Title: Strength Training Can Boost Heart and Brain Health
Headings: Strength Training’s Surprising Health Benefits
Strength Training’s Surprising Health Benefits
How lifting weights can protect your brain, blood sugar, mood, and more
Benefit No. 1: It boosts your mood
Benefit No. 2: It lowers your risk of type 2 diabetes
Benefit No. 3: It can prevent heart disease
Benefit No. 4: It staves off dementia
Benefit No 5: It improves symptoms of chronic kidney disease
Benefit No 6: It keeps you on your feet
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Content: Indeed, a Japanese study published this past March in the Journal of Diabetes Investigation found that when older people in their 60s engaged in low-intensity resistance training twice a week for 16 weeks, they had significant improvements in their blood glucose levels. Benefit No. 3: It can prevent heart disease
Strength training may be even more protective for your ticker than aerobic exercise, according to a study of 4,086 adults presented last November at the American College of Cardiology. Best of all, you don't have to do a lot to see benefits. A study published last year, in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, revealed that less than an hour of weekly resistance exercise reduces risk of developing metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and elevated blood sugar, that raise risk of heart disease) by up to 70 percent. Benefit No. 4: It staves off dementia
Exercise has long been touted for its brain-boosting benefits, but resistance training in particular seems to be protective against MCI, a precursor to dementia. When researchers examined 100 adults between the ages of 55 and 86 with MCI, they found that those who did strength training twice a week showed significant improvement in their cognitive function after an 18-month period, compared with those who didn't.