Written by Online therapist Dr. Gloria Vanderhorst, Ph.D.

RESISTANCE TRAINING: WHO KNEW?!

Weights, Willpower, and the Brain’s Unexpected Workout

Turns out, lifting more than your mood might just lift your memory. For individuals in Maryland and DC, this reflection explores how resistance training strengthens not only muscles but also cognitive function, emotional resilience, and longevity.

Today’s bit of news is that resistance training can prolong your life! Who knew?

First, let’s break this down. What is resistance training anyway? I thought I already had plenty of that in my life. I have taken to resisting sweets, though that requires oodles of discipline. The only real way to resist cookies and candies is not to buy them! Or make them! If they are in the house, they will be found. I am grateful for the occasional holiday as an excuse to order chocolate from my favorite vendor. They arrive in these lovely gold boxes with real silk ribbons around them. I devour the chocolate and save the ribbons to repurpose them to make sweet little packages for friends and family.

The younger members of my family tell me that resistance training has a completely different meaning involving weights, repetitions, and slow, steady movements. I do have a set of hand weights. Let me see. They are around here somewhere. A few boxes and drawers later, I find them stowed in a drawer under the couch. Perfect. Five pounds each. I guess I have been resisting them for a very long time.

Now, why was I searching for them? Oh, yes. Resistance training! These little 5-pound weights have a job to do. Slow, steady movement with a weight in each hand is supposed to help my brain improve its capacity to function as a storehouse of memories. I suppose these slow, steady movements are triggering my brain to hunt for something to think about so that I do not get bored to death. Yep, there it goes, searching to entertain me. Memories come tumbling out so that I will not go narcoleptic while making these slow, steady movements.

I don’t know who the winner is. The scientist who has been studying the decline of my brain and discovering that if it is challenged with weight resistance, it will respond by entertaining me with old stories, or the brain that tolerates this science and pulls out stories from as far back as early childhood. Oh, here is a good one. Uncle Johnie rarely leaves the farm and has come to town for Sunday dinner. I guess the cows take Sunday off. And before he leaves, he shoves his hands into his pockets full of coins, grabs handfuls, and throws them up the stairs. The children scramble to collect as many as possible before he waves goodbye and heads back ‘up country’. Who could resist that treasure!

Want to explore how resistance training supports brain health and memory? Visit Psychology Today’s guide to weightlifting and brain health, Newsweek’s insights on resistance training and Alzheimer’s prevention, and Knowing Neurons’ breakdown of cognitive benefits from strength training.

If you’re reflecting on aging, memory, or emotional vitality, therapy can help. Learn more about individual therapy in Maryland and DC or explore therapeutic approaches that support insight, healing, and mental strength.