Exercise for Brain Health After 60

A common question I hear is: "Isn't cognitive decline just part of getting older?"

Here's the honest answer: some slowing is normal. But significant decline is not inevitable, and many of the risk factors for dementia can be changed.¹

The brain is not fixed. It stays adaptable throughout life. This ability is called neuroplasticity, the brain's capacity to form new connections in response to challenge. Brain training is a key part of my practice because the health of the brain affects the entire body, and exercise is one of the most powerful ways to train it.

This guide brings together what I've written about exercise and the brain: what the research shows, which kinds of exercise help most, brain-body drills you can try today, and the everyday habits that support them.

Is Memory Loss Just Normal Aging?

Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten why you went there? Or searched for a name that used to come easily? Some changes in memory are a normal part of aging. Our brains may process information a little more slowly, and retrieving something we know can take longer.

But how our brains age isn't completely out of our control. Our brains respond to many of the same things that affect blood pressure: exercise, sleep, stress, nutrition and environment. I explain this more in is it memory loss or normal aging?

The goal is to build cognitive reserve, the brain's ability to handle challenges like aging, injury or disease by finding other ways to keep thinking and memory working.² When your cognitive reserve is high, your brain can function at a higher level even in the face of natural aging. Read brain exercises for seniors: build cognitive reserve.

Researchers who study "super agers," adults over 80 with exceptional memory, recently found they had more new or immature brain cells in the hippocampus than typical older adults.³ We don't fully understand why. But people who age well tend to share a few habits: they stay active, remain mentally engaged, and consistently challenge both body and brain. More in what super agers teach us about brain health.

How Exercise Changes Your Brain

It can grow the memory center. In one randomized study, a year of aerobic exercise increased the size of the hippocampus, an area heavily involved in memory, by about 2% in older adults, and was associated with better memory.⁴ That's not just maintaining function. That's structural change.

It releases "fertilizer" for the brain. When you exercise, your body releases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a protein that helps grow new brain cells and strengthens connections between them.^5,6 When your muscles work hard, lactate rises, travels to the brain and helps trigger BDNF release.⁷ In simple terms: a little hard work tells your brain to grow stronger. I explain this in why cardio helps your brain.

It improves blood flow. Stronger muscles and a healthier heart mean more oxygen and nutrients reaching your brain.

Your legs matter. In a 10-year study of middle-aged and older women, those with more leg power at the start had better cognitive function a decade later. Among twins, the one with stronger legs often had better brain function later, despite sharing the same genes.⁸ Read more in leg strength and brain health, and check your own leg strength with the 30-second chair stand test.

The Best Types of Exercise for Your Brain

Cardio That Gets You Breathing

Moderate-to-challenging exercise seems to help most, the kind that makes you breathe faster, feel warm and think, "I'm working hard, but I can keep going." You do not need extreme workouts or long gym sessions.

Strength Training

Strength training is one of the brain's biggest allies. Exercise, including resistance training, improves cognitive function in adults over 50.⁹ In a Canadian study, women aged 65–75 who did resistance training twice a week improved attention and decision-making,¹⁰ had slower growth of white matter lesions in the brain,¹¹ and kept some of those benefits a year after training ended.¹² Resistance training benefits several areas of thinking in older adults, including executive function.¹³ Learn more in does strength training help your brain and memory? and the strength training for seniors guide.

Moving While Thinking

This is where it gets exciting. Studies show that combining physical activity with a cognitive challenge can improve both thinking and physical function in older adults, and may help more than either alone.^14,15

• Movement helps the brain.
• Thinking helps the brain.
• Moving while thinking helps it even more.

When you balance while counting backward, step in patterns while responding to cues, or coordinate movement with attention, you activate several brain networks at once. That strengthens communication between the areas responsible for memory, reaction time, processing speed, executive function and balance.

In the photo at the top of this guide, my client Shirley is doing a neuromotor (brain and body) activity with interactive lights. But you don't need special equipment. You also don't need to "train your brain" for hours. Short, intentional bouts, done consistently, are powerful. Many of these exercises are partner-based, which adds another protective factor: social connection. Here's a partner neuromotor exercise from our TogetherWON app, starring my awesome parents: Rules Toss Partner, Level 3.

Small, consistent challenges build cognitive reserve over time.

Balance Work

Balance itself requires your brain to process a tremendous amount of information: what you see, what you feel under your feet, where your body is in space, and how to respond. Dual-task training may also improve balance in older adults.¹⁶ See the balance exercises for seniors guide and dual-task walking exercises.

Brain-Body Exercises to Try at Home

Start near a kitchen counter, wall or sturdy chair. If the thinking part makes you unsteady, slow the movement down, simplify the mental task, or do it seated. The goal is not to go fast.

1. The Rule-Switch March

1. March slowly in place.
2. Each time your right knee comes up, say the next number: 1, 2, 3…
3. Each time your left knee comes up, say the next letter: A, B, C…
4. After 20–30 seconds, switch the rules: right knee gets letters, left knee gets numbers.

Seated option: sit tall toward the front of a sturdy chair and alternate lifting your feet. Start with 30 seconds. Marching works your hips, legs and balance, while switching rules trains working memory and cognitive flexibility. Full details are in brain-body exercises for seniors.

2. Counting Sit-to-Stands

1. Sit toward the front of a sturdy chair, feet flat and shoulder-width apart.
2. Stand up and sit down with control while counting backward from 100 by 3s.
3. Do 10 repetitions. For a bigger challenge, count backward by 4s.

3. The Peace/OK Challenge

This playful finger exercise wakes up your brain in seconds, and it's great for coordination between both sides of the brain.

1. With one hand, make a peace sign.
2. With the other hand, make an OK sign.
3. Now switch hands. Keep switching back and forth.

Sounds easy, right? Try it a few times. It challenges your focus, coordination and ability to switch tasks quickly.

Watch the Peace/OK Challenge video on YouTube and try it alongside me.

4. Category Presses

Hold light dumbbells, soup cans or a resistance band. As you press overhead, name as many items as you can in a category, like capital cities, fruits or animals. Other ideas: toss and catch a ball while marching, or memorize a poem while walking.

5. The Song Workout

This is one of my personal favorites. Pick one favorite song. Walk (or march seated) at an easy pace during the verses, pick up your pace during the chorus, and slow back down when the verse returns. For an extra challenge, choose one repeated word and take three bigger steps each time you hear it. Research with older adults suggests music-based multitask training can challenge both brain and body.^17,18 Read music and movement: a brain-body workout to a song.

6. The Brain-Boosting Mini-Circuit

Do one round, 2–3 times a week:

1. Chair sit-to-stands: 10 reps
2. Overhead press with weights or cans: 10 reps
3. Marching in place with arm swings: 30 seconds, counting backward by 3s
4. Wall push-ups: 10 reps

How Much and How Often

You don't need to exercise forever or exercise perfectly. You just need to challenge yourself a little, often enough to tell your brain, "Hey, we're still using this!"

A simple week might look like this:

• Cardio: aim for at least 150 minutes of activity a week.¹⁹ Add brisk walking intervals once or twice a week: walk at a comfortable pace for 2 minutes, then faster for 30–60 seconds, and repeat 5–10 times.
• Strength: 2–3 sessions a week of sit-to-stands, step-ups, wall push-ups, band rows and carries.
• Brain-body drills: a few minutes most days, layered into your walks and strength work.
• Balance: a little every day.

If you'd like a program that trains all three together, that's exactly what we do in in-home personal training and online training. I call it training the Body, Brain and Balance.

Beyond Exercise: Food, Sleep and Purpose

Calm inflammation. Chronic inflammation is linked to heart disease, diabetes and arthritis, and growing evidence connects it to brain aging and Alzheimer's disease.²⁰ Regular exercise lowers inflammatory markers,²¹ and so do good sleep, stress management and cutting back on processed foods and sugary drinks. See inflammation and brain health.

Eat a brain-friendly pattern. More inflammatory diets have been associated with a greater risk of dementia,²² while Mediterranean-style eating, rich in vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, whole grains, fish and olive oil, has shown promising effects on cognition.²³ It's the overall pattern that matters, not any one "brain food." Nearly 60% of your brain's dry weight is fat, so the kind you eat matters too. Read healthy fats for brain health.

Protect your sleep. Deep sleep helps the brain store memories from the day.²⁴

Find purpose, outdoors if you can. Gardening combines movement, planning, sunlight and purpose. One large study found that older adults who regularly did garden work had a lower risk of developing dementia, though that doesn't prove gardening alone prevents it.²⁵ More in gardening for brain health.

Believe you can improve. In one well-known study, people with more positive views of aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer.²⁶ Older adults with higher self-efficacy, the belief that they can succeed, are also more likely to stick with exercise.²⁷ Read how a positive view of aging helps you age better.

Exercise with Parkinson's or Dementia

Exercise doesn't cure Parkinson's. But in the SPARX trial, people with early Parkinson's who did high-intensity aerobic exercise had slower worsening of motor symptoms than those receiving usual care.²⁸ A 2023 Cochrane review found that structured exercise improves motor symptoms, balance, walking and quality of life, especially when it is ongoing and progressively challenging.²⁹ I explain why in exercise for Parkinson's: why the effort is worth it.

For people living with cognitive changes, training looks different. My client Brenda lives with Parkinson's-type symptoms and dementia. We use her favorite music and visual cues for foot placement, which can give the brain another signal to follow when movement feels stuck,³⁰ and we keep instructions simple: one step at a time, at a slower pace. Recently she has taken some steps without her walker. Read Brenda's story, and learn about our Parkinson's exercise program.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Training the brain only while sitting still. Puzzles are worthwhile, but real life asks us to think while we move.

Keeping it too easy. Your brain responds to challenge. If a drill feels automatic, add a rule, a new category or a little speed.

Letting the thinking task make movement unsafe. If you wobble, slow down, hold on, or practice the pieces separately.

Waiting until there's a problem. Cognitive decline doesn't start at 80. It's shaped by habits in your 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

When to Talk With Your Doctor

If memory changes are getting in the way of daily life, or you or your family are worried, talk with your doctor. Check with them before starting a new program if you have heart disease, Parkinson's or another neurological condition, or a recent change in your health.

The main goal with brain-body training isn't to avoid aging. It's to actively stimulate the brain instead of letting it go unstimulated. And that's something you can start today.