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Effects of acute resistance exercise on cognition in late middle-aged adults: general or specific cognitive
Yu-Kai Chang1, Chia-Liang Tsai2, Chi-Chang Huang3
1Graduate Institute of Athletics and Coaching Science, National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Objectives:
To evaluate the effect of acute resistance exercise on multiple cognitive measures in late middle-aged adults and to address the question of whether general or selective cognitive improvements occur.
Design:
A counterbalanced repeated-measures experimental design.
Methods:
Thirty adults (mean age=58.1 ± 3.0 years) were administered five different Stroop test conditions before and after a single bout of resistance exercise and after a no-treatment control. The resistance exercise protocol involved two sets of seven exercises performed at 70% of a 10-repetition maximum, with 30 and 60 s between each set and each exercise, respectively.
Results:
The exercise treatment resulted in significantly enhanced performance across all Stroop conditions when compared with the control (p<.001). Furthermore, the effect of the exercise treatment on Stroop incongruent performance corresponded to the largest positive influence compared to the performance observed under the other four Stroop test conditions.
Conclusions:
These findings extend the current knowledge base by demonstrating that acute resistance exercise facilitates general cognition but has a more beneficial effect on cognition that involves executive control.
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