Body Composition, Cardiovascular Endurance and Anaerobic Power of Yogic Practitioner

Forty male high school students, age 12-15 yrs, participated for a study of yoga in relation to body composition, cardiovascular endurance and anaerobic power. Ths Ss were placed into two subsets viz., yoga group and control group. Body composition, cardiovascular endurance anaerobic power were measured using standard method. The duration of experiment was one year. The result of ANCOVA revealed that a significant improvement in ideal body weight, body density, cardiovascular endurance and anaerobic power was observed as a result of yoga training. This study could not show significant change in body fat (midaxillary), skeletal diameters and most of the body circumferences. It was evident that some of the fat-folds (tricep, subscapular, suprailiac, umbilical, thigh and calf) and body circumferences (waist, umbilical and hip) were reduced significantly.