Effects of Yogic Practices Physical Flexibility

Title of the Paper : Effects of Yogic practices on the physical flexibility and Endurance of students of Yoga Teachers’ Training Course over 6 months period

Presented by : Dr. Ajit Oak, Yoga Teacher, In charge, Yoga Teachers’ Diploma Course, Dr. Ajit Natu, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Thane.

Under Special Guidance of : Shri Yogacharya Shreekrishna Vyavahare, Head of Yoga Dept, Ghantali Mitra Mandal, Thane.

Background :  It is a known fact that flexibility and endurance increases after regular yogic practices. It is difficult to quantify these due to various reasons. We tried to simplify the recording of these parameters.

Material and Methods: The participants are taught yogic practices consisting of Prayers, Om chanting, Loosening practices, Asanas, Pranayamas, Shavasana, Dharana for one hour daily followed with theoretical aspects for half an hour. Special parameters were designed to measure flexibility and endurance, which were simple so as to record at the venue of the class. Most of the postures used were related to common yogic asanas. They were recorded by Yoga teachers on 30/8/07 and 1/3/08. The same group of teachers recorded a particular parameter on both the occasions. A total of 50 participants are included in the study who attended the classes regularly and were present when both the readings were taken.

Conclusion: Yogic practices are useful in improving physical flexibility. Some results showed less than expected changes. This could be improved by redesigning of those parameters and redesigning of some practices taught in the class.

Key Words: Flexibility, Endurance, General Yogic practices
Facilities required for the presentation, if accepted: LCD projector and a computer having the facility of Power point presentation.