Weightlifting May Improve Your Mental Health

Weightlifting can improve your health in many ways, like bettering glucose metabolism and lowering blood pressure. A recent study has shown that resistance training can improve mental health by aiding sleep cycles, lowering anxiety, and improving brain cognition to fight Alzheimer’s disease.

A study in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine titled “Resistance Training Improves Mental Health” details the many benefits of weight-lifting. The three people who conducted the study took a sample of persons and had them perform resistance training over a period while taking cognition tests. The persons in the sample showed improvement in quality of sleep, memory, self-esteem, and cognition.

Brain cognition refers to the ability to obtain knowledge through thought, experiences, and senses. People who practice resistance training increase their cognition and improve their executive control, which is a term referring to the brain’s ability to command and control tasks. Improvements in cognition help people take charge of their own lives and perform tasks with greater ease.

The increases in executive control and memory can help people fight diseases that affect brain cognition, like Alzheimer’s and dementia. It’s never too early or too late to start caring about your own mental health and fortunately, there are many ways to stay sharp from now into old age. Keeping your mind active by practicing math equations, studying languages, and playing music have all been shown to help cognition. With the study from American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, we know that resistance training and regular exercise can help just as much.