Acute Effects of Resistance and Functional-Task Exercises on Executive Function of Obese Older Adults: Two Counterbalanced, Crossover, Randomized Exploratory Studies

Abstract

We explored the acute effect of different intensities of resistance exercise (RE: Study A) or functional-task exercise (FE; Study B) on cognitive function of obese older adults. In Study A, 15 obese older adults (age: 67 +/- 4 years; height: 1.61 +/- 0.05 m; body mass: 91.8 +/- 18.9 kg; body mass index: 35.3 +/- 7.1 kg/m(2); waist-hip ratio: 1.00 +/- 0.08) were submitted, in a counterbalanced, crossover, randomized fashion, to three conditions: (a) RE at 50% one-repetition maximum, (b) RE at 70% one-repetition maximum, and (c) control (CON, no exercise). In a similar design. in Study B, 16 obese older women (age: 65 +/- 2 years; height: 1.62 +/- 0.02 m; body mass: 94.0 +/- 8.8 kg; body mass index: 35.5 +/- 3.6 kg/m(2); waist-hip ratio: 0.97 +/- 0.04) were submitted to (a) FE and (b) CON. At pre- and postconditions, cognitive function was measured by the Stoop Test (ST, Parts A, B. and C) and the Trail Making Test (TMT, Parts A and B). In Study A, independent of intensity, RE significantly decreased time to complete the TMT-B, ST-B, and ST-C (all p < .05). whereas performance in CON was unchanged (all p > .05). Similar results were demonstrated in Study B. where time to complete TMT-A, TMT-B, ST-A. ST-B, and ST-C significantly reduced with FE (all p < .05), but not in CON (all p > .05). Both FE and RE acutely improved executive functions. Such positive effect seems to be independent of task, intensity, and executive function.