Long-term yoga practice and pulmonary endurance in healthy individuals: A pre- and post-yoga interventional study

Abstract

Background: Increased globalization and poor lifestyle are resulted in significant elevation of pulmonary diseases, as per the available scientific data. Beneficial effects of yoga on pulmonary health are substantially documented. However, irrespective of the study design most of the studies in this context is not only conducted on respiratory patients with less or modest sample size as well as short-term intervention. Aims and Objectives: The present study was intended to assess the effect of long-term yoga training on certain pulmonary health markers with large sample size in healthy individuals. Materials and Methods: This yoga interventional single cohort study was conducted on healthy subjects (n = 200) by giving 6 months yogic intervention. Vital Capacity (VC), Forced Expiratory Volume in 1st s (FEV1), and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) were recorded at baseline and after 6 months of yoga training. Data were statistically analyzed and compared using paired t-test. Statistical significance was established at 5% of probability. Results: Longt-erm yogic training caused significant (P < 0.0001) increase in VC, FEV1, and PEFR compared to their respective baseline values. Conclusion: Results are the suggestive of improved pulmonary endurance. Improvement in post-yogic values may indicate the increased strength and power of respiratory muscles. Further, results re-confirm the effectiveness of regular yoga practice in betterment of pulmonary health.