Which is better for your system: meditation or exercise? On the top, it looks like an obvious decision - physical activity can enhance our muscles, bones and heart, and has been proven to promote the production of oxytonin and other 'feel-good' chemicals. Whilst yoga is, well, a trend. Right?
Wrong. Or, at least, possibly wrong. Today, a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has suggested that mindfulness may be a better treatment for chronic back pain than other ordinary exercises.
Study head Dr Daniel Cherkin uncovered that "training the brain to respond in a different way to pain signals may become more effective, and last longer, than traditional physical therapy and medication."
It isn't the first piece of clinical research to claim that meditation has the advantage over exercise. Research workers have long extolled the virtues of the relaxing practice, sensing links between mindfulness and a more robust immune system, exposing that yoga breathing techniques can fortify your lungs and, five years back, even proclaiming that yoga may be "more powerful than morphine" for treatment.
So, if you can manage to find a treasured spare half full hour every day, what for anyone who is doing with this time around? Could it be more physically beneficial to hit the gym or sit quietly on the floor, cross-legged and clear-minded?
Two years previously, Dr. Madhav Goyal, a professor at the esteemed Johns Hopkins College of Medicine, published a study that acknowledged the mental advantages of meditation, but stated that the physiological advantages were matchless to those genuine exercise brings.
"We included 47 trials with 3,515 members," Goyal creates. "Mindfulness meditation programs had modest evidence of superior anxiety, pain and depression, and low evidence of improved stress/distress and mental health-related standard of living.
However, Dr. Goyal says he "found no data that deep breathing programs were better than any effective treatment - drugs, exercise, and other behavioral remedies."
Other studies - like the one published today - have suggested often. Beth Shaw, founder of Mind Body Fitness and writer of Yoga Fit, posits that meditation can indeed rival - and in some cases surpass - physical exercise in conditions of its benefits.
"Meditation can stimulate your parasympathetic stressed system," says Shaw, "or the branch of your peripheral anxious system that helps your system return to a calm, laid back state following the threat of hazard has exceeded. When this branch is activated, the body can normally refresh, repair, and restore itself.
"In addition, it can clear your mind for better quality sleeping, improve athletic performance by refining your ability to give attention to a situation or goal, decrease your respiration for longer, deeper breaths and boost your disease fighting capability by slowing the creation of the stress hormone cortisol.
"Meditation is now commonly used to take care of mental health disorders, craving, and everyday stress, as well as to heal physical illnesses and promote better rest."
Anne Grete Hersoug, an trainer in Acem Yoga and a medical psychologist at the School of Oslo, also feels in the profound physical ramifications of deep breathing - but wouldn't normally consider it a powerful replacement for exercise.
"According to scientific tests," says Hersoug, "Acem Deep breathing has been found to have a profound physiological effect on the practising individual. It allows the meditator to deeply relax, leaves them being more energised and is overall a refreshing experience - much like recharging one's batteries.
"These physiological rest results are measurable in terms of increased air intake and reduced heart rate," remains the psychologist, "and thus, psychological exercise may benefit you physiologically."
However, whilst Hersoug acknowledges the benefits meditation can have on your body, she most important feels that first and, mindfulness is ideal for the mind.
"A lot of the physical benefits associated with profound leisure and mindfulness come as a by-product of calming mental stress," Hersoug reveals. "I would not make an evaluation between meditation and physical exercise. Meditation cannot replace around 30 minutes of exercise - which is greatly different from fitness training.
"I'd rather say that people need to make time for both physical exercise and mental techniques."