These 5 Lean Muscle-Building Exercises May Lower Alzheimer’s Disease Risk

These 5 Lean Muscle-Building Exercises May Lower Alzheimer’s Disease Risk - Dementia is one of the most insidious diseases I face in the clinic. In lunchtime conversations for over three decades, I’ve seen nurses and therapists universally agree that it's the disease we'd most like to avoid with aging.

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Sep 20, 2023 - 04:35
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These 5 Lean Muscle-Building Exercises May Lower Alzheimer’s Disease Risk

These 5 Lean Muscle-Building Exercises May Lower Alzheimer’s Disease Risk

Dementia is one of the most insidious diseases I face in the clinic. In lunchtime conversations for over three decades, I’ve seen nurses and therapists universally agree that it's the disease we'd most like to avoid with aging. Where other diseases tend to impose health and functional deficits on intact individuals, dementia can actually change who you are.

While dementia results from changes in specific brain regions causing nerve cells and their connections to function abnormally, the exact trigger for these changes is not yet fully understood. There is, however, growing evidence that regular exercise has the potential to prevent Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline.

Exercise promotes neurogenesis by increasing exercise-induced metabolic factors, has anti-inflammatory benefits, and improves brain redox balance, which is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

Exercise and Alzheimer's Disease

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that building lean muscle may reduce Alzheimer's disease risk. Another recent review published in Ageing Research Reviews concluded that exercise and high levels of lean muscle provide numerous benefits through different pathways that might help reduce the risk and progression of Alzheimer's disease. Lean mass, or the difference between total mass and fat mass, was associated with higher cognitive task scores.

In rehabilitation, we have a saying: "Healthier before, healthier after." Patients who were fit before entering the medical system usually have healthier outcomes compared to those who were not fit to begin with. It can make the rehabilitation process much easier for everyone involved.

My colleague, Isaac Raj, a certified exercise physiologist and fitness trainer, recommends the following exercises for optimal muscular growth. These exercises are designed to target all areas of the body quickly and efficiently, which can build more lean muscle mass.

This is intended as a higher-intensity workout, so we recommend that you transition between the different exercises rapidly—resting just long enough to catch your breath before moving on to the next one. The exercises include sets of 10 repetitions, which fall toward the upper end of the six to 10 reps per set that have been shown as optimal for muscular growth, according to Mr. Raj.

Sit-to-Stands

This exercise targets lower body strengthening. It includes the large quadricep, hamstring, and gluteal muscles, which respond well to exercise and can significantly increase your lean muscle mass while strengthening core muscles.
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