Exercising This Part of Your Body Can Support Long-Term Brain Health

If you want to age well, you probably won’t want to skip a leg day. Research shows that low muscle strength and leg strength can shorten life expectancy and reduce cognitive function in older people.

Muscle mass starts to decrease in your 30s. Maintaining muscle strength, especially in your legs, is important for healthy aging and brain function. The findings are linked sarcopenia disease– significant muscle loss – cognitive decline.

“The most powerful [and] “The most independent older patients I see are active and have stayed active throughout their lives,” said Amanda McKenna, PT, DPT, board-certified geriatric physical therapist and director of Geriatric Physical Therapy. Residency Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Rehabilitation Institute.

Staying active and building leg strength can help prevent falls. More than 14 million adults fall each year, with poor physical condition being the leading cause of injury.

Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in adults. Survivors often have a head injury, broken bones, or fear of falling again that prevents them from doing physical activities.

Why Is Leg Strength Linked to Mental Health?

Muscle strength and physical activity also affect brain health. The brain, especially the hippocampus, shrinks with age. The hippocampus is important for memory and cognitive function, and significant shrinkage of the hippocampus is seen in Alzheimer’s disease.

Although there is no proven way to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, regular exercise can help reduce your risk. And it doesn’t have to be much: a 2011 study found that aerobic exercise, such as walking, improved memory and the size of the hippocampus in adults.

“Maintaining leg strength through exercise can help protect against conditions such as dementia or Alzheimer’s, which are conditions associated with hippocampus shrinkage, and strong leg muscles are positively associated with larger hippocampus,” said Maegan Olivos PT, DPT, MPH, a board-certified specialist in geriatric physiotherapy at Denver Health.

A 2015 study with identical twins found a strong link between leg strength and improved cognitive aging. The researchers used MRIs to study changes in the brain and found improvements throughout the brain, not just the hippocampus.

“It probably doesn’t just affect areas that may be involved in Alzheimer’s disease—it affects the brain as a whole,” said Claire Steves, PhD, professor of aging and health at King’s College London and lead author of the 2015 study. .

Researchers are getting closer to understanding the mechanism that links exercise to brain health. More evidence shows that exercise may improve the body’s communication system and boost neurogenesis (or the formation of new nerves) in the brain, according to Steves.

Walking Speed ​​Matters

Leg strength can help you maintain your walking speed as well. A 2016 study found that people with a slow walking speed (how fast they walked) were three times more likely to have low social participation compared to people who with a fast walking speed.

Muscle weakness, pain, balance problems, nerve conditions, and heart health can contribute to reduced walking speed, according to Olivos.

Slow walkers may have difficulty participating in recreational activities. Loneliness and isolation can increase the risk of cognitive decline, depression, heart disease and early death.

Another way to combat slow motion? Make sure your leg muscles are ready to move. “Strengthening the leg muscles and building strength in those muscles will help with walking speed,” Olivos said.

Simple Exercises to Improve Your Leg Strength

If you want to build leg strength to help you age well, the first step is to talk to your health care provider to make sure that multitasking is safe for you. Once you get the green light, start slowly to reduce the risk of accidents.

“Once you are safely organized and prepared to exercise, you can do many of these exercises in your home,” Olivos said.

Holding on to the kitchen counter while doing heel lifts or walking in place is a simple exercise you can do at home. Try standing up and sitting down from a chair to start. Then, Olivos said, you can eventually hold irons or moderately heavy objects you have around the house, like a gallon jug filled with a few cups of water.

Finding a way to make exercise easier for you will make it easier to stick to a new routine. “We just have to change what we thought of as exercise and encourage activity throughout the day,” Olivos said.