Does aerobic exercise training improve perceived psychological, cognitive, and physiological functioning in healthy older adults?
Aerobic exercise training in healthy older adults leads to perceived positive changes that correlate more closely with objective physiological improvements than with cognitive or psychological ones.
Data regarding perceived change were collected as part of a study of the effects of aerobic exercise training on psychological, cognitive, and physiological functioning among 101 healthy older adults. Subjects were assigned randomly to an aerobic exercise group, a yoga control group, or a waiting list group for 16 weeks, after which all subjects participated in aerobic exercise for another 16 weeks. Exercise participants perceived positive changes in a wide range of significant life areas, and perceived improvement was more closely related to objective improvement for physiological indicators than for indicators of cognitive functioning or psychological well-being.
Emery et al. (Wed,) studied this question.