Brain endurance training (BET) is an exercise that combines cognitive and physical training made for athletes (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Brain endurance training improves sedentary older adults’ cognitive and physical performance when fresh and fatigued
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A new study from the Universities of Birmingham and Extremadura found that BET can enhance attention and executive function in older adults, as well as improve their physical endurance and exercise performance.
This research is important for promoting healthy aging, as previous studies have shown that mental fatigue can negatively affect both mental and physical abilities, increasing the risk of falls and accidents.
Brain Endurance Training Improves Health in Older Adults
The study, published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise explores how BET benefits both mental and physical performance in older adults.
Corresponding author Professor Chris Ring said: “We have shown that BET could be an effective intervention to improve cognitive and physical performance in older adults, even when fatigued. This could have significant implications for improving healthspan in this population, including reducing the risk of falls and accidents.”
In the experiment, 24 healthy sedentary women aged between 65-78 were allocated to one of three training groups: brain endurance training (BET), exercise training, and no training (control group). The first two groups each completed three 45-minute exercise sessions per week over eight weeks. Each session included 20 minutes of resistance training and 25 minutes of endurance training. While the exercise sessions were the same for each of these groups, the BET group also completed a 20-minute cognitive task before exercising.
Cognitive and Physical Gains from Brain Endurance Training
All three groups completed a series of cognitive (reaction time and color-matching tests) and physical tests (walk, chair-stand, and arm-curl tests) to assess performance at the start and end of the study. Participants in the BET group outperformed the exercise-only group in the cognitive tasks, with a 7.8% increase in cognitive performance after exercise, compared to a 4.5% increase in the exercise-only group. In terms of physical performance, the BET group achieved a 29.9% improvement, compared to 22.4% for the exercise-only group.
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“BET is an effective countermeasure against mental fatigue and its detrimental effects on performance in older adults,” added Professor Ring. “While we still need to extend our research to include larger sample sizes including both men and women, these promising initial findings show we should do more to encourage older people to engage in BET to improve brain and body activities.”
Reference:
- Brain endurance training improves sedentary older adults’ cognitive and physical performance when fresh and fatigued – (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029224001687?)
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