Research Summary: Unlock the Power of Dual-Task Training: Boost Both Brain and Body in Your Older Adult Classes

BRAIN HEALTH

Boost Both Brain and Body in Your Older Adult Classes

As fitness professionals, there’s nothing more rewarding than helping our older clients stay strong, agile - and sharp. What if one training approach could do all that at once?

Research published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience shows that dual-task training - mixing physical exercise with brain-boosting challenges - does exactly that.

What did they do?

Imagine 75 minutes, twice a week, where older adults don’t just move -they move and think at the same time. That’s what this study delivered in 24 sessions over 12 weeks. Participants combined moderate physical activity- strength, agility, and cardio - with fun cognitive tasks designed to spark the brain.

To measure success, researchers tested memory, attention, mobility, strength, and agility before and after the program using neuropsychological assessments and fitness tests. A control group of participants (in similar health and circumstance) didn’t complete the exercise program, to see how powerful dual-task training really is.

What were the results?

This is the good news! The dual-task group didn’t just get fitter - they got smarter too! They showed clear, significant boosts in:
• Episodic memory and sustained visual attention (remembering details and staying focused)
• Functional mobility and cardiorespiratory fitness (moving with ease and stamina)
• Lower body strength and agility (key for balance and fall prevention)
• Quality of life - feeling better day to day
• The ability to do two things at once - important for real-life tasks like walking and chatting without losing balance

By comparison, the non-exercising group saw none of these benefits and even got worse at managing dual tasks.

Why is this good news?

Because this study proves something you’ve probably seen in your classes: training the brain and body together supercharges results. Dual-task training isn’t just about movement - it’s about improving your participants’ ability to handle everyday challenges confidently and safely.

And best of all? This can fit right into your current routines! Add memory games, verbal cues, or coordination drills during movements to create a fun and effective brain-body workout.

How can you get started?

Check out below some of the interactive activities researches combined with different forms of training, and consider how you might be able to incorporate these into your classes this week.

Dual-task intervention program protocol

Stimulus	Cognitive tasks simultaneous to exercise	Exercise
Speech	The group was encouraged to speak out loudly the days of the week, months of the year, and the alphabet in direct and reverse order.	Functional Circuit + Walking
Long-term memory	Participants were asked to remember pre-selected words and sing songs with the vocabulary included.	Resistance training
Short-term memory	At functional physical exercise circuit beginning, researcher reads a word sequence (places, animals, and objects), which were requested to be reproduced by the participant at the circuit endpoint.	Functional Circuit + Walking
Mathematical thinking	Simple calculations (arithmetic).	Resistance training
Motor learning	Learning a new choreography	Dance
Semantic and phonological fluency	The group was encouraged to remember and to speak out loud words from a certain category or phoneme.	Resistance training
Reasoning	The participants were encouraged to deduce a hidden word on the board.	Resistance training
Long-term memory and Motor learning	Remember the previous choreography	Dance
Speech	Participants were asked to do storytelling and, collaboratively, create a new story.	Resistance training
Attention, Decision-making and Short-term memory	Specific sound stimulus (one whistle, two whistles, and applause) were associated with a specific sequence of motor tasks to be performed.	Functional Circuit + Walking
Short-term memory and Attention	“I went to the shops and bought . . .” (e.g., apple). Each participant was asked to repeat the previous statement and add a new item to the shopping list.	Resistance training
Attention, decision-making, and inhibition	At the sound of a whistle, participants should perform a sequence of pre-learned motor tasks. At the sound of two whistles, they should perform the movement illustrated among other equal distractors from a projected image.	Functional Circuit + Walking
Inhibition and Processing speed	Stroop Test	Resistance training
Long-term memory and autobiographical	Old singers’ photos and songs were placed, and the group was asked to identify the singer, named the song, and asked to share personal experiences evoked by the music.	Resistance training
Short-term memory	At circuit beginning, researcher reads a word sequence (places, animals, and objects), which were requested to be reproduced by the participant at the endpoint.	Functional Circuit + Walking
Long-term memory and short-term memory	At circuit beginning, specific sequence of olfactory stimuli were presented. Later, the identification and the sequence of the odours presented were requested.	Functional Circuit + Walking
Attention and short-term memory	The researcher reads news and proceeds a group discussion about the information read.	Resistance training
Attention and long-term memory	A song was played during the exercise, and then suddenly interrupted. Participants were encouraged to continue to sing, completing the song.	Functional Circuit + Walking
Attention and short-term memory	A music was played and after that the group was asked to identify among projected images, the objects mentioned by the music. Confounders images were used.	Resistance training
Long-term memory and short-term memory	Commemorative dates were said at the beginning of the functional circuit and requested to be mentioned at the end.	Functional Circuit + Walking
Emotional prosody	Identification of emotions on the images displayed.	Resistance
Attention and reasoning	One word was given for a random participant, who had to describe characteristics of his word so the others could try to guess it.	Resistance training
Short-term memory	Visual memory game with increased degree of difficulty.	Resistance
Sustained attention and decision-making	At a specific sound, the group should change the motor task. There were confounding sounds	Functional Circuit + Walking
Long-term memory and reasoning	Questions about general knowledge issues.	Resistance training