{"id":31038,"date":"2014-08-20T11:30:02","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T15:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=31038"},"modified":"2016-07-14T16:02:15","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:02:15","slug":"hatha-yoga-better-for-brain-study-082014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/fitness\/hatha-yoga-better-for-brain-study-082014\/","title":{"rendered":"Hatha Yoga: The Best Workout For Your Brain?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hatha
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether you love the endorphin rush you get after a run, or the\u00a0sense of peace<\/a>\u00a0you feel after the final\u00a0om<\/i>\u00a0in your favorite\u00a0yoga class<\/a>, exercise of all forms clearly has mental benefits.<\/p>\n

But now, a new study from researchers at the University of Illinois reveals that yoga may be even\u00a0better for your brain<\/a>\u00a0than other forms of exercise. You read that right: Your warrior pose could actually be making you mentally stronger, too.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a study<\/a>\u00a0published in the Journal of Gerontology, 61 older adults committed to attending an hour-long hatha yoga class, led by a certified yoga instructor, three times a week for eight weeks. Over the same period, another group was assigned to do a 60-minute toning session three times a week. While the yoga group did sun salutations, the other group got sweaty with resistance band work, bicep curls and\u00a0total-body strengthening<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, rather than measuring each group\u2019s success in terms of pounds shed or muscle gained, the participants were assessed by the changes in\u00a0brain power<\/a>\u00a0they experienced between the start and end of the study. And their results might make you a little more eager to finally master your\u00a0down dog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The group practicing hatha yoga saw significantly increased performance on various cognitive tests measuring working memory, mental flexibility and multitasking abilities, compared to the group focused on toning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your Brain on Hatha Yoga<\/b><\/h3>\n

Why the difference between the yogis and the get-toned set? Hatha yoga, the most common form of yoga practiced in North America, is known for requiring participants to integrate poses with breathing and\u00a0meditation practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible that yoga\u2019s ability to quiet the mind and assist our ability to focus without becoming distracted led to [the participant\u2019s] improved ability to focus and sustain attention,\u201d says study author Edward McAuley, a professor at the University of Illinois. Furthermore, various types of yoga, and meditation, have previously been associated with decreasing stress and anxiety \u2014 two factors that have been shown to have a negative impact on a person\u2019s concentration, McAuley notes.<\/p>\n

If yoga has been on your bucket list of workouts to try, this study demonstrates it may bring you more than just\u00a0physical benefits<\/a>. The tests completed by study participants indicate that getting your lotus on could make you better at managing multiple projects at work, or blocking out distractions when you\u2019re trying to be more productive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tasks are representative of that aspect of cognition called executive function,\u201d says McAuley. \u201cWe call on executive functions all of the time, as they deal with our abilities to plan, to inhibit inappropriate responses, multitask, store information in working memory for retrieval at a later time to execute a particular task, etc.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

And while building muscle may make your body feel great and help\u00a0your mind get happy<\/a>, it doesn’t necessarily require you to pay attention to your breathing, or to aim for a meditative state of mind.<\/p>\n

That said, if you\u2019re more of the jogging or\u00a0CrossFit type<\/a>, don\u2019t sweat it. You\u2019re still getting plenty of health benefits.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Convinced you should start practicing yoga? For routines that range from beginner to advanced, join Briohny Smyth at\u00a0dailyburn.com\/yoga<\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New research reveals that hatha yoga may boost your brainpower. Find out how striking a pose can get you a sharper mind. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":31055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,19],"tags":[289,173,251,345,368,286],"class_list":["post-31038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exercise","category-fitness","category-yoga","tag-exercise","tag-meditation","tag-news","tag-tax1conditions","tag-tax2multiple-sclerosis","tag-yoga"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}