Bigger Bicepts, Bigger Bean

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/phys-ed-brains-and-brawn/

"... most of the science to date about activity and brain health has focused on the role of endurance exercise in improving our brain functioning. Aerobic exercise causes a steep spike in blood movement to the brain, an action that some researchers have speculated might be necessary for the creation of new brain cells, or neurogenesis. Running and other forms of aerobic exercise have been shown, in mice and men, to lead to neurogenesis in those portions of the brain associated with memory and thinking, providing another compelling reason to get out at lunchtime and run."

"In somewhat similar fashion, researchers from Japan recently found that loading the running wheels of animals improved their brain functioning. A loaded running wheel is not strictly analogous to weight lifting; it’s more similar in human terms to a stationary bicycle with the resistance dialed high — in this case, quite high, as the resistance equaled 30 percent of the rats’ body weights in the last week of the monthlong study. By then, the rats on the loaded wheels could run barely half as far as a separate group of rats on unloaded wheels, but the mice on the loaded wheels had packed on muscle mass, unlike the other rats. The animals that were assigned to the loaded wheels showed significantly increased levels of gene activity and B.D.N.F. levels within their brains. The higher the workload the animals managed to complete, the greater the genetic activity within their brains."

"Imagine what someone like Einstein might have accomplished if he had occasionally gone to the gym."


There you have it, proof positive that weightlifting is good for your brain.  Ok, not really, but here's where science has failed us in some respects.  Researchers have studied endurance athletes quite a bit more than other kinds, so extrapolation is required to estimate results for other types of exercise.  In my view, it would just be gravy if the high intensity, heavy weight training proves to be beneficial to the brain, because we know it's needed to age optimally.  Being more cognitively capable is grand, but so is a body that will do what the brains directs it to do.