News — When entering the yoga class at the , the scene looks very familiar: mats on the floor, participants sitting on those mats, and yoga instructor Brooke Fitzgerald, a University of Miami senior, at the head of the group.
But once the class starts, things begin to sound and feel a bit different.
“Let’s go into the blue flow,” said Fitzgerald, who is studying at the . Fitzgerald does not show the participants how to do the exercises.
Instead, the five women taking the class, whose ages range from 60 to 85, begin to perform a range of synchronized poses, flexing their arms upward and stretching their legs. Their coordinated movements have been memorized over the past three months as part of a YogaCue class study.
YogaCue is at the center of a study headed by the and the University of Florida that aims to engage older adults in yoga classes with the mission of improving their cognitive abilities.
The study, with about 15 participants in the current six-month segment, is analyzing the physical and cognitive performance of older adults who take YogaCue compared to those who take Hatha Yoga, a slower, more conventional style of yoga.
, professor and director of the Laboratory of Neuromuscular Research and Active Aging, designed YogaCue along with Kylie Martinez, a Ph.D. student in the kinesiology and sport sciences department.
“We modified yoga in two ways by increasing the speed at which the poses are performed as well as shortening the times between the poses,” he said of YogaCue’s design. “This creates an interval training program where we increase the amount of aerobic and anaerobic stress on the individual, which is a good thing.”
Besides the increased rigor of the exercise, the participants must learn a series of poses linked to certain colors. When the instructor says, “We go into the yellow flow,” they immediately know which poses lie ahead for them. In the next week, other visual and sound elements will be introduced in the class to further test their mental resilience.
“They have to react to external cues in order to do the exercise as opposed to just watching the instructor,” said Signorile.
Frances Vega, a retired financial controller who is in her 60s, has been participating in the study since it began in October. At the beginning of the classes, she felt challenged, she said.
“But I have found that it has improved my balance and flexibility,” she said. “I thoroughly enjoy it.” Any improvement to her cognitive functions, she sees as an extra bonus.
For 81-year-old retiree Sally Philips, the class is a means to an end.
“I have done yoga in the past and thought that coming here three times a week will help me get back the discipline of doing it regularly,” she said. “I have also seen that it has improved my balance.”
YogaCue should also help the seniors improve their executive functions, such as noticing cues in their everyday lives that are crucial to their mobility and independence, said Signorile. Even crossing a major thoroughfare can pose challenges since there are a lot of cues you must attend to.
“Everything from whether the pedestrian sign has changed from red to white to looking to the left to make sure no car has taken the red light and looking out for bicycles and scooters,” he said.
Martinez said that as older adults deal with issues such as loss of bone density, loss of mobility and strength in general, it is crucial for them to include exercise into their daily regimen.
“Regularly using your muscles and cardiovascular system is important to your well-being,” she said. “It is the same with cognitive ability, and the great thing about yoga is that it challenges all aspects of our bodies.”
The study is funded by a McKnight Brain Research Foundation Cognitive Aging and Memory Intervention Core Inter-Institutional grant. It also includes the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, where participants’ retinal blood flow was examined before the study began and will be tested when it ends in April.
The eye exams will determine whether the yoga helped improve blood flow to the brain, which is an important marker of cognitive improvement, he said. “They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, but we say the eyes are the window to the brain,” said Signorile.
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