Abstract

Background: Lifestyle diseases are increasing at a tremendous rate, especially in developing countries. Physical inactivity has been majorly blamed for the rise in these disorders, due to automation and advancement in the technology. Physical activity was a part of our routine lifestyle in the olden days. Physical activity like aerobic exercises & yoga have proved to be highly beneficial. Surya-namaskar, a form of yogic practice has been utilised to very small extent. Hence, we proposed to compare the effect of surya-namaskar with aerobic exercise in the form of spot jogging on the Cardio vascular & Heart rate variability in young healthy subjects. Aim: To evaluate the individual effect of spot jogging and surya-namaskar of similar duration on cardiac parameters and Heart rate variability of healthy subjects and to compare the effects of spot jogging and suryanamaskar with each other. Method: The subjects were randomly divided into Group I-surya-namaskar group (n=20) and Group II-spot jogging group (n=20). Group I performed surya-namaskar and Group II performed spot jogging (5 min/day for 6 weeks duration). Cardiovascular and Heart rate variability (HRV) parameters (SBP, DBP, heart rate(HR), VLF, LF, HF and LF/HF ratio) were recorded before and after six weeks of training in each group. Result: The results showed that SBP, DBP, HR decreased significantly in both surya-namaskar and spot jogging group. LF values decreased significantly in spot jogging group, while a statistically significant increase in HF values was found in surya-namaskar group. LF/HF values decreased significantly in both the groups. On comparing surya-namaskar and spot jogging groups, it was found that difference between the mean values (pre and post) among the two groups was statistically significantly higher for HF component in surya-namaskar group. Conclusion: Surya-namaskar & spot jogging are found to be equally beneficial in improving the cardiac & autonomic parameters; whereas Surya-namaskar showed better improvement towards parasympathetic dominance.

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