There are athletes out there who think of yoga as a recovery day workout—and not a lot more. However, a University of Illinois review of research suggests the bendy practice impacts the same brain regions and networks as aerobic exercise, which is known to improve cognitive performance.
The review of 11 studies on Hatha yoga found that, after as little as 10 weeks, people who did weekly yoga improved the parts of the brain responsible for tasks such as memory processing and decision-making. Hatha is a slow practice, so its benefits aren’t due to increased heart rate or oxygen to