Weight Training Prescription for Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease: The MoviMente Protocol

Abstract

Introduction: The practice of systematic physical exercises is a worldwide recommendation for maintaining and improving health in healthy individuals and has shown positive results that are well-established by the scientific community. In recent decades, specialized literature has suggested specific recommendations on the regular practice of physical exercises in individuals with some chronic disease or specific comorbidities, such as cancer, dyslipidemia, hypertension, among others (ACSM, 2012; CDC, 2011). However, little is known about the recommendations regarding the prescription of physical exercises for patients with Alzheimer's disease. Although there are studies that demonstrate the benefits of this practice, there are no guidelines regarding the type of exercise, frequency, or intensity to be practiced, for example. Among the possibilities of exercises for this population, weight training stands out, which, although already well established for healthy populations, has been little investigated in patients with Alzheimer's. Objectives: This study will describe the implementation of a weight training program in patients with AD, the main barriers, care, monitoring and progression of the training, as well as the rationale for its implementation. Results: Among the possibilities regarding the type of exercise practiced, Weight Training (WT) can be evidenced as a viable, safe and beneficial possibility for patients with AD. Conclusion: The study described the implementation of a weight training program for patients with AD. The MoviMente protocol is efficient from an operational point of view. There are barriers to be overcome both with regard to the practice of the exercise and the overload of the training, which must be gradual and alternated from the point of view of the stimulus. Despite this, it was possible to observe an increase in the individual loads of each patient, this fact is related to possible gains and/or stabilization of the cognitive functions and general motor functionality of these patients already observed in the literature. Finally, we believe that WT can act by crossing the central barriers, via an indirect inflammatory cascade, mediating better brain health in patients with AD, although more studies with this purpose are needed to prove this.