Comparative Study on the Effects of Surya Namaskar & Spot Jogging on Respiratory Parameters: A Pilot Study

Respiratory disorders pose a huge public health problem imposing a very high economic burden in both the developed and developing countries. Changing lifestyles and modern industrial revolution has been very challenging for the human body to cope up with high stress & increasing pollution levels. In the ancient times, physical activity was very high & it was complemented with additional yogic practices which probably had additive effects on one's health. One of the most probable cost effective ways of improving the respiratory health of the population can be yoga. Surya namaskar is one such yogic practice; but little attention is paid towards the benefits that surya namaskar can have on health. Hence, we proposed to compare the effect of Surya namaskar with popular aerobic exercise like spot jogging on the respiratory parameters in young healthy subjects.

To evaluate the effect of surya namaskar and spot jogging of similar duration on respiratory parameters of healthy subjects and compare with each other.

The subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups of 20 each. Group I performed surya namaskar and Group II performed spot jogging for 5 mins/day for duration of 6weeks. Respiratory parameters (TV, IC, VC, FEV₁, MVV, and PEFR) were recorded before and after six weeks of training in each group by computerized spirometer.

The study showed that TV, IC, VC, FEV₁, MVV and PEFR increased significantly in both surya namaskar and spot jogging group. But, it was found that difference between the mean values (pre and post) among the two groups was statistically significantly higher for IC and VC in surya namaskar group.

Yoga can be equally effective or even better than spot jogging at improving various respiratory parameters.