Exercises that can help prevent dementia – 6 to try

ahsan65@gmail.comMay 30, 2025

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Exercises that can help prevent dementia – 6 to try

There is no guarantee guaranteed to prevent dementia, and certain risk factors (such as age, genes and race) are out of control.

But healthy behaviors like a coherent physical activity offer advantages that can maintain your bright brain.

Research shows that cognitive decline is almost twice as frequent in inactive American adults compared to active adults.

Here are some exercises that can help prevent dementia.

1. Walk

Walking is one of the easiest ways to protect your memory, and you don’t have to walk for hours to see the benefits of brain health, explains Michael Stack, CSCS, a specialist certified in force and conditioning and physiologist of the exercise in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

A study revealed that adults who took only 3,800 steps per day had a risk of dementia of 25% of 25% to those who took fewer daily measures. Meanwhile, those who have taken up to 9,800 steps a day have seen even greater cerebral advantages.

You can walk anywhere, including outside, inside your house, at the gymnasium or in a local shopping center, explains Amal A. Wanigatunga, MPH, PHD, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine in Baltimore.

2. Dance

All forms of cardio seem to help protect your brain (more on this subject below), but dance has unique advantages because it often requires learning choreography. The mental stimulation of the practice of new dance stages coupled with physical activity reinforces connections between brain cells.

In a small study, six months of dance led to similar improvements in cognitive function in the elderly as six months of walking.

You can find dance lessons adapted to beginners in your local community center or your studios nearby.

3. Other aerobic exercises

If you are not too interested in walking or dancing, there are good news: you have an almost endless list of other aerobic exercise options to choose. Indeed, most research examining physical exercises to prevent dementia focus on aerobic exercise, also called cardio exercise.

This is all types of exercise that increases your heart rate and makes you breathe heavier.

Research suggests that aerobic exercise is the most effective for brain health when it is done at an intensity of 50 to 75% of your VO2max (a measure of your body’s efficiency to use oxygen for exercise).

To make sure you hit this Sweet Spot, check with your body: on a scale from 0 to 10, 0 not being an effort at all and 10 being your maximum effort, how hard do you work? Aim for settle in a fork of 5 to 7.

Experience with a few different cardio forms to find something you love, like:

Whatever the aerobic activities you choose, try to get at least 150 minutes at moderate intensity per week, as recommended by the US Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS).

4. Force training

Most research on the exercise and the risk of dementia focuses on cardio, as aerobic training is easier to normalize in a study, explains Stack, which is also president of Physics Alliance, an organization that defends the changes in policy and system that promote physical activity. But strength training can provide similar brain health benefits.

To start, strength training increases your heart and your respiratory rate like cardio – especially if you make a circuit or another high intensity routine.

Research suggests that strength training can also stimulate important compounds such as the neurotrophic factor derived from the brain (BDNF), a protein that supports healthy nerve cells in the brain.

“BDNF is a bit like miracle-gro for the brain,” says Stack.

But more research is necessary to fully understand the effects of strength training on BDNF and other brain protective advantages, he adds.

Force training also presents many other potentially advantages that change life, especially as we age. “If you are an older adult in search of the maximum for your money of an exercise modality to improve your cognitive function, reduce your risk of dementia and improve your overall functional capacity, it is a strength training,” says Stack.

Aim at least two full body training sessions per week, as recommended by HHS.

5. Daily activities

You don’t necessarily need to do traditional training to support brain health, says Stack. The simple fact of moving more in a way that increases your heart rate, even slightly, has been linked to lower dementia rates.

This may include simple actions like playing with your children, washing your car, gardening or cleaning the house, says Stack.

The advantages of carrying out daily activities become particularly pronounced over time. “When you get older, many daily activities can count as an exercise,” said Dr. Wanigatunga. If it has become more difficult for you to follow your tasks as you age, you will actually spend more energy to change your sheets or clean the kitchen, he explains, transforming daily tasks into something closer to training.

Increasing your daily movement is a good starting point, especially if you are not used to exercising regularly, says Stack. Look for opportunities to integrate more types of activities you appreciate in your daily routine, he said.

6. Yoga

Corner-like practices and yoga can have cognitive health benefits. In people with early stages of dementia, the adoption of mindfulness practice such as yoga or meditation is linked to better cognitive skills, less depression and better quality of life.

A study of 22 older women at risk of Alzheimer’s disease revealed that those who had done yoga lessons for 12 weeks did not lose as much brain volume as those who did in memory training exercises. It is natural to lose a certain brain volume as we age, which can contribute to cognitive impairment. It is believed that the slowdown in this dementia economical process.

But existing studies tend to be low, which makes it difficult to understand how yoga could have an impact on larger populations and specific groups (including those at risk of dementia). Additional research is necessary to understand if and how yoga can help prevent cognitive decline.

But because the aspect of full awareness of yoga alone seems to slow down cognitive decline, incorporating meditative training like yoga in your fitness routine while we are waiting for more research, certainly cannot hurt, says Stack.