**1. Introduction**

There is great variability in cognitive aging among individuals, given the heterogeneity of biological, socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental aspects which can modulate this process. Advanced activities of daily living (AADLs) are a set of leisure activities performed on free time, independently from work, which includes volunteering, educational activities, and social participation in the community, being this dependent on personal motivation. The effects of retrogenesis are a natural process to which every individual may or may not pass, due to a number of circumstances. The effects arising from retrogenesis are cognitive and motor slowness, followed by behavioral and psychic changes, with structural and functional changes taking place, causing neural impoverishment and irreversible functional decline, which cannot be regarded as a disease but rather as a natural aging process that subsequently will induce a new process, which will form a new organization for compensating for cognitive declines [1, 2] of psychomotor function, attention, visual learning and working memory (MT). These cognitive domains are fundamental variables for a healthy life for us human beings, the psychomotor function.

In gerontological literature, AADLs may indicate good physical and mental health, and reduced engagement in these activities may suggest the onset of functional decline, cognitive impairment, and frailty. The science today aims to study the body in motion in relation to the world, with the conception of integrated and organized movements improving body movements as motor coordination, balance, and attention, which in turn is an essential skill for good adaptive and oriented functioning, are associated with the cognitive domain that enables the elderly to process all information or actions relevant to the thinking of certain tasks, leaving distracting and irrelevant stimuli aside [3], and constituting a facilitating mechanism for neural responses according with the centralization of the mental processes of a given task [4].

Rowe and Kahn [5] suggested that commitment to life is one of the essential aspects of successful aging and may delay the onset of chronic diseases and high physical and cognitive performance. Walking independently requires cognitive and motor processing whose mechanisms involved are related to attentional resources, executive functions, and the sensory and musculoskeletal systems. It is a consensus in the literature that locomotion is a factor directly related to the preservation of physical independence, performance of activities of daily living, and social interaction. The visual learning in the elderly has a key role in motor development, placing it with the external reality, providing various stimuli that help in orientation, and in their body control, enabling the ability to know, interpret, and differentiate various stimuli visually received. Vision has a direct participation in the organization and conscious and safe voluntary motor action.

Working memory enables the elderly to keep information in their mind at the moment they use it, searching for information relevant to their activities and performing other tasks, such as the relationship of different ideals, such as mental calculations, ordering and sequencing current and past events including consideration of facts or ideas that may come from different points of view. Once this decline is detected through testing, then we can organize cognitive and physical exercises to maintain a healthy life for the elderly and research on cognitive interventions indicating that cognitive training can lead to increased performance and maintenance of cognitive skills in healthy elderly [6–8].

Aging is a natural and inherent process, being associated with several physical, physiological, psychological, and social changes. Among these changes, there is a decline in cognitive performance, being negatively associated with age and cognitive degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, causing impairment in the

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**2. Methods**

**2.1 Detection test**

*Comparison of Cognitive Performance between Elderly Training Practices with Weights…*

autonomy, independence, and quality of life of the elderly, being aggravated by the sedentary lifestyle. These damages are even greater in women, which caused aging process to be more complex due to hormonal and cultural factors. However, research conducted in recent years has shown the efficacy of physical activities on the morphological, responses, and cognitive performance of the elderly of both sexes [9–11]. Successful aging goes beyond disease-free and maintenance of functional capacity. AADLs depend on the preservation of physical and cognitive functions and are influenced by gender, age and health conditions, education,

Physical activity has become a non-pharmacological and efficient approach in the prevention and treatment of elderly people suffering from degenerative diseases, besides generating benefits in balance, strength, endurance, and flexibility. Within the vast modalities of physical activity, being the training with weights (TW) or bodybuilding, as it is popularly known, the number of elderly people of this modality is increasing, providing autonomy and independence. In TW programs, when supervised by trained professionals, they have beneficial effects on memory performance and cognitive functioning and in waveform protocols of weekly bodybuilding overloads and demonstrate the effectiveness in the expansion of maximal muscle strength, proving that the active lifestyle influences the mainte-

According to Antunes et al. [17], the stages of information processing of cognitive function or cognitive functional system are memory, learning, attention, perception, reasoning, vigilance, and problem-solving; in addition, psychomotor functioning, reaction time, and time of movement and performance have been consistently included in this concept. The practice of physical activity has shown benefits in the quality of life of the elderly as well as improvement in cognitive performance, when compared to the sedentary ones [11]. Given the assumption, the objective of the present study was to compare the performance of elderly practicing

Although accumulated knowledge allows us to understand that activities establish associations with cognitive performance in old age, the way these variables interact generates debate. One of the questions asked is whether there would be a cause-andeffect relationship between AADL performance and cognitive performance and predisposing factors for participation. The question is whether the elderly who engaged in cognitively complex activities would have greater cognitive or cerebral reserve or if they demonstrate gains from participation even with low cognitive reserve.

The detection test uses a simple reaction time paradigm to measure processing speed in healthy volunteers in just 3 min and cognitive domain and psychomotor function. The detection test is applied with the supervision, in this case, the researcher. The test includes virtual card by computer, iPad, or tablet, universally understood, regardless of language or age; after reading, the test is started by pressing the "enter" key. In the center of the screen, a sequence of cards will appear, and the volunteer has to press the "yes" key, whenever the presented card is correct, as quickly and accurately as possible, for example, should try not to press the "yes" key. Before the card is flipped, if this happens or is not answered, this time is

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89264*

marital status, and place of residence [12].

training with weights with sedentary.

counted, and you will hear an error sound.

nance of the functional capacity of the elderly [13–16].

### *Comparison of Cognitive Performance between Elderly Training Practices with Weights… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89264*

autonomy, independence, and quality of life of the elderly, being aggravated by the sedentary lifestyle. These damages are even greater in women, which caused aging process to be more complex due to hormonal and cultural factors. However, research conducted in recent years has shown the efficacy of physical activities on the morphological, responses, and cognitive performance of the elderly of both sexes [9–11]. Successful aging goes beyond disease-free and maintenance of functional capacity. AADLs depend on the preservation of physical and cognitive functions and are influenced by gender, age and health conditions, education, marital status, and place of residence [12].

Physical activity has become a non-pharmacological and efficient approach in the prevention and treatment of elderly people suffering from degenerative diseases, besides generating benefits in balance, strength, endurance, and flexibility. Within the vast modalities of physical activity, being the training with weights (TW) or bodybuilding, as it is popularly known, the number of elderly people of this modality is increasing, providing autonomy and independence. In TW programs, when supervised by trained professionals, they have beneficial effects on memory performance and cognitive functioning and in waveform protocols of weekly bodybuilding overloads and demonstrate the effectiveness in the expansion of maximal muscle strength, proving that the active lifestyle influences the maintenance of the functional capacity of the elderly [13–16].

According to Antunes et al. [17], the stages of information processing of cognitive function or cognitive functional system are memory, learning, attention, perception, reasoning, vigilance, and problem-solving; in addition, psychomotor functioning, reaction time, and time of movement and performance have been consistently included in this concept. The practice of physical activity has shown benefits in the quality of life of the elderly as well as improvement in cognitive performance, when compared to the sedentary ones [11]. Given the assumption, the objective of the present study was to compare the performance of elderly practicing training with weights with sedentary.

Although accumulated knowledge allows us to understand that activities establish associations with cognitive performance in old age, the way these variables interact generates debate. One of the questions asked is whether there would be a cause-andeffect relationship between AADL performance and cognitive performance and predisposing factors for participation. The question is whether the elderly who engaged in cognitively complex activities would have greater cognitive or cerebral reserve or if they demonstrate gains from participation even with low cognitive reserve.
