The Cognitive and spOrt Virtual EPIC Training Study: INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF HOME-BASED EXERCISE AND COGNITIVE TRAINING

Participants will be encouraged to complete exercise training programs in the form of video capsules available via Facebook or Youtube, created by kinesiologists of the Montreal Heart Institut EPIC prevention center. The videos last about 15 minutes and include a warm-up of 3 to 5 minutes, followed a 10-minute training and finally a 2-minute cool-down period. The exercises on video do not require any equipment and integrate, depending on the video, aerobic, muscular strengthening, flexibility and/or balance exercises. Several intensities are described according to the participants' level. Participants will be invited to perform exercise sessions at least 5 times a week, and will be monitored weekly by phone by a member of the research team. The exercise sessions can be performed at home using the video training program, as well as in sports centre or outdoors. For each session, participants have to report its duration, intensity, and the nature of the activity via a follow-up agenda.

Participants will be encouraged to perform sessions of cognitive training 3 times per week (30 minutes/session). Two of these sessions will involve computer or tablet-based attentional control training targeting dual-tasking, updating and working memory, as well as inhibition and switching. Difficulty of cognitive training will be tailored to participants' performances. The remaining session will consist of memory training. Participants will be instructed different mnemotechnic, as well as be taught about memory in aging in general. The memory training will be provided by videos capsules. To track adherence to cognitive training, participants will be asked to complete a journal and mark days and times where they took part in the various cognitive training sessions.