About
As we age, the importance of exercise cannot be understated. Exercise offers some immediate benefits – you break a sweat, you feel good, and if you keep it up you find yourself fitting back into those old jeans. But the benefits of exercise go beyond simple aesthetic perks. The euphoria you feel after getting a good workout actually releases chemicals inside your brain that can protect against age-related cognitive decline, and many studies have illustrated the benefits of aerobic fitness on mental health. In addition, studies have shown that older adults who exercise experience higher levels of motivation in their daily lives, especially those that participate in resistance training (1).
But large questions remain about exactly how exercise works its magic on our brains.
So, what are the underlying mechanisms of how different exercise affects our brain? Caroline Chiwesko, a post-doctoral researcher in the Yassa Translational Neurobiology Lab, sets out to answer this question: “We are aiming to investigate how exercise affects our brain health and consequently our memory as we age. In particular, we are interested in examining whether cardiorespiratory fitness and resistance training have distinct beneficial effects on our brains.”
This study will examine healthy older adults between the ages of 60-90 who have a history of participating in aerobic or resistance training. The experiment involves an assessment of their cardiorespiratory fitness state with a six-minute walking test, and a test to measure muscular fitness using a computerized robotic device that measures your energy output. These fitness measures will be used in conjunction with brain imaging, to enable researchers to compare and contrast brain structure and brain activity between aerobic and strength training.
Many studies have investigated the effects of aerobic exercise on brain health, but the effects of resistance training on our brain has been neglected by researchers, according to Chwiesko. She notes that muscular fitness and cardiorespiratory fitness are accompanied by different physiological processes and adaptations in the body. It is precisely these different processes that her study aims to distinguish and understand the differential effects of aerobic versus strength training on brain processes.
If you are interested in participating, email Dr. Caroline Chwiesko (cchwiesk@uci.edu) for more information.
Works Cited
Kekäläinen, T., Kokko, K., Tammelin, T., Sipilä, S., & Walker, S. (2018). Motivational characteristics and resistance training in older adults: A randomized controlled trial and 1-year follow-up. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 28(11), 2416–2426. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13236
Impact
Future Studies
Project Team
Caroline Chwiesko, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar