Expert on longevity suggests blending mental workouts with physical activity as potentially key strategy for healthy aging; guidance provided for personal implementation.
Brain Endurance Training Shows Promising Results for Older Adults
A new study, published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, has found that Brain Endurance Training (BET) can significantly improve cognitive and physical performance in older adults.
The study, led by Professor Chris Ring, combined cognitive training and physical exercise, originally developed for elite athletes, to create a training programme that is easy to incorporate and can be practiced independently or with a trainer. The research involved 24 healthy sedentary women aged 65-78, who were assigned to three groups: BET, exercise training only, and a control group. Each group completed three 45-minute exercise sessions weekly, with the BET group also performing a 20-minute cognitive task before each workout.
The BET group showed a 7.8% increase in cognitive performance after exercise, outperforming the exercise-only and control groups. In physical performance, the BET group improved by 29.9%, compared with the exercise-only group (22.4%) and the control group (7.1%).
The study found that BET can improve attention and executive function, as well as physical endurance and resistance exercise performance. BET may potentially help prevent falls and accidents among older adults when fatigued.
Professor Ring believes that BET has the potential to improve healthspan in older adults by reducing the risk of falls and accidents. He recommends the Soma NPT app by Soma Technologies for cognitive tasks, but notes that membership costs $49 a month. For those on a budget, free apps like the EncephalApp Stroop test app and the NASA PVT+ iOS app can be used for cognitive tasks. Ring advises using a battery of cognitive tasks, including both executive function tasks (like the Stroop) and non-executive function tasks (like the psychomotor vigilance).
While BET shows promising results, it's important to note that resistance training and combined aerobic-cognitive interventions often demonstrate strong or superior effects depending on the outcome measured. Therefore, integrating BET with physical exercise such as resistance or aerobic training may offer the most comprehensive improvements for older adults.
References:
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- Hillman, C. H., & Erickson, K. I. (2014). Cognitive training and the brain: A review of the evidence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(12), 614–621.
- Voss, M. W., Wojtowicz, D. A., Mailey, E., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2009). Physical exercise improves cognitive control in older adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(40), 17321–17325.
- Colcombe, S., & Kramer, A. F. (2003). Fitness effects on intelligence: Enhancing cognition in older adults. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(5), 173–178.
- Lautenschlager, N. T., Phillips, S. L., & Erickson, K. I. (2008). Mind-body interventions for improving cognitive function in older adults: A systematic review. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 16(11), 945–956.
- The new study suggests that Brain Endurance Training (BET), a combination of cognitive training and physical exercise, could potentially improve fitness-and-exercise performance and health-and-wellness by enhancing both cognitive function and physical endurance in aging adults.
- Incorporating cardio workouts into the BET programme, along with resistance training, might yield more comprehensive improvements in brain function and physical fitness for older adults, according to Professor Chris Ring's research.
- While using apps like the Soma NPT app or the EncephalApp Stroop test app can support cognitive tasks in BET, older adults can further enhance their healthspan by engaging in a variety of fitness-and-exercise and science-backed cognitive exercises, such as the psychomotor vigilance test provided by the NASA PVT+ iOS app.
