Purpose: We investigated the effects of an acute bout of resistance exercise on the planning component of executive function in late-middle-age adults.
Methods: With a within-subjects design, 30 community-dwelling adults (mean age = 57.20 ± 2.93 yr, 16 females) experienced both resistance exercise and control treatment conditions. The exercise condition involved two sets of 10 repetitions of 70% of 10-repetition maximum of seven exercises, whereas the control condition consisted of reading. Planning was assessed before and immediately after each treatment via the Tower of London task.
Results: Acute resistance exercise facilitated Tower of London performances in terms of less total move scores, more total correct scores, and a longer total initial time compared with control and baseline.
Conclusions: Our results expand the existing literature by demonstrating that resistance exercise has a positive effect on cognition and contributes to improved quality of planning, working memory, and inhibition aspects of executive function.