Interest in resistance training as a cognitive intervention has grown as trials have separated its effects from those of aerobic exercise. Executive function — selective attention, conflict resolution, and working memory — is the domain most frequently shown to respond.
The best-known evidence comes from a 12-month randomized controlled trial of once- and twice-weekly resistance training in community-dwelling older women, which reported improvements in selective attention and conflict resolution relative to a balance-and-tone control, alongside associated changes in functional neural plasticity.
Proposed mechanisms include increased circulating IGF-1, reduced systemic inflammation, improved cerebral perfusion, and the cognitive demand of the training task itself. Notably, the trial dose was modest — once or twice weekly — which is relevant to adherence in patients who will not sustain daily exercise programs.
Cognitive benefit is not a substitute for medical management of cognitive decline, but resistance training is one of the few modifiable interventions with randomized evidence behind it and essentially no pharmacologic interaction risk.
A 12-month RCT of once- and twice-weekly resistance training versus balance-and-tone control in community-dwelling older women. Both resistance groups improved selective attention and conflict resolution, with associated changes in functional brain plasticity.
Executive function improved at a dose of once weekly.
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