How strength training can protect our brains as we age and build muscle mass for longevity
Studies show that retaining muscle mass as you age, especially through resistance training, may help safeguard your cognitive health
We talk in terms of “use it or lose it” for both brawn and brain: if you do not use your muscles, they’ll waste; if you do not use your brain, it too, may shrink.
“Our brains are like any other part of our body,” says David Merrill, an adult and geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Pacific Brain Health Centre in the US state of California.
“‘Use it or lose it’ is not just a hypothesis, it’s a basic biological fact that holds as true for our brains as our muscles or our bones.”
Increasingly, it seems the two are linked: you cannot see your brain getting “stronger” – but what you can see in improved muscle tone or strength in the body might reflect the state of your cognitive health.
Recently, scientists at Monash University, in Australia, looked at the relationship between muscle volume and brain structure and found a link between greater thigh muscle volume in midlife and brain volumes.
