The effect of Garba dance of Gujarat on fitness components of young adult females

Abstract

Introduction: Physical fitness has been defined as the individuals’ ability to meet the demands of a specific physical activity. Dance is recognized as a mode of physical activity, which requires physical fitness activities like sport and exercise. Garba is a folk dance of Gujarat, India, composed of multiple levels of speed, co-ordination and full body movements with fast steps synchronized with the rhythm of music and lyrics. Aims and Objective: To measure the effects of Garba dance on physical fitness, cardiovascular fitness, and emotional status in women. Materials and Methods: The study design was non-experimental. 25 female college students, age range 19-25 years, gave voluntary consent. All participants performed Garba, 3 times per week for 10 weeks, for total 30 sessions. Each session lasted for about 30 minutes. Sessions were composed of the following activities: 5 minutes warm up, 20 minutes Garba and 5 minutes cool down. Variables measured were flexibility, BMI, skin fold thickness, cardio-vascular fitness and emotional status of participants. All statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS version 20.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) for Windows. Results: Post training, significant changes (p for skin fold thickness, sit to stand, and sit and reach test have significant changes with a P value < 0> Conclusion: A 10-week Garba programme improved physical fitness, cardiovascular fitness, lower body flexibility lower body strength as well as exercise tolerance. Keywords: Folk dance of Gujarat – Garba, Physical fitness, Cardiovascular fitness, Emotional status.