A study of cardiorespiratory efficiency following yoga in healthy Indian medical students

Abstract

Background: Medical students are confronted with many life stressors from both college and home. Unmanaged stress is now believed to be a contributing and/or causal factor in the development of many physical and mental health problems. Yoga is an ancient Indian philosophic system to reduce stress and achieve psychosomatic harmony through a combination of postural exercises (Asanas), voluntary breathing exercises (Pranayamas), and meditations. Aims and Objectives: The aims and objectives of this study were to better understand the effects of Yoga on healthy individuals and to provide the scientific basis for the possible use of Yoga as preventive and/or alternative therapy for health disorders; the present study was planned. The primary objective was to investigate the effects of Yoga on cardiorespiratory efficiency parameters of healthy Indian medical students. Materials and Methods: A total of 300 medical students were randomly divided into intervention group and control group using simple random sampling. Intervention group was subjected to 4 weeks’ Yoga training by a certified Yoga teacher. Height, weight, resting pulse rate (RPR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fitness index (FI), tidal volume (TV), vital capacity (VC), breath holding time (BHT), maximum expiratory pressure (MEP), and 40 mmHg endurance test (40 mmHg ET) were measured in both the groups before and after intervention. Results: In the intervention group, RPR, SBP, and DBP decreased significantly, whereas FI, TV, VC, BHT, MEP, and 40 mmHg ET increased significantly following Yoga. TV increased after Yoga, but the change was not significant. Conclusion: Yoga improves cardiorespiratory efficiency in healthy individuals and can be recommended for patients as well.