My Blog

It's the 3rd of July and already things here at the beach (I'm writing this from Southern California) are getting crazy. So, to take a break from the usual serious tone of this blog I bring you the results of some research done by Sandy Kimbrough, Rick Balkin, and Allison Rancich at Texas A&M University-Commerce, published in last month's Athletic Insight on-line journal.


It seems that the researchers wanted to confirm claims that standing on your head makes you smarter. No really, I'm not making this up. They were interested in the benefits of yoga and it's relationship to mental and overall health. In particular, they were interested in claims such as those made by Schaeffer (2002) who stated that

“yoga can prevent memory lapses by calming you and enhancing your concentration. It can also improve your powers of recall by increasing circulation to your brain.”

If at this point your wondering why this study was published in a sport psychology journal, here's the authors' tie-in:

Professional athletes are turning to yoga as a way to improve their mental and physical performance. For example, in 2004 major league catcher Mike Piazza was in the spotlight in the New York Times not for baseball, but for his dedication to a healthy lifestyle that included daily yoga sessions, intended to stretch and strengthen his body and prevent injury (Jenkins, 2004).

I'll spare you the details of the study and cut right to the chase (or chaise lounge as the case may be!). The researchers found:

the practice of inverted yoga positions did not enhance short-term memory performance.

However, the researchers were clear to write that their results do not negate the benefits that yoga does provide to athletes, particularly its ability to increase relaxation by excluding distracting images from consciousness.

So, you can stand on your head if you want to but...

I say, if you want to be smarter read a book!

And certainly don't do a headstand in the middle of the freeway (see photo above).

Have a great 4th. Something more serious/useful to come in the next few days

One more note: this sportsmindedus blog is just days away from hitting it's 1000 visit. If you can help spread the word that would be awesome. I'm working on getting some sponsors for my personal triathlon athletic endeavors and having more hits on this website would be very helpful.

Reference:

Kimbrough, S., Balkin, R., & Rancich, A. (2007, June). The effect of inverted yoga positions on short-term memory. Athletic Insight: The On-Line Journal of Sport Psychology. http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol9Iss2/YogaMemory.htm