Comparison of High and Moderate Intensity of Strength Training on Mood and Anxiety in Older Adults

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the psychological benefits of anaerobic exercise for older adults. Specifically, strength training was employed to examine the effects on mood and anxiety in a group of healthy but sedentary older women. 36 women (mean age = 68.5 yr.) were randomly assigned to groups given high intensity or moderate intensity strength training or to a control group. Strength training was conducted three days a week for 12 weeks. After the training period, both high and moderate strength-training programs produced marked improvements in muscle strength and body composition compared to the control subjects. The average improvements in the high and moderate intensity strength-training groups for muscle strength were 40.5 and 35.5%, respectively, and for percent body fat 1.52 and 2.50%, respectively. As for psychological changes, both training groups significantly improved positive mood (vigor), and the moderate intensity group significantly reduced trait anxiety compared to means of the control group. Also, both training groups showed some decrease in tension and state anxiety after the training period. These findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of anaerobic training to enhance perception of psychological well-being in older women. A moderate intensity rather than high intensity of training regimen may be more beneficial for sedentary older women to improve psychological health.

Type of activity and fitness benefits as moderators of the effect of physical activity on affect in advanced age: a review

“…While depression was reduced following aerobic training according to this study, it was not altered following strength training. In contrast, the studies by Singh et al [66][67][68], Tsutsumi et al [74], and Cassilhas et al [17] were unequivocal in indicating improvement both in strength and in mood and depression. Further, one of the Singh et al studies [67] reported that the antidepressant effect of exercise was maintained over 20 weeks when laboratory-based supervised exercise was changed to unsupervised patient-directed weight lifting in gym or home settings.…”

“…These studies varied in the length of the intervention. For example, while the study of Cassilhas et al [17] reported improvement after 24 weeks, the Singh et al [68] study was able to demonstrate improvement after 8 weeks and Tsutsumi et al [74] after 12 weeks. One study [20] did not report any emotional alterations following 8 weeks of resistance training.…”

“…However, while less than 50% of the aerobic training studies reported changes in affect as a result of the exercise, over 50% of the strength training studies reported affect alteration following the exercise. Of the seven reporting strength improvement, four also reported improvement in affect [17,66,68,74] and two reported partial improvement [29,49]. These studies varied in the length of the intervention.…”

“…Eleven studies were included in the second group, which examined the effect of strength training on affect [17,18,20,29,49,57,[65][66][67][68]74], and 15 studies on non-specific physical activity or mindful activities such as yoga or Tai Chi were included in the third group [4,7,8,10,15,16,18,30,40,47,41,56,58,75,77]. One study [57] compared aerobic and resistance training to a control group in reducing depression and thus was included in both the first and second group.…”

Letter to the Editor; Resistance training and its impact on psychological health in participants of corporate wellness programs

“…Notably, research supports increases in strength are linked to improved psychological health such as reduced anxiety [7] , reduced depression [8] , and improved self-esteem [9] ; all factors in the GHQ (questions 2; 9; 10 & 11, respectively). It would be interesting to know if there is a cause and effect relationship between participation, or specifically strength increases.…”