Weight Training Protects Brain Health in Older Adults from Dementia

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Weight training offers numerous benefits, such as increasing strength and muscle mass, reducing body fat, and positively impacting mental health. Recent research at the State University of Campinas, Brazil, states that weight training is also beneficial in protecting the brain health of the elderly from dementia.

The study involved seniors with mild cognitive impairment. After six months of twice-weekly weight training, there was improvement in memory and brain anatomy. The report of the study has been published in the journal GeroScience. Isadora Ribeiro is the first author of the study.

Ribeiro stated that weight training contributes to improving physical and cognitive strength. However, his team wants to observe its effects on the brains of elderly individuals with mild cognitive impairment who are vulnerable to dementia.

"Our study shows that weight training is a powerful ally against dementia, even for people who are already at high risk of developing it," he said as reported by eurekalert.org, Thursday (3/4/2025).

In the study, the research participants were divided into two groups. One group underwent weight training twice a week with moderate to high intensity. The other group did not engage in any physical exercise during the six-month research period.

The group engaged in weight training demonstrated better performance in verbal episodic memory. This type of memory is associated with the ability to recall personal experiences, enabling the identification of the time and place of an event.

Increased muscle strength is associated with a reduced risk of dementia.

Meanwhile, the control group or participants who did not do weight training showed a decrease in brain parameters. The study was conducted at the Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology. In addition to neuropsychological tests, the researchers also performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans at the beginning and end of the study.

Ribeiro stated that a characteristic of individuals with mild cognitive impairment is the loss of volume in certain areas of the brain associated with the development of Alzheimer's. However, in the group that performed weight training, the right side of the hippocampus and the precuneus (a part of the brain involved in several cognitive functions) were protected from atrophy.

"These results confirm the importance of regular weight training, especially for older people," he said.

Another author of the study, Marcio Balthazar, stated that the research is very important as it highlights the need to involve more physical education instructors in the public health system at the primary healthcare level. This is because increased muscle strength is associated with a reduced risk of dementia.

“This is a less complicated and less expensive treatment that can protect people from serious disease,” he said.

As an illustration, a new anti-amyloid drug approved in the United States for the treatment of dementia costs approximately 30,000 US dollars per year. This cost is extremely high and could burden the finances of the community.

“Non-pharmacological measures, as we have shown in the case of weight training, are effective, not only in preventing dementia, but also in improving mild cognitive impairment,” he explained.

The benefits of weight training are not only to prevent dementia, previous studies have also shown other benefits of exercising our muscles. Research reported in 2021 showed that weight training can also burn body fat, as can jogging, running, and other aerobic activities.

The results of a study at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, published on September 18 in the journal Sports Medicine were conducted through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Researchers showed that we can lose 1.4 percent of total body fat by just strength training. This is equivalent to the results that can be obtained through cardio or aerobic exercise (Kompas.id, September 24, 2021).