Brain-Health Benefits of Weightlifting
psychologytoday.com
psychologytoday.com
This is the referenced study, I was impressed with the results. 12.6% is notable!
lot of people on HN i'm sure like me, sit at desk all day.
good to be reminded to get up and workout.
Feeling more capable has driven me to do quite a few uncharacteristic things, lately. I'm not sure this counts as a direct benefit on brain health, but I've been made happier by it.
As western society skews older and resistance training becomes even more common as a means to combat the effects of aging, I wonder if more people will adopt creatine as an essential supplement? Combined with weight training, the benefits seem easily worth the relatively low costs (creatine is about as cheap as supplements get). It's very beneficial for older adults: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21394604/
Anecdotally, both my parents are in their 70s and I've finally managed to get them to take creatine (along with regular resistance training in the gym)...the results are really incredible. Both have noticeably improved their functional strength and my mom in particular has had a bit of a transformation. A lot of women don't like creatine (water bloat is generally a much bigger drawback for women than men) but at my mom's age she doesn't care and has really taken to it.
Haven't even considered mental benefits of their training frankly but in retrospect it seems obvious as well.
If you have elderly people in your life: encourage them to take up resistance training...the benefits are undeniable. And just as a bit of lagniappe once you do that, you might also convince them to try creatine.
But for "the rest of us" yes...maybe the closest thing to a consensus out there is if you're sensitive to DHT and have experienced hair loss (common male pattern baldness) creatine could possibly impact you. The effect isn't even universally acknowledged to exist so it seems safe to assume it's minor enough that if you're treating DHT hair loss (finasteride) already it wouldn't impact you.
It's also available in pill form of course but that quickly gets expensive.
Stir and swallow / chew :)
I have an aging FIL and curious about the effect of it on someone starting in their early - mid 70's
Anecdotal only of course, would obviously consult a Dr.
I've been on it for a few years now and the results have been pretty great.
1. Bodyweight: where you lift your body: squats, pushups, etc.
2. Elastic bands: like those used in pilates
3. Weights: like dumbbells and barbells
4. Machines: like the ones in gyms.
Usually, though, pushing strength is enough for most people for their legs, so if you mean in terms of hard, difficult movements, then working your way up to pistol squats is a good goal for most people.
Deads hit mostly glutes and hams, almost no quads, but a bit more back involvement
I recommend doing both, personally
If you want bodyweight only then probably pistol squats but it's difficult to work the legs that much with just bodyweight because they already carry your body weight every day
If you were only ever allowed to do one exercise, I would say the squats is the best.
It hits the big muscles. Forces you to learn balance through the range of motion. And improves flexibility.
The hormone release from training big muscles under heavy weight will echo throughout the body and help stimulate growth everywhere.
Deadlift is more fun, hits the big muscles, and you can go even heavier. But I don’t see the same benefits when I focus on a heavy deadlift cycle as compared to a heavy squat cycle.
The CNR fatigue really helps with getting to sleep and I feel better the following week(s).
I feel great on a DL cycle and my proportions make me relatively much better at deads than squats so I tend to do them more. But I also recognize that for general health and fitness squats are probably better if you were forced to choose.
Personally I've found overhead pressing to be prone to to pulling my back, and only do it with a belt now.
I don't tell anyone to deadlift unless I'm there coaching them. Even then, I'm not good enough. You should get a qualified trainer if you want to deadlift, and you should make damn sure your doing everything else right first, sleeping, stretching, eating right, etc.
The % of people who are gonna benefit from walking up to a bar and doing a deadlift right now in the West is probably something like 10%.
You think it's not a big deal until you start meeting people who seriously injured themselves..some of them have been working out for years, some just getting started.
Since this is in the context of benefits for older people, Stuart McGill, a back expert who has helped lots of power-lifters recover from major injuries, recommends against going for higher and higher PRs as you get older:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM599A6wUAw&pp=ygUXaXMgZGVhZ...
(What's not clear to me after watching the video was if just doing moderately-heavy sets of 12 would introduce the same kind of risk he's talking about.)
ETA: The kind of injury he's talking about is decades-long cumulative bone and joint injury that only starts to be noticeable once you're 70. (Unless you're a wordl-class competitive athlete, in which case you notice a lot earlier.). Early in the video he talks about 50-year-old powerlifters coming to him, asking how they can continue to do PRs into their 60's. And he says, basically, do you want to do PRs through your 60's, or do you want to be able to get down on the ground and play with your grandkids when you're 85? Because I can help you do one or the other, but I can't help you do both.
One of the points he makes frequently in his videos is that while bones can get stronger, similar to muscles, the rest time they need to actually recover from being stressed is a lot longer; something like 7 days. And so if you're deadlifting PRs for years and years, with only 3-4 days between maxed-out sets, you're going to be accumulating micro-fractures in your vertebrae, which will eventually catch up with you.
Anyway, def worth the watch.
Drs. Baraki and Feigenbaum's (from Barbell Medicine) response: https://player.fm/series/barbell-medicine-podcast/episode-29...
Jonathon Sullivan's response (author of The Barbell Prescription): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O491cW89Ky8
The first link seems to be in response to a podcast by Andrew Huberman (sp?) about back pain, which also contains some comments about McGill in general; but nothing directly about what he says in the video I posted. People might find it interesting in its own right but not as directly relevant to the question of deadlifts in older people.
If anyone is interested in learning about weight lifting, Starting Strength (by Mark Rippetoe) is a GREAT book to start with!
Starting slow and doing good form squats and slow burpees could improve your knee health to the point where you can do regular-tempo burpees. However, don't get medical advice from internet forums.
The only exception is low-bar/leg disability, then I think it might be better to keep it bodyweight and machine oriented (such as leg press).
It does require a bicycle (and shoes/straps), but a bike isn't usually considered gym equipment, and it's heavily involved with your body weight.
It's possible to move from an easier form (simple squat) to a harder one by progressively shifting weight on one leg at a time.
If you have a good 40m to run, then I would also do interval sprints.
I really enjoy bodyweight movements and I include them in my routine, mainly splits squats, pushups, pull ups and abs, but I still think one of the best things you can do to yourself is trying to get over what you call "hassle of going to the gym".
If done properly, the gym will teach you periodization and allow you to: - practice different repetition patterns - you can't perform useful 6's, 10's and 15's if you can't change the (body)weight variable - you can't perform useful < 15reps (for strength or hypertrophy) if you can do 100 repetitions of it (like abs or pushups) - want to work the delts? Just get into a rack and press the bar up, get a minimum weight dumbbell and do some raises, facepull a rope. Now try it in bodyweight movements. - form a habit (you have to go to the gym, if you hate exercises, being at home will just be a "I will a do pushup and it's over).
It's always about preferences, but honestly, I find that creating and maintaining a bodyweight workout routine will always be harder and a last-case option compared to the gym.
Does periodization even matter? Professional fighters are some of the fittest athletes on the planet, functionally and aesthetically, and they aren't worried about weightlifting routines (if they lift weights at all).
If you want to add power to some movement then practicing it repeatedly at full force can work. But you run into repetitive strain injuries, it’s much safer to build power using weights and controlled movements.
Critically these are very focused workouts. A professional wants to build strength in very specific ways as unnecessary bulk is actively harmful in most sports.
I worked for the Blackzillians and American Top Team UFC teams and I can assure GP that they absolutely do a lot of weightlifting. They don’t worry about routines because that’s what their coaches are for. They track their fighters and automatically adjust the training program when they stall.
I know for a fact this isn't true. I know high-level amateur fighters (ie aspiring pros) who don't lift any weights.
These concerns are especially relevant for the elderly.
Getting started with a body weight routine or simple bands or kettle bell setup at home has huge advantages.
My recommendation would be to rent a rowing machine and try that first.
Edit: I should also say that I use weights like dumbbells and kettlebells at home. Not needed to start out, but very helpful.
What you illustrated here is perfect for someone who's seriously looking into improving not just their general health but also their strength and, sometimes we have difficulty admitting, their looks. But for the purposes of breaking a sedentary lifestyle and get into a level of general fitness, basic bodyweight exercises is a good start.
When I started working from home full-time in the summer of 2019, I worried about my health because even though I was not working out in my last job, it forced me to walk and climb eight flights of stairs every day. Know what I started with to make sure I don't become sedentary? Just 10 push-ups a day, which then became 10 push-ups every 2 hours after a week. Then I added some squats, then some lunges, and so on and so forth.
Fast forward to 5 years later today, I either go to the gym, where I experience what you expounded on, or play basketball by myself every day. Just last March, I've set a deadlift PR of lifting about 25% more than my bodyweight.
And I attribute all of these progress to that simple "10 push-ups a day" in 2019.
Even a small set of weights-in-a-box, or adjustable dumbells, are fantastic supplements to bodyweight exercise. 90% of the population don't need anything else to get fit, and you can do it in your bedroom.
405 lbs for deadlift
315 lbs for squat
225 lbs for bench press
135 lbs for overhead press
If you can do these weights for these exercises, you are in the top 1% for strength.
Although with that said 225lb for bench is not that much for a man who lifts but most people likely don't lift. Its probably top 0.01% for women.
One of my personal best gym moments is when I deadlifted about 25% more than my bodyweight, which I was not able to repeat since.
Some weeks you'll have the right combo, some weeks you won't. But my general approach is to work toward a PR of some sort every 6 weeks or so. I don't always get there, but, I keep trying!
It has easily become my favorite exercise, specially because I could start from my bodyweight, now it's up to 1.3 times. So I really recommend it if you didn't do those before
i'm trying to expand to new exercises that train this aspect, any kind of weight manipulation (similar to grocery bags or moving furniture up and down)
I can finish a workout in less time than I would spend driving to and from a gym. Putting hassle in scare quotes doesn't actually dismiss the massively higher friction involved.
"Resistance training is linked to boosted brain health, especially in the elderly.
Lifting weights helps balance metabolism, which may reduce Alzheimer's risk.
Regular weightlifting may improve immune health and lower inflammation."
These are all things that other types of exercise also tend to provide. I think it's probably getting too granular to say a specific type of exercise is best. There are tons of studies out there touting one exercise type over another for one reason or another. Moderation and variation doesn't just apply to food (although with food you're generally moderating down, but with exercise most people need to moderate up).
But require physical exertion and effort to do actual exercise, and alas, suddenly people choose to ignore this amazing drug.
- work out with friend(s)
- start tracking your progress. It’s fun to see growth!
TL;DR - Bring a buddy. :)
I set myself goals at the gym and then just work towards beating them, my only competition is me.
Used to go religiously before I had kids and then once I had them, stopped going for probably 10 years. Started again a couple years ago and my entire demeanor has changed. I'm calmer, and better able to deal with the stress of life. Nice thing is your body remembers and my strength came back quickly, I'm 45 and the strongest I have ever been.
I feel like myself again. Makes me a better father and husband.
He is not wrong.
I actually enjoy weights - nowadays I just use dumbbells + incline bench at home (basically too cheap to pay for gym membership), but I used to enjoy the satisfaction of progression going to the gym to extent that I used to weight train every day.
[0] https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-bodybuilder-olive...
Gym/weightlifting culture has an unsurprising amount of 'macho' nonsense attached to it. An example might be doing deadlifts with a traditional barbell vs a hex bar. The latter is a safer lift, because it involves less shearing forces on your spine and the more natural hand positioning. You get most of the benefits, with less risk, but it isn't the traditional lift, so it's looked down on.
The article even states that the benefits don’t require heavy weights, that even light weights will do. This suggests that actually using weights is not so important.
And this is coming from someone who's more skeptical of AIs incoming dominance.