Sauna Yoga Superiorly Improves Flexibility, Strength, and Balance: A Two-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial in Healthy Older Adults

Heidi Bucht and Lars Donath
Additional contact information
Heidi Bucht: Institute of Sport and Movement Gerontology, German Sport University Cologne, 50933 Cologne, Germany
Lars Donath: Institute of Exercise Science and Sport Informatics, German Sport University Cologne, 50933 Cologne, Germany

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-11

Abstract: Besides strength and balance, flexibility is an important indicator of health-related physical fitness. Thus, the aim of this two-armed randomized controlled pilot trial was to investigate whether sauna yoga at a moderate temperature (50 °C) beneficially affects flexibility, strength, balance, and quality of life (QOL) in healthy elderly community dwellers. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (INT, n = 11, age: 68.7 ± 5.9) or control group (CON, n = 12, age: 69.3 ± 4.9), using the minimization method. Age, physical activity, gender, and the primary outcome flexibility were used as strata for group allocation. Both groups completed similar exercises in the sauna over eight weeks. Only the INT group was exposed to moderate temperatures of 50 °C. Large and statistically significant improvement in favor of the sauna group (INT) was observed for the chair sit-and-reach test (INT: +83%, CON +3%, p = 0.028, n p 2 = 0.24). The shoulder and lateral spine flexibility were not relevantly affected. Strength in the lower extremities merely showed a tendency to significant changes (INT: 16%, CON: 3%, p = 0.061, n p 2 = 0.181). Additionally, balance abilities, with eyes closed, improved (INT: 187%, CON +58%, p = 0.056, n p 2 = 0.189) in favor of the INT group. QOL only improved in favor of the INT for environmental dimension (INT: +7%, CON: 0%, p = 0.034, n p 2 = 0.227). These first but preliminary findings indicate that sauna yoga may serve as a promising and feasible means to improve flexibility in elderly people. Strength and balance do not meaningfully benefit from a sauna environment, although strength improved to a slightly higher extent in the sauna group. Future large-scale research is needed to elucidate underlying mechanisms and corroborate these findings.

Keywords: thermal therapy; elderly; body–mind; stretching; resistance training; postural control; quality of life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3721/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3721/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:19:p:3721-:d:273066

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().