We came across this interesting study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health very recently. We’re sharing it here as it’s worthwhile considering how different styles of yoga have a different impact upon our wellbeing, but perhaps this particular study’s headline finding and methodology leaves a great deal of questions unanswered and I’m sure you’ll find plenty that requires a far more in-depth investigation and an awful lot of variables need taking into account. For example, the headline finding that there ‘no significant benefit to power yoga’ doesn’t take into account any benefit from long term practice as opposed to a single session.
Nevertheless, there’s plenty to discuss and unpack here. Here’s an abstract and a link to the full study.
The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the effects of an acute bout of meditative and power yoga types on psychological (state–trait anxiety) and physiological (cortisol) stress response in young, healthy women. The primary findings indicate that state anxiety and salivary cortisol significantly decrease following meditative but not power yoga. Importantly, initial levels of physiological and psychological stress were not significantly different between sessions, indicating a similar baseline level of stress at the particular moment of both yoga sessions. Thus, data suggest that there is a role for concomitant alterations of both psychological and hormonal stress responses following meditative yoga, which may have important implications when identifying potential benefits of a chronic program. While current data may be limited in generalizability to larger samples and translation to different clinical populations, these findings suggest important differences in stress-relieving capabilities of different forms of yoga, which should be considered when incorporating yoga programs into training….
In conclusion: “a single meditative yoga session decreases state anxiety and cortisol levels”. However, a single bout of power yoga failed to impart beneficial decreases in stress. Yoga is commonly used as a stress management strategy in a variety of populations. Current data suggest that individuals looking to maximize stress reliving benefits should consider that differing types of yoga may result in varied stress responses. Specifically, these findings suggest that meditative and mindful yoga practices meditate more favorable stress reduction while more intense and strength-focused yoga does not impart the same benefit. Future investigations focusing on different populations and varying baseline stress levels are warranted using larger sample sizes.”
You can access the study here
