Development of Fitness and Personality through Yogic Exercises at Secondary School Level

Physical education plays a crucial role in educating the children. Physical education contributes directly to development of physical competence and fitness. Regular physical activity improves functional status and limits disability during the middle and later adult years. Physical activity contributes to quality of life, psychological health, and the ability to meet physical work demands. In early adolescence participation in physical activity provides important opportunities for challenge, social interaction, group membership, as well as opportunities for continued personal growth in physical skill. Participation for high school students continues to provide enjoyment and challenge as young people express preferences for activities that meet their specific interests. Physical education plays a vital part in helping high school students maintain and refine the skills and knowledge needed to select physical activities to use throughout their lives. School physical education programmes offer many benefits namely development of motor skills needed for enjoyable and effective participation in physical activities; promotion of physical fitness; increased energy expenditure; and promotion of positive attitudes toward an active lifestyle. School physical education programs are an ideal way to encourage activity and develop fitness among children (Sallis & McKenzie, 1991) High school students become increasingly more independent as their daily lives become more complex and diversified and they begin to make decisions and choices in taking increased responsibility for themselves. Quality high school physical education programmes provide student‘s conceptual and practical understanding of health related physical fitness and how to maintain a health-related level of physical fitness. A comprehensive and well implemented physical education programme is an essential to the overall education of students. ―Physical education prepares students to maintain healthy, active lifestyles and engage in enjoyable, meaningful leisure-time pursuits.‖ (Jain, 2003) To develop certain physical fitness several methods of training are used, in that yoga training is one of them improve the fitness and wellness among the students. that yogic exercises are very much needed to maintain a general level of physical fitness, particularly as it enhances their physical stamina and cardio respiratory endurance. In this article the researcher makes an attempt to highlights the importance of yogic exercises for physical,

Yoga is the art of science which helps in maintaining physical and mental wellbeing. Yoga is considered as a form of ‗Mind and body medicine‘. A popular saying in Kannada ‗Yogi-Nirogi‘ which means a person who practices yoga is free from diseases. Asana means holding the body in a particular posture to bring stability to the body and poise to the mind (Aggarwal, 2006). The body will become light, and intellect will turn sharp and clear, memory will grow strong, will-power assumes firmness and rigidity, body fat and heart rate will be reduced, the belly will no longer project, the face will look serene, the eyes will grow bright and lustrous, the voice will turn sweet, an improve in static motor performance, personality development, lung capacity and respiratory, brain functions and physical fitness (Pradhan, 2008).  Flexibility: Stretching tight body in new ways will help it to become more flexible, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints. Over time, one can expect to gain flexibility in hamstrings, back, shoulders and hips.  Strength: Many yoga poses require us to support the weight of the own body in new ways, including balancing on one leg or supporting with arms. Some exercises require to moves slowly in and out of poses, which also increases strength.  Muscle tone: As a by-product of getting stronger, one can expect to see increased muscle tone. Yoga helps shape long, lean muscles.  Pain Prevention: Increased flexibility and strength can help prevent the causes of some types of back pain. Many people who suffer from back pain spend a lot of time sitting at a computer. That can cause tightness and spinal compression, which one can begin to address with yoga and it is also improve alignment, which helps prevent many other types of pain.  Better Breathing: Most of them breathe very shallowly into the lungs and don‘t give much thought to how breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called Pranayama, focus the attention on the breath and teach how to better use lungs, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.

Being derived from two Sanskrit words ‗prana‘ mean life force and ‗ayama‘ means control. ‗Pranayama‘ means controlling the flow of life force. Pranayama is not just control of breath but a lot more than that. Pranayama means controlling the prana. The syllable prana denotes the air that leaves from the body. Ayama has two meanings that is to elongate to withhold (Chandrasekaran, 1999) The goal of pranayama is said to be achieved when the quantum of life force is increased to the highest level. ‗Prana‘ is life force or energy is a universal concept. Apart of it is also present in the human body. Pranayama refers to the breathing technique in Yoga, which can work wonders in improving the overall health and the function of all the organs in the body and improvement in the rate of breathing. Most benefits of pranayama are physiological reduction in heart rate; increasing flexibility, avoiding weight gain and accumulation of fat and healthy respiratory status.

―Meditation is the practice of meditating and it is that which gives one deep rest. Overcoming the fluctuations is meditation‖ (Feurstein, 1989). Meditation is an activity in which the practitioner just sits and allows the mind to dissolve. Humankind has an innate tendency to look for a joy that does not diminish, and meditation fulfills this important need. It is food for the soul: it nourishes the universal values of compassion, caring and sharing, responsibility, non-violence and peacefulness. It helps them bond with others. Meditating students show considerably improved academic achievement as well as sports achievement. There are numerous benefits of meditation. It is an essential practice for mental hygiene in increasing a calm mind, Good concentration, Clarity of perception, Improvement in communication, Blossoming of skills and talents and improves inner strength In the current Indian perspective, the role to be played by the education system is facing new challenges. Normally the main aim of education has been the physical, psychological, interpersonal, professional and spiritual refinement of a personality. Children are often being educated without considering or caring for the growth of their entire personality. Their brains and minds are being crammed with information without creating any support group outside the classroom environment where they can continue to imbibe education. A systematic examination is required at what science says about the growth of a child, what psychoanalysis says about child psychology and how the hormones and glands alter and influence the rationality, emotional structure and creative output of the child.

exercise programme was notice the effects on the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems. The body will show improved flexibility of the joints along with greater muscle strength and muscle endurance. The effectiveness of exercise depends on the demand on organs and body systems. Growth and development studies show that active children have stronger muscles and sturdier frames than peers who do not exercise regularly. Yoga helps in creating a healthy interaction and balance in the various aspects of the human personality. Schools are the most appropriate place where systematic education in yoga can begin. Yoga aims at bringing about an equilibrium of not only all systems of the body but also between body and mind. It trains the body and mind to cope with new situations and circumstances and helps cultivate the powers of adaptation and adjustment. Exercise is physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive for the purpose of conditioning the body. Exercise consists of cardiovascular conditioning, strength and resistance training, and flexibility (Robert, 1997). The effects of exercise interventions in reducing or preventing anxiety or depression in children and young people during pre-adolescent and adolescent age group. Yogic practice is a system or a method of doing or achieving something is based on logic and rational consideration, it qualifies to be scientific. Yoga is a systematic and methodological process to control and develop the mind and body to attain good health, balance of mind and self-realization. Thought yoga has the potential power to make us healthy added to our vigor, still most of the people lack the knowledge of systematic practice of yoga. Yogic exercises for a short period help to their health improves. Many research schools and psychologists are extensively studying the beneficial aspects of yoga which encourages us to attain positive health through yoga. Under modern concept, health, psychological and various physiological problems have been being treated by yoga, pranayama and meditation. Hence it is evident that one can treat intuitive as well as the physical & physiological problems through yoga.

A sound mind in a sound body is most precious possession of a person. Modern thinkers in education emphasis that best individual is one who is physically fit, mentally sound, emotionally balanced and socially well adjusted. Therefore it is the responsibility of government and school authorities and physical education teachers to promote physical fitness for children through yogic exercises, because it is the undertaken by the children in the their life of adolescent age. Government of Karnataka should provide intensive training in Yoga for the physical education teachers and provide yoga and meditation hall in every schools and at present, state government has given yoga training for physical education teachers collaboration with AYUSH, Govt. of India for selected teachers. The study suggested extending the training for all secondary school teachers.

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Physical Education Director, Government First Grade College, Hebbur, Tumkur District