(Photo illustration by Jim Cooke / photos by Getty Images)
Exercise has long been linked with stronger brains and reduced risk of dementia and other cognitive diseases. But new research suggests that older adults can significantly improve brain health with only a few minutes of daily movement.
Researchers from the University of South Australia and the U.S.-based AdventHealth Research Institute found that as few as five minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise a day correlated to significantly better cognitive performance. The study, published in the British journal Age & Ageing in early April, examined data from hundreds of people 65 to 80 years old.
Researchers found that “huff-and-puff” movements, like running or lap swimming, were associated with better brain functions including information processing, focusing and multitasking and short-term memory. They also found that even a few minutes of moderate exercise like walking improves brain functions.
“Our key finding was that moving from doing zero minutes or very little moderate-to-vigorous physical activity to doing just five minutes a day — that’s where the biggest gain in cognitive function was seen,” said the study’s lead author, Maddison Mellow, a research associate at the University of South Australia.
The researchers distinguished between moderate and vigorous exercise by applying a simple test: whether subjects could still manage to speak full sentences after moving around. Vigorous exercise makes that impossible, said Audrey Collins, a postdoctoral research scientist at AdventHealth Research Institute and the paper’s co-lead author.
The study observed 585 people, all in good health. Their physical activity was measured using accelerometers they wore on their wrists; the researchers tested cognitive functions using online and paper-based tests.
Worth noting: This study also found a “strong relationship” between spending little to no time doing moderate to vigorous activity and poorer cognitive performance, Mellow said. One slightly surprising finding, she added, was that the cognitive performance gains from exercise don’t extend to longer-term memory and visual-spatial functions like judging distances or sizes.
The study was novel in that it categorized how people divided their days into three behaviors: sleep, sedentary and active. And though getting enough quality sleep is important to brain health in midlife and beyond, the researchers said that when forced to choose between minutes spent sleeping and minutes spent exercising, reducing sleep time to spend more time moving resulted in better brain function.
“It didn’t really matter, in this sample, where time was coming from, whether from sleep, sedentary behavior or light intensity physical activity,” Mellow said. “So long as time was being increased in moderate vigorous activity, that’s where the benefits were being shown for cognitive outcomes.”
With that in mind, what are some moderate or vigorous bursts of exercise for older adults to do every day? We consulted experts to give you five accessible options.
1. Walking
Two experts I spoke with each said the easiest way to clock those five daily minutes for brain health is by walking.
“Walking is No. 1, because that’s the easiest,” said E. Todd Schroeder, professor of clinical physical therapy and the director of the Clinical Exercise Research Center at USC. Very sedentary older adults may want to start with simple flat-ground walking at their normal pace, Schroeder says.
If you’re already a steady, regular walker, kick up the pace to elevate your heart rate into that all-important moderate category.
“A brisk walk is considered to be moderate activity,” said Rob Musci, an assistant professor of health and human sciences at Loyola Marymount University. On a scale of 1 to 10, moderate exercise is what you would consider being in the 4 to 6 range, Musci said.
To achieve a real huff-and-puff workout, walking or hiking briskly uphill is excellent, Schroeder said, because it also necessarily requires walking back down hill.
“That interval-type training is good,” he said, “where your heart rate goes up for a time then comes back down.”
2. Swimming
Swimming is a terrific way to get a full-body workout and raise your heart rate.
“It’s easy on the joints,” Shroeder said. “Even if you struggle with the technique of swimming, you can put on fins and get some at least moderate exercise.”
3. Cycling
Cycling can be on a stationary bike or an outdoor bike, many of which are now battery-assisted, making pedaling up hills almost too easy. One reason I like old-fashioned outdoor bikes, sans batteries, is that they also train balance and require your brain to keep you safe.
4. Resistance training
Lifting weights is one of the best ways to maintain muscle strength as we age, Musci said. Try these simple exercises you can easily do at home in fewer than three minutes. They include:
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Tossing a weighted ball from one hand to another (try it standing on one leg)
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Squats holding a kettlebell, dumbbell, a bag of oranges or nothing at all
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Weighted chest presses in boat pose
5. Gardening and housework
Gardening can be a great way to engage core muscles, encourage flexibility and practice fine motor skills. Even basic house cleaning, like scrubbing a bathtub or mopping a floor, can qualify as moderate exercise.
“Anything that gets your heart going is what we’re looking for,” Musci said. “You hear about all these high-end interventions, fitness programs and boot camps, but in reality, it’s just movement.”
The most important thing, he said, is “just getting off the couch.”
Von Zielbauer is the creator of Aging With Strength on Substack.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
