Effects of asana practices and stretching exercises combined with neuromuscular drills on flexibility of school girls

The aim of present study was to find out the effects of asana practices and stretching exercises combined with neuromuscular drills on flexibility of school girls. Thirty school girls with the age group of 12–14 years from Holly Cross Convent School, Nedumkandam, Idukki, Kerala were randomly selected. They were assigned into three equal groups, two experimental groups and one control group. The experimental group-1 (n=10, AP-NMD) and experimental group-2 (n=10, SE-NMD) received asana practice combined with neuromuscular drills and stretching exercise combined with neuromuscular drills respectively for the period of six weeks, three days per week. Flexibility was measured by sit and reach test and scores recorded in centimetres. The data was collected pre and post test training intervention. The ANCOVA was used to find out the overall significant differences among the group. The Scheffe's post hoc test was used to find out pair- wise comparisons between groups. The 0.05 level of significance was fixed to test the hypotheses. After six weeks, 0.01% of increase in the nature of flexibility was observed in asana practice combined with neuromuscular drills and stretching exercise combined with neuromuscular drills. The nature of flexibility was highly developed in asana practice combined with neuromuscular drills and stretching exercise combined with neuromuscular drills than the control group.