perfect Macro Ratio For Burning Fat

Why 30/10 Is The Perfect Macro Ratio For Burning Fat

8 Rules Of Muscle-Building, According To A Bodybuilder

8 Rules Of Muscle-Building, According To A Bodybuilder

{headline}

{headline}

5 Tips And Tricks To Hide A Receding Hairline

5 Tips And Tricks To Hide A Receding Hairline

Mike Tyson Just Announced His First Opponent

Mike Tyson Just Announced His First Opponent

Lewis Hamilton On The Physical and Mental Pressure To Stay Fit

Lewis Hamilton On The Physical and Mental Pressure To Stay Fit

Can You Finish This 220-Rep CrossFit Workout?

Can You Finish This 220-Rep CrossFit Workout?

LeBron James Breaks Down His Core-Busting Workout

LeBron James Breaks Down His Core-Busting Workout

What Happened When This Guy Followed Hugh Jackman's 'Wolverine' Diet

What Happened When This Guy Followed Hugh Jackman's 'Wolverine' Diet

A Kickboxer Just Broke The World Record For Most Punches Thrown In A Minute

A Kickboxer Just Broke The World Record For Most Punches Thrown In A Minute

  1. Home
  2. Fitness

Lifting Iron Helps Prevent Brain Degeneration, Study Finds

We'll rep to that - by Alex Pierotti
  • 11 Feb 2020

Need another excuse to pay a visit to the gym this evening? New research published in NeuroImage: Clinical suggests lifting weights can help prevent brain deterioration. 

WATCH: Want To Up Your Strength? Make Sure You Know How To Deadlift Properly

Findings from the University of Sydney show that working out can protect parts of the brain that are affected by Alzheimer's disease, even one year after training.

 The study found that just six months of heavy lifting results in cognitive improvements in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) while significantly slowing neurodegeneration linked with Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists recruited 100 participants with MCI, split into four groups. Each group was assigned a different management process: strength and computerised cognition training, just strength training, computerised cognition training alone or a “double control condition” of stretching and watching videos.

RELATED: 7 Reasons Why You've Stopped Gaining Strength And Muscle

Over six months, volunteers attended two supervised sessions a week.

Participants were monitored and assessed through MRIs, physical, metabolic and cognitive tests at the start of the study, after six months and again, at the 18-month mark. 

“At the end of the six months there was a significant effect on cognition ... for anyone doing resistance exercise,” said senior author Professor Michael Valenzuela, leader of the Regenerative Neuroscience Group at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre.

Most interestingly, after the program ended, the “cognitive benefits were preserved” in those who stuck to strength training, even one year after they stopped their supervised routine. The benefits hung around regardless of whether adults kept up their training. 

man lifting weight
Getty

“There seems to be a delayed effect on the brain that is specifically related to that six months of training,” Professor Valenzuela continued. 

Cognitive training did see improvements in memory at six months, although, "not as strong” at 18 months. A combination of both cognitive and strength training provided no significant results by the end of the experiment. 

“We had been expecting the two things to be better than either, but we didn’t see that,” Professor Valenzuela added.

RELATED: How To Tell If You're Lifting Too Light In Gym

“Our working hypothesis is that we may have overloaded participants with the double intervention of 45 minutes of strength training and then ... 45 minutes of brain training. My perspective is you probably need to space these things out and have a rest day in between.”

Valenzuela suggests that strength training has certain properties that can't be found in other forms of exercises. 

“Exercise stimulates a whole cocktail of biological changes in the bloodstream,” he explained. 

“Strength training specifically promotes anti-inflammatory types of mechanisms in the body ... and it strengthens your bones more specifically than aerobic [but] how you get from lifting a dumbbell to an improvement in the hippocampus is not clear at the moment.”

Turns out moving iron won't just get you a great rig. 

  • News
  • Health
  • Fitness
Alex Pierotti
Alex Pierotti
Alex Pierotti is the Digital Content Editor for Men's Health Australia, with experience reporting on health, fitness and sport. With a Journalism degree from UNSW under his belt, he got his start working in TV, working on the live broadcast of the Intrust Super Shute Shield on 7TWO before making the switch to print and digital at Pacific Magazines.

Subscribe Now-

Subscribe Now
Subscribe Now

Subscribe Now-

Subscribe Now
Subscribe Now

Recommended to you

Bjornsson Deadlifted 1,026 pounds On The Elephant Bar To Win 2020 Arnold Classic
Watch 0:10

Bjornsson Deadlifted 1,026 pounds On The Elephant Bar To Win 2020 Arnold Classic

{headline}

{headline}

These Are The Worst Training Mistakes You Can Make, According To Bodybuilders

These Are The Worst Training Mistakes You Can Make, According To Bodybuilders

How Surf God John John Florence Rehabbed His ACL In Record Time

How Surf God John John Florence Rehabbed His ACL In Record Time

Just One Energy Drink Can Increase Heart Attack Risk

Just One Energy Drink Can Increase Heart Attack Risk

This Guy Trained Like Chris Hemsworth For 90 Days, And His Results Were Insane

This Guy Trained Like Chris Hemsworth For 90 Days, And His Results Were Insane

{headline}

{headline}

Is It Healthy To Combine Intermittent Fasting With Keto?

Is It Healthy To Combine Intermittent Fasting With Keto?

Why 30/10 Is The Perfect Macro Ratio For Burning Fat

Why 30/10 Is The Perfect Macro Ratio For Burning Fat

8 Rules Of Muscle-Building, According To A Bodybuilder

8 Rules Of Muscle-Building, According To A Bodybuilder

{headline}

{headline}

5 Tips And Tricks To Hide A Receding Hairline

5 Tips And Tricks To Hide A Receding Hairline

Mike Tyson Just Announced His First Opponent

Mike Tyson Just Announced His First Opponent

Lewis Hamilton On The Physical and Mental Pressure To Stay Fit

Lewis Hamilton On The Physical and Mental Pressure To Stay Fit

Can You Finish This 220-Rep CrossFit Workout?

Can You Finish This 220-Rep CrossFit Workout?

LeBron James Breaks Down His Core-Busting Workout

LeBron James Breaks Down His Core-Busting Workout

What Happened When This Guy Followed Hugh Jackman's 'Wolverine' Diet

What Happened When This Guy Followed Hugh Jackman's 'Wolverine' Diet

A Kickboxer Just Broke The World Record For Most Punches Thrown In A Minute

A Kickboxer Just Broke The World Record For Most Punches Thrown In A Minute

MensHealth
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Statement
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Statement

Brands

  • Women's Health

Our Network

  • Paragon Media Pty Ltd
© 2021 Are Media PTY LTD
Get more from Men's Health

Magazine Subscription Offer

Subscribe Now-

Shop This Offer
Subscribe Now