Objectives: To evaluate the effect of acute resistance exercise on multiple cognitive measures in late middle-aged adults and to address the question of whether general or selective cognitive improvements occur.
Design: A counterbalanced repeated-measures experimental design.
Methods: Thirty adults (mean age=58.1 ± 3.0 years) were administered five different Stroop test conditions before and after a single bout of resistance exercise and after a no-treatment control. The resistance exercise protocol involved two sets of seven exercises performed at 70% of a 10-repetition maximum, with 30 and 60 s between each set and each exercise, respectively.
Results: The exercise treatment resulted in significantly enhanced performance across all Stroop conditions when compared with the control (p<.001). Furthermore, the effect of the exercise treatment on Stroop incongruent performance corresponded to the largest positive influence compared to the performance observed under the other four Stroop test conditions.
Conclusions: These findings extend the current knowledge base by demonstrating that acute resistance exercise facilitates general cognition but has a more beneficial effect on cognition that involves executive control.
Keywords: Cognitive ageing; Executive function; Neuropsychological assessment; Strength training.
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