Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Journal of
Bodywork and
Movement Therapies
www.intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/jbmt
EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY
a
Department of Health, Physical Education, and Dance, Queensborough Community College,
The City University of New York, 222-05 56th Avenue, Bayside, NY 11364, USA
b
Department of Exercise and Wellness, Arizona State University, USA
Received 11 March 2006; received in revised form 5 May 2006; accepted 3 August 2006
KEYWORDS Summary Yoga is often recommended for stress relief, yet some of the more
Yoga; fitness-oriented styles of yoga can be vigorous forms of exercise. The purpose of this
Mind-body; study was to investigate differences in heart rate during the physical practice of
Fitness; yoga postures, breathing exercises, and relaxation. Sixteen participants were led
Exercise through three different styles of yoga asana practice. Polar S610 heart rate monitors
were used to measure one minute average heart rates throughout each session.
Repeated measures analysis of variance indicated that there was a significant
difference (Po0:05) in heart rate between astanga yoga (M ¼ 95, SD ¼ 12.84) and
the other two styles, but not between the hatha (M ¼ 80, SD ¼ 9.32) and gentle
(M ¼ 74, SD ¼ 7.41) yoga styles. These results indicate that there may be different
fitness benefits for different styles of yoga practice.
& 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1360-8592/$ - see front matter & 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jbmt.2006.08.001
ARTICLE IN PRESS
92 V.S. Cowen, T.B. Adams
and fitness guidelines do not recommend yoga for Table 1 Descriptive characteristics.
fitness but rather for stress relief (Franklin, 2000).
Given the many different approaches to yoga Age
practice, the benefits and outcomes are likely Range 20–61
different depending on the style. Some of the more Mean (SD) 31.8
fitness-oriented yoga styles can be vigorous forms (11.96)
of exercise, while styles that emphasize focus Gender
and self-awareness may provide more subjective Female 11 68.8%
benefits. Male 5 31.3%
Research that has evaluated the energy expen- Race
diture of yoga indicates that yoga is essentially White 15 93.8%
equivalent to moderate forms of exercise. (DiCarlo Hispanic 1 6.3%
et al., 1995; Rai et al., 1994; Raju et al., 1986).
The available evidence suggests that the practice Previous yoga experience
Yes 10 62.5%
of yoga may be associated with an improvement in
No 6 37.5%
cardiorespiratory fitness (Prasad et al., 2001; Tran
et al., 2001), and both muscular strength and Practiced yoga during
endurance (Birch, 1995; Lidell et al., 1983). While previous week
promising, these studies have involved only a few Yes 8 50.0%
postures or exercises. A single study that evaluated No 8 50.0%
heart rate for standing yoga postures found lower
heart rate and higher rate of perceived exertion for
the yoga posture sequence compared to treadmill physical activity per day in the week prior to the
walking (DiCarlo et al., 1995). All of this suggests study. Eight participants had practiced yoga at least
the need for research on fitness-related outcomes once in the week prior to the study, 6 participants
associated with yoga practice. had never done yoga. The participants represented
In summary, while the existing evidence suggests a variety of physical fitness levels. Mean Body Mass
that yoga may qualify as moderate exercise, no Index was 22.3 (SD ¼ 3.36), mean systolic blood
research on energy expenditure or heart rate pressure was 114.5 (SD 13.0), and diastolic blood
response over an entire yoga asana session exists, pressure was 73.9 (6.5). Only two participants
nor has any study compared different styles of yoga ranked above the 60th percentile for age/gender
asana practice. Therefore, the purpose of this group in flexibility assessed with a sit and reach
study was to conduct a descriptive evaluation of box, and 9 ranked above average or higher for age/
the heart rate response among three styles of yoga gender graded cardiorespiratory fitness on an
all of which included the physical practice of Astrand-Rhyming submaximal predictive VO2 max
postures (asana), breathing exercises (pranayama), cycle ergometer test (Franklin, 2000).
and relaxation (savasana).
Instrumentation
Methods
The primary data of interest was heart rate.
Participants Wireless heart rate monitors that use chest
electrodes are considered reliable and valid mea-
Potential participants responded to announcements sures of heart rate (Achten and Jeukendrup, 2003).
advertising the study and were screened via the All participants wore Polar S610 heart rate monitors
physical activity readiness questionnaire (PAR-Q). for each yoga session. Each participant wore the
Sixteen volunteer participants completed data chest electrode transmitter and a wrist receiver
collection for all three yoga styles (see Table 1 for which recorded average heart rate in 1 min inter-
descriptive characteristics). Prior to participating vals for the entire session. Participants were placed
in any of the study procedures, all participants read approximately 5 feet apart to ensure that only their
and signed an informed consent approved by the heart rate was recorded by the receiver on their
university’s human subjects institutional review wrist. Participants started and stopped the heart
board. rate monitors simultaneously. Polar Precision Soft-
The majority of the participants (N ¼ 12) re- ware was used to download data to computer for
ported engaging in an average of thirty minutes of analysis.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Heart rate in yoga asana practice: A comparison of styles 93
130
120
110
Heart Rate (bpm)
100
90
80
70
60
50
Astanga Yoga Hatha Yoga Gentle Yoga
40
4 9 14 19 24 29 34 39 44 49 54 59 64 69 74 79
Session (Minute)
practice evaluated. The power for the repeated Even a small wrist receiver interfered with two
measures ANOVA of the heart rates for the full yoga postures that required the hands to be placed
session, the postures-only portion of the session, on the mat underneath the body: fish (matsyasana)
and the increase in heart rate from beginning and locust (salabhasana). Removing the wrist
relaxation was 1.00 and the effect size 0.96 receiver and replacing it mildly interrupted the
indicating a highly reliable test. The results of this flow of the session, but was necessary for execution
study suggest that a more vigorous style of yoga is of the postures.
the heart rate equivalent of moderate exercise and A wide range of participants provided data for
may contribute to increases in cardiorespiratory this study and all reported enjoying the yoga
fitness for individuals who are de-conditioned or sessions, regardless of style. This was surprising
not physically active. since the sessions were somewhat impersonal due
Research has identified that day-to-day variabil- to the scripting and timing of postures and that
ity in heart rate, and other factors such as participants were requested not talk or ask ques-
hydration and cardiac drift influence heart rate tions. None of the participants were able to
response to exercise (Achten and Jeukendrup, maintain ujjayi breathing for the entire astanga
2003). Given the variety of postures and positions posture series. It is possible that this breathing
of the body involved in yoga asana practice, direct style—when executed successfully—may cause
measure of energy expenditure via gas expiration increased internal temperature and perspiration
would not be feasible for a full yoga asana session. as suggested (Birch, 1995), eliciting a higher heart
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Heart rate in yoga asana practice: A comparison of styles 95
rate. With the exception of ujjayi breathing and Franklin, B.A. (Ed.), 2000. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing
minor adjustments to alignment, participants did and Prescription, 6th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,
not seem to have difficulty following the instruc- Baltimore.
Herrick, C.M., Ainsworth, A.D., 2000. Invest in yourself. Yoga as
tions to participate in the sessions. a self-care strategy. Nursing Forum 35 (2), 32–36.
In conclusion, data from this study indicate that Ives, J., Sosnoff, J., 2000. Beyond the mind-body exercise hype.
there are varied physiological responses associated The Physician and Sports Medicine 38 (3), 67–81.
with different yoga asana styles, and suggests Iyengar, B.K.S., 1979. Light on Yoga, Revised ed. Schocken Books,
New York.
potential for different levels of physical fitness
Lidell, L., Rabinovitch, N., Rabinovitch, G., 1983. The Sivananda
benefits depending on the style of physical prac- Companion to Yoga. Fireside, New York.
tice. As yoga participation increases at health and Mehta, S., Mehta, M., Mehta, S., 1990. Yoga: The Iyengar Way,
fitness clubs, it will be important for research to first ed. A.A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, New York.
assess physical fitness benefits, as well as changes Prasad, K.V.V., Venkata Ramana, Y.P.S., Venkata Reddy, M.,
in psychological, subjective health and well-being Murthy, K.J.R., 2001. Energy cost and physiological efficiency
in male yoga practitioners. Retrieved November 2002.
measures. It is important for clinicians and health Rai, L., Ram, K., Kant, U., Madan, S.K., Sharma, S.K., 1994.
educators who promote yoga to understand the Energy expenditure and ventilatory responses during siddha-
difference between different styles of yoga asana sana—a yogic seated posture. Indian Journal of Physiology
practice. and Pharmacology 38 (1), 29–33.
Raju, P.S., Kumar, K.A., Reddy, S.S., Madhavi, S., Gnanakumari,
K., Bhaskaracharyulu, C., et al., 1986. Effect of yoga on
exercise tolerance in normal healthy volunteers. Indian
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