A Comparison of Brief Resistance and Aerobic Exercise Bouts on Cognitive Processing Speed in Young Adults

Research has found even a brief bout of exercise to be beneficial for improving processing speed. However, there is a lack of research directly comparing the effect of exercise modalities on processing speed. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a single brief bout of resistance exercise to aerobic exercise on cognitive processing speed in young adults. A total of 29 young adults ranging from 20-34 years of age (22.59±2.86 years) participated in a familiarization session followed by two randomized exercise conditions (aerobic, resistance). Each moderate-intensity exercise condition was followed by completion of a symbol search test to measure cognitive processing speed. A paired-samples t-test was conducted to assess differences in processing speed between aerobic and resistance exercise conditions. Processing speed scores in the aerobic exercise condition (M = 42.97, SD = 9.06) did not significantly differ (t(28) = -1.701, p = 0.100, d = 0.316) from processing speed scores in the resistance exercise condition (M = 44.62, SD = 9.28). Findings from our study suggest that either modality may be used by a healthy young adult population when exercising to improve processing speed. Future research should continue to explore the exercise and processing speed relationship using body weight and resistance band exercises, as used in the present study, on processing speed, because this may be a more attractive strategy for college students who often report time, accessibility, and cost as barriers to exercise.