The study, commissioned by the American Council on Exercise (ACE), examined the effect of hatha yoga practice in previously sedentary women. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, either administered a 55-minute hatha yoga class three days a week or no exercise participation at all to 34 healthy, previously sedentary women (average age of 33 years), for eight weeks. The participants' fitness levels, including flexibility, strength, endurance, balance and pulmonary function, were assessed by a standard battery of tests, at the beginning and end of the study.
The researchers found that the yoga group had significantly improved flexibility, strength, endurance, and balance, compared to the non-yoga group. The yoga group showed a 13 to 35 percent improvement in flexibility. Chest and abdominal strength and endurance were significantly improved, enabling the yoga group to perform an average of six more push-ups and 14 more curl-ups at the end of the study than at the beginning. Balance scores were also improved, including a 17-second increase in the yoga group's one-legged stand. However, there were no significant improvements in aerobic capacity. The researchers attribute this to the beginner's yoga class lacking intensity in the aerobic training zone.
"We saw very nice changes in flexibility of the entire body, the shoulder girdle, twisting, bending, reaching, good low-back flexibility - all those types of flexibility improved," says the study researcher, John Porcari, Ph.D. "And those improvements should have very good carryover to everyday life."
Posted by Kristopher Foster on June 30, 2006 03:17 AM
