Health-related components of physical fitness and adiposity indicators: a comparative study among Kathak dancers and non-dancers of North India

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study aims to do a comparative analysis of health-related components of physical fitness and adiposity levels between Kathak dancers and non-dancers. Participants included 206 female Kathak dancers and 235 physically active controls, ages 18–45 years. Participants performed handgrip strength test and modified push up test for assessing upper body muscular strength and endurance, half sit-up test for abdominal strength and endurance, wall sit, and squat test for lower body strength and endurance, and v-sit and reach test for flexibility. Eight somatometric measurements were recorded based on the ISAK Protocol for assessing the adiposity levels. Basic descriptive statistics were calculated to assess the distribution of various health-related components of physical fitness and adiposity indicators across the sample. Pearson correlation assessed the association between health-related components of physical fitness, age, and years of learning dance. Results revealed that of all the adiposity indicators, only waist-to-hip ratio was significantly higher in Kathak dancers than the non-dancers (M = 0.77 vs. 0.74, p = .028). Kathak dancers endorsed significantly higher scores in all the tests assessing muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility (p < .001) compared to controls. Kathak dance can be taken up as a form of exercise by females of all age-groups that may prevent the development of obesity and improve muscular strength. However, within Kathak dancers, there were high number of participants who reported lower abdominal endurance and lower back flexibility levels, which emphasize the need to encourage supplementary exercise training among Kathak dancers.