Improve Your Brain With Yoga!

Yoga is generally viewed as good for the body (and it usually is), and good for mental wellness (and it usually is), but actual measurable cognitive enhancement?

Here be science…

Hatha with a twist

This study was a test of the YogaCue approach: Hatha yoga movements were done at a faster pace while participants responded to visual, verbal, and auditory cues, remembered randomized movement sequences, and switched between paired sequences. The participants were aged 60–90, and practised for 60 minutes, 3 times per week, for 24 weeks.

You might be wondering whether this means it’s a study funded by a company trying to sell something, and no, that doesn’t appear to be the case (though good on you for thinking of that, if you did!).

Per the paper’s declarations:

Funding
This work was supported by a McKnight Brain Research Foundation Inter-Institutional Cognitive Aging and Memory Interventional Core Pilot Grant award (MBI-Pilot-2023).

Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.

As for the results, compared with regular Hatha yoga only:

• Cognitive benefits: across the full group, participants improved in inhibitory control and attention, working memory, and overall fluid cognition. YogaCue produced significant improvements in verbal and episodic memory measures, including total recall, delayed recall, and memory retention.
• Physical benefits: both groups showed improvements in aerobic capacity, diastolic blood pressure, and aspects of physical performance. Hatha produced stronger improvements in lower-body strength and systolic blood pressure, while YogaCue produced more pronounced gains in lower-body power and appeared to produce greater aerobic-fitness improvements. Percentage body fat also decreased significantly only in the YogaCue group.

In numbers, for those who like those, and note these p-values that range from small to truly tiny (which indicates very high statistical significance):

❝Cognitive testing included the NIH Cognitive Toolbox, Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, and Trail-Making Tests. Neuromuscular testing involved 1-repetition maximum and power testing for leg press and chest press. Additionally, participants completed the 6-Minute Walk Test, Physical Performance Test, and Timed Up & Go. Mixed ANOVAs were performed for all outcome measures. Both groups improved in the NIH List Sorting Test (p = 0.023), Flanker Test (p = 0.042), and Fluid Composite Score (p < 0.001); however, only the YogaCue group improved in the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (total recall: p < 0.001, delayed recall: p = 0.004, and percent retained: p = 0.047). Further, both groups improved lower limb strength (p = 0.005) (driven by Hatha) and power (p = 0.024) (driven by YogaCue), as well as chest press at specific loads (p < 0.001). Aerobic fitness also improved in both groups; with improvements more pronounced in the YogaCue group (p = 0.007).❞

As for why the differences, the researchers (Dr. Kylie Martinez et al.) hypothesized that combining faster movement with memory, attention, visual processing, verbal instructions, and rapid responses can simultaneously challenge the brain and body more than slower-paced yoga.

Indeed, as Dr. Martinez herself put it:

❝In summary, our findings not only reinforce the role of yoga as a low-impact, widely accessible exercise modality for improving cognitive and physical function in aging but also provide the first evidence that YogaCue, relative to Hatha yoga, may confer additional benefits in anaerobic and aerobic power, as well as selected cognitive domains such as verbal and episodic memory. Taken together, these promising results highlight YogaCue’s potential to counteract age-related cognitive and physical decline❞

You can read about this research in detail, here: Randomized trial comparing effects of high-speed cued yoga and Hatha yoga on cognitive and neuromuscular performance in older adults

Want to learn more?

You might like:

Which Style Of Yoga Is Best For You?

As well as these books, hand-picked as this writer’s favorites of the yoga books we’ve reviewed:

• Yoga for Osteoporosis – by Dr. Loren Fishman
• Yoga Therapy for Arthritis – by Dr. Steffany Moonaz & Erin Byron
• Yoga Nidra Made Easy – by Dr. Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli

Enjoy!