Resistance training improves memory, study says

A single session of high-intensity resistance training can improve memory, according to a study in Brain and Behaviour, a journal that publishes research in neurology, neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry.

The study included 60 young adults, men and women aged 19-27, who were divided into a training group and a control group. The training group participated in one resistance training session, while the control group did not. Two days later, researchers compared the two groups. To assess both groups’ memory performance, they administered verbal recall tests and used MRIs to examine brain function.

The participants who completed the high-resistance training — which can involve weights or resistance bands — were able to recall more words than the group that didn’t undergo the training, according to the study.

The MRI data showed enhanced “left posterior hippocampal connectivity,” according to the study. “This enhanced connectivity was associated with the observed improvements in memory performance, supporting the hypothesis that resistance training can positively affect the brain’s memory-related network,” according to PsyPost.

And what researchers found interesting is that even one session of resistance training can make a difference. “These results suggest that brief high-intensity resistance exercise/strength training could enhance memory without repeated exercising,” according to Brain and Behaviour’s study. The study was authored by Teruo Hashimoto, Rikimasa Hotta and Ryuta Kawashima from Tohoku University in Japan.

High-intensity resistance training, or HIRT, is a variation of the high-intensity and focused interval training, or HIIT, which is aimed at building muscle through a series of exercises. HIRT exercises can employ dumbbells, cables, suspension trainers or fixed bars, according to TechnoGym.

Another study, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience and conducted in 2023, found that resistance training exercises are beneficial for cognitive function, “producing neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects,” helping to prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other kinds of dementia.

Researchers at the University of Sydney conducted a clinical trial for older people at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Participants had computerized brain training and strength training, which they did for six months, according to a 2020 study. “The long-term study found that strength training led to overall benefits to cognitive performance, benefits linked to protection from degeneration in specific subregions of the hippocampus,” according to the University of Sydney story about the study.

Speaking to Daryl Austin for USA Today last year, Dr. Loren Fishman, a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Columbia University and the medical director of Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, explained, “When you resistance train, you’re working muscles that are opposed by a weight or force.”

“This opposition can come from weights, mechanical or electromechanical devices found in gym machines, flexible bands or your body weight,” Fishman said.