Effect of Selected Hatha Yogasana Practices on Health Related Physical Fitness of College Students

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Psycho – Physical Health is the greatest concern of modern man. Participation in yoga activities that promote physical fitness also had been shown to reduce depression and anxiety and to increase a person‘s self-image and ability to deal with stress in a positive manner. Yoga eliminates psycho-physical tensions. It is a known fact that a regular practice of yogasanas relaxes the mind and considerably brings down the mental stress and physical strain. The psycho- physical methodology of yoga is becoming more and more popular in the present times and also increasingly subjected to scientific research and hence this present study.

The main purpose of the study was find out the effect of training in Hatha Yogasana practices on Health Related Physical Fitness of College Students.

It was hypothesized that there would be a significant effect of training in Hatha Yogasana practices on the selected variables namely health related physical fitness.

The study is a quasi-experimental study. Simple random two groups pre-test treatment& post –test design is adopted in this study. The selected Hatha Yogasana practices such as UtthitaTrikonasana, Uttanasana, Salabhasana, Dhanurasana, Bhujangasana, ParipurnaNavasana, Parvatasana, Paschimottanasana, Salamba Sarvangasana and to Halasana are included in the experimental treatment - for the yoga group. The control group was kept free and away from the experimental group.

Sixty Students were selected at randomly from the College for this study. The average age of the subjects was ranging from seventeen to Nineteen years. The selected subjects were further divided at random into two groups namely Hatha Yogasanas Practices and control groups. All the subjects were normal and healthy college students. The sample was considered as representing the population. The number in each group was thirty.

At the commencement of the project all the students were oriented, in an assembly, on the objectives of the study, testing procedures for measuring criterion variables, and treatment procedures. The test techniques were demonstrated. The subjects were given a week‘s time to practice the test, under the guidance of the experts to eliminate learning effects at the time of initial testing. The subjects were motivated to give their best performance by explaining, the importance of their scores in the various tests and encouraging them during the performance by friendly attention and verbal encouragement.

I. Pre-test Results Since, „t‟ test results did not show any significant difference between the Mean scores of pre-tests of experimental and control groups in all the nine criterion variables, the groups are equivalent with reference to these variables. (Two- tailed test of significance at 0.01 is considered)

(Two-tailed test of significance at 0.01 level is considered)

The „t‟ test results for the differences between the means of post and pre- tests scores of all the criterion variables of the experimental and control groups are presented in table 1.4. (One tailed test of significance at 0.01 and 0.5 level)

(One tailed test of significance at 0.05 and 0.01 levels are considered) ways. 1. Difference between Post-test and Pre-test scores of the experimental and Control Group. 2. Difference in Post test scores between Experimental and Control groups. 3. Gain score analysis for the Experimental group only. 4. The Effect sizes for the mean differences in post test scores for the Experimental and control group.

The „t‟ test results for the differences between the means of post and pretests scores for all the criterion variables reveal the following: - 1. The Hatha Yogasanas Group (1), shows significant differences between means of pre and post test scores, at 0.01 level of confidence, since the obtained „t‟ values for the four criterion variables of Health Related Physical Fitness, i.e. Flexibility (FL) -3.45, Trunk Strength (TS) 3.76, Body Fat percentage (BFP) -19.31 and in Cardio Respiratory Endurance (CRE) -11.23 are higher than the Table value and in one of the variables Functional Strength (FS), the obtained ` t ` value is (2.001), significant at level. 2. The control group did not show any significant difference between the pre and post- test means in all the nine variables as the `t' values for all these variables are less than the table value for [0.05] level of significance.

1. The mean differences in post-tests scores between experimental and control groups, in all the five criterion variables are significant. The obtained „t‟ value for Flexibility is (3.51), for Trunk Strength, (4.22), for Body Fat Percentage (-3.10) and for Cardio respiratory Endurance (14.94), for Functional Strength (2.32). The treatment has resulted in significant gain for the Hatha Yoga Asana Groups in all the nine criterion variables, since the obtained "t" values are higher than the table value at 0.01 level. gains significantly differs in all the following variables.

(a) Flexibility (FL) - Asana Group (4.33) and Control Group (0.47) (b) Trunk Strength (TS) - Asana Group (5.20) and Control Group (0.17) (c) Functional Strength (FS) - Asana Group (5.80) and Control Group (0.47) (d) Body Fat Percentage (BFP) – Asana Group (-2.93) and Control Group (-0.39) (e) Cardio Respiratory Endurance (CRE) – Asana Group (15.01) and Control Group (0.03)

The effect sizes of treatment of the various variables in the experimental group as against the control group, it can be deduced that the mean of the variables in the experimental group are at the percentiles of the control group in the respective variables measures as given below:

1. It is recommended that Yoga may be an integral part of College curriculum. Suitable norms of fitness test may also be established for college students. 2. Yogasana practices may be popularized in Colleges along with Physical Education Programme for at least 30 minutes duration for Students. 3. The Yogasana practices may be introduced in coaching camps for various games.

1. The study may also be conducted on College Women and School Girls by including a few physiological and other psychological variables. 2. A similar study may be conducted on various age groups of College men belonging to various categories of institutions. 3. A similar research programme may be conducted among the Men and Women Staff working in Colleges, to identify their level of fitness and its impact on psychological variables. 4. A similar study may also be conducted among the College sports teams in various sports disciplines to identify and trace the fitness requirements and the psychological make-up for various games.

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Research Scholar, Swami Vivekanand University, Sagar (MP)