Summary: Brain endurance training (BET), a combined cognitive and exercise approach, has been shown to significantly improve cognitive and physical performance in older adults. In a study with sedentary women aged 65-78, BET participants showed greater improvements in attention and executive function, along with increased physical endurance.
This method, originally developed for athletes, could play a role in reducing age-related cognitive decline and physical challenges such as balance issues. The BET group saw higher gains in both mental and physical tests than exercise-only participants. Researchers hope these findings will inspire more older adults to incorporate BET into their routines. Further studies are planned to validate the results on a larger, more diverse sample.
Key Facts:
- BET improved cognitive performance by 7.8% vs. 4.5% in the exercise-only group.
- BET participants showed a 29.9% physical performance increase compared to 22.4%.
- BET helps counteract mental fatigue, benefiting both brain and body performance.
Source: University of Birmingham
Brain endurance training (BET), a combined cognitive and exercise training method developed for athletes, boosts cognitive and physical abilities in older adults.
According to a new study by researchers at the Universities of Birmingham, UK, and Extremadura, Spain, brain endurance training (BET) can improve attention and executive function (cognition), as well as physical endurance and resistance exercise performance.
BET is a combined exercise and cognitive training method that was originally developed to increase endurance among elite athletes.
The research has implications for healthy aging. Previous studies have shown that mental fatigue can impair both cognitive and physical performance, including poorer balance control, leading to increased risk of falls and accidents.
This study, published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise, is the first to examine the benefits of BET for both cognitive 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 a period of 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 prior to exercising.
All three groups completed a series of cognitive (reaction time and colour-matching tests) and physical tests (walk, chair-stand and arm-curl tests) to assess performance at the start and end of the study. articipants 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.
“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.”
About this brain training and aging research news
Author: Beck Lockwood
Source: University of Birmingham
Contact: Beck Lockwood – University of Birmingham
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Brain endurance training improves sedentary older adults’ cognitive and physical performance when fresh and fatigued” by Chris Ring et al. Psychology of Sport and Exercise
Abstract
Brain endurance training improves sedentary older adults’ cognitive and physical performance when fresh and fatigued
Objectives
Cognitive and physical performance is impaired by aging and fatigue. Cognitive and exercise training may mitigate such impairments. Accordingly, we investigated the effect of Brain Endurance Training (BET) – combined cognitive and exercise training – on cognitive and physical performance when fresh and fatigued in older adults.
Design
Twenty-four healthy sedentary women (65–78 years) were randomly allocated to one of three training groups: BET, exercise training, and control (no training). The BET and exercise training groups completed the same physical training protocol comprising three 45-min exercise sessions (20-min resistance exercise plus 25-min endurance exercise) per week for eight weeks. The BET group completed a 20-min cognitive task prior to exercise tasks. Cognitive (tasks: psychomotor vigilance, Stroop) and physical (tests: walk, chair-stand, arm curl) performance was tested when fresh and fatigued (before and after a 30-min cognitive task) at weeks 0 (pre-test), 4 (mid-test), 8 (post-test), and 12 (follow-up test).
Results
Cognitive and physical and performance was generally superior when fresh and fatigued at mid-test and post-test for both BET and exercise training groups compared to the control group. The BET group outperformed the exercise group when fatigued at mid-test and post-test both cognitively (always) and physically (sometimes). The pre-to-post changes in cognitive performance when fresh and fatigued averaged 3.7 % and 7.8 % for BET, 3.6 % and 4.5 % for exercise, and −0.4 % and 0.3 % for control groups. The corresponding changes in physical performance averaged 16.5 % and 29.9 % for BET, 13.8 % and 22.4 % for exercise, and 10.8 % and 7.1 % for control groups.
Conclusion
These findings show that BET can improve cognitive and physical performance in older adults.
