A recent study involving 162 sets of middle-aged female twins found that those who had the sturdiest legs also had the strongest thinking skills.
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A decade earlier, the 324 participants had their memory, thinking abilities, metabolic health and leg-muscle power examined, and researchers then compared leg power 10 years earlier with changes in brain function over the same time period. The scientists focused on the twins’ muscles rather than their exercise habits. Interestingly, if one twin had been more powerful legs than the other 10 years before, she tended to be a much better thinker now. In fact, on average, a muscularly powerful twin now performed about 18% better on memory and other cognitive tests than her weaker sister. The study concluded that fitter legs were strongly linked, 10 years later, to fitter brains.
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“It’s compelling to see such differences in cognition and brain structure in identical twins, who had different leg power ten years before,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Claire Steves. “It suggests that simple lifestyle changes to boost our physical activity may help to keep us both mentally and physically healthy.”
Of course, more experiments are needed to understand this correlation. And though the sample is small, with only a few hundred female subjects, it does point to the real possibility that working out leg muscles is very important. Legs are often overlooked when focusing on physique sculpting, so in addition to not wanting to be top heavy, there is now another reason to hit the squat rack.
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Curated article from:
NY Times
