Practicing Hatha yoga or mindfulness meditation for just 25 minutes can significantly improve brain function and energy levels, compared with spending 25 minutes quietly reading, according to new research from Canada.
Kimberley Luu and associate professor Peter Hall, of the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, report their study in the journal Mindfulness.
Yoga and meditation, once regarded as predominantly Eastern customs, are becoming mainstream in the West.
In the United States, for example, there are 36.7 million people who practice yoga, “up from 20.4 million in 2012,” while some
The U.S. workforce is rapidly taking to yoga and meditation. A
Of the many styles of yoga, the one most commonly practiced in the West is Hatha yoga, which combines breathing with meditation and movement and concludes with relaxation. Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga are examples of Hatha yoga.
Mindfulness meditation is an approach that emphasizes paying attention to what is going on in the mind without evaluating or judging it. While yoga often includes some aspects of mindfulness, it can also be practiced on its own.
Prof. Hall explains, “Hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation both focus the brain’s conscious processing power on a limited number of targets like breathing and posing, and also reduce processing of nonessential information.”
He explains that he and Luu were interested in finding out whether the two practices might have a “positive carryover effect” that helps people to “focus more easily on what they choose to attend to in everyday life.”
In a comprehensive review of the evidence, the two authors had already concluded that there was a need for “more good-quality studies” on the effects of Hatha yoga on executive function.
In that paper, they describe executive function as “a set of high-order cognitive processes” that allows control of behavior, emotion, and thought independently of stimuli.
Executive function operates through the prefrontal cortex of the brain and other centers that are linked to it. It typically involves working memory, mental flexibility, and inhibitory control.
Many researchers also regard executive function as inclusive of other processes such as decision-making, problem-solving, and attention control because they are closely linked to it or highly dependent on it.
For their new study, the researchers invited 31 healthy, “moderately experienced” practitioners aged 28 years, on average, to complete three sessions of Hatha yoga (including an element of mindfulness meditation), mindfulness meditation (without yoga), and quiet reading (control task).
They used a “within-subjects experimental design,” which meant that the participants did not complete the tasks in the same order (each was assigned the order at random).
The researchers assessed executive function before each session and at 5 minutes and 10 minutes after each session using a standard test known as the “Stroop interference task.” This test also measures inhibitory control.
The team found that the participants significantly improved their executive function scores after the Hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation sessions compared with the before and after scores of the reading session.
However, they note that the improvement only showed in the 10-minute post-session tests and not in the 5-minute post-session tests.
Using a self-reporting tool called Profile of Mood States, the researchers also found that both Hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation resulted in significantly improved mood scores compared with reading.
This tool includes a “vigor-activity subscale” that measures energy levels. On this subscale, while both Hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation compared favorably with reading, Hatha yoga showed “significantly greater benefits.”
Luu explains that there are “a number of theories about why physical exercises like yoga improve energy levels and cognitive test performance. These include the release of endorphins, increased blood flow to the brain, and reduced focus on ruminative thoughts. Though ultimately, it is still an open question.”
Because the participants were not representative of the general population, more studies are now needed, involving diverse groups of people, to find out whether Hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation might benefit the wider public.
Music makes us enjoy exercise more, finds brain study
Hate going to the gym? A new study may have found a way to make exercise more fun: put on your favorite tune
Researchers reveal that while listening to music during a workout doesn’t increase focus on the task at hand, it does make exercise much more enjoyable.
Study co-author Marcelo Bigliassi, from Brunel University London in the United Kingdom, and his colleagues came to their findings by using electroencephalography (EEG) technology to monitor the brain’s response to music while participants engaged in physical activity.
The researchers recently reported their results in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise.
It’s no secret that music has the ability to elicit emotional responses;
But how exactly does the brain respond to music when we exercise? It was this that Bigliassi and colleagues set out to answer.
“The brain mechanisms that underlie the psychological effects of auditory stimuli during physical activity are hitherto under-researched; particularly so in ecologically valid settings,” the study authors note.
To address this research gap, the team used EEG to assess how music or a podcast affected the brain during exercise, compared with no auditory stimuli.
“The EEG technology facilitated measurement during an ecologically valid outdoor task, so we could finally explore the brain mechanisms that underlie the effects of music during real-life exercise situations,” says Bigliassi.
A total of 24 study participants walked 400 meters on an outdoor track at a pace of their choice under one of three conditions: some subjects walked while listening to 6 minutes of the song Happy by Pharrell Williams; some participants listened to a podcast of a TED talk; and some subjects did not listen to any sound.
During the walking task, the participants’ brainwaves were measured using EEG. Also, the scientists assessed how each of the three auditory conditions affected the participants’ attention during the walking task, as well as how they affected their feelings of alertness and fatigue.
The researchers found that listening to music led to a 28 percent increase in enjoyment during the walking task, compared with no auditory stimuli. Enjoyment was also 13 percent higher for those who listened to music, compared with those who listened to a podcast.
These effects were associated with an increase in beta waves in the frontal and frontal-central regions of the cerebral cortex, the team reports.
“We showed that music has the potential to increase beta waves and elicit a more positive emotional state. This can be capitalized upon during other forms of exercise and render a given activity more pleasurable.”
Marcelo Bigliassi
The
However, almost
Bigliassi says that for people who avoid exercise because they don’t enjoy it, listening to some music might be one way to turn this around.
Source - Medical News Today
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