Fascinating. Even the slightest improvement in handling glycolytic metabolism is beneficial to sedentary older people. So, if you plan on getting old, don't be sedentary. We knew this, didn't we?
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Strength training and dementia prevention
Researchers at the University of British Columbia have found that weight training is effective in preventing and even reversing mild dementia symptoms in seniors. The study targeted women aged 70-80, and found that resistance training was more effective either than aerobic exercise, or than balance/toning classes.
FYI, among other things, participants in the study did squats.After six months, compared to those in the balance and tone classes, the strength-training group showed "significant" cognitive improvement, the researchers said in this week's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Those in the strength-training group also showed changes in activity in specific parts of the brain's cortex that are associated with cognitive behaviour.
TMPHBITEU
Fascinating. Even the slightest improvement in handling glycolytic metabolism is beneficial to sedentary older people. So, if you plan on getting old, don't be sedentary. We knew this, didn't we?
✓ Member
Additionally, I did a bunch of research on creatine (go figure) for a submission to JSCR (don't judge me- I was dumber then) and there's a lot of data on creatine having a positive effect on bioenergetic disorders in neurons like Huntington's, Parkinson's, dementia, etc. The article got rejected, probably the first one on creatine to be shunned by the JSCR, and I do not have the rights to post the paper here. However, the data is very promising and I would think that resistance training aids in upregulating creatine production, storage, and metabolism- which may be part of the pathway involved in the positive outcome.
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I haven't been able to find the fulltext of the study, but this link has more information, and a video showing the exercises they did. Looks like they had the geezers do quarter-squats, leg presses, lunges, rubber band rows, and lat pulldowns. Imagine the benefits if they hadn't done bullshit halfassed exercises, huh?
✓ Member
Heh. You said geezers.Originally Posted by Mark Edward
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Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, you never know when diminishing returns will kick in.
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If this research had shown that aerobic conditioning would've improved cognitive function more than strength training this board would've collectively slammed the research for not using full ROM of the proper exercises that they used and using (machine based) exercises this board mostly agrees on are useless. It would've been argued that the potential benefits of progressive strength training weren't achieved because protein intake wasn't adjusted accordingly.
But now that they 'preached to SS.com's choir' we find it to be "fascinating"?
Is that what science calls a bias?
The women chosen in this exercise were between 70 and 80 years old and they all had cognitive problems of some kind. The researchers themselves theorized that the mental focus required to first learn the new gym movements and then execute those movements with proper form while being under load (a distraction) might've contributed to the measured cognitive improvements. Were all these women retired sitting home (alone?) and doing nothing mentally engaging? Use it or lose it might just as well apply to the mind as the muscle here. And that makes the causation between strength training and improved cognitive function not necessarily proven.
Regardless, interesting study and I hope it'll be on Sully's review of 2012.
TMPHBITEU
You're right. Any study using quarter squats is a shitty study. I stand corrected.
Member
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure quarter squats and leg presses are better for sedentary 80 year old ladies than nothing at all. But I'd like to see a study like this done by people who know something about exercise, for once.
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I agree about using more substantial exercises of course, but consider the population. My daughter volunteers at a nearby senior's home; I can't imagine even one of the 70-80 year old women she visits there being capable of even one unweighted full ROM squat. Particularly those who might not only be frail, but tending towards obesity. Add to that a rather vivid loss of proprioception for most even of the more active residents, and it takes little to realize that the full ROM free weight exercises like we advocate here will only happen a significant number of steps down the road ... if ever.
Bear in mind that in this demographic, a broken leg or hip from a fall very often means the end of mobility/autonomy, and statistically, a radically shortened lifespan. Even minor injuries heal far more slowly. So the risks of losing balance while under a load are rather different than for the rest of us. We can argue that a full ROM squat is ultimately "safer" and more "protective" than quarter squats ... and in absolute terms I'd agree. But probably not for novices in this age group.
That said, the thing I found most interesting about the study is that they did apparently build in control groups doing other forms of exercise. We already know that seniors benefit from living lives with more engagement and stimulation - and all three activities added that. So the positive benefits are associated with the activity itself, not simply with activity period.
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