Three Months Rehabilitation Programmes Effect on Fat Percentage of Overweight School Going Students of Ahmedabad City

The purpose of the present study was to find out the effect of different types of exercise on the fat percentage of overweight students in Ahmedabad city. The sample of 60 overweight school going students between the ages 12 to15 years was selected from the general population of Krishna Nagar and Kubernagar areas of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The selected subjects were divided into four groups i.e. 15 in the Pilates exercise group (Experimental group I), 15 in the Swiss Ball exercise group (Experimental group II), 15 in the Aerobics exercise group (Experimental group III and 15 in the control group i.e., no exercise group (Experimental group IV). In the present study, a purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample. The Tanita body composition analyzer machine was used for measuring the body fat percentage. After The pre-test assessment of fat composition of all groups, the group-wise exercise programme (Pilates, Swiss-Ball Aerobics) was conducted for 3 months for the three respective groups. No exercises were recommended to the control group apart from normal day-to-day activities. After the completion of 3-months, the post-programme measurement of fat percentage was accomplished to know the difference between the different exercise groups (Pilates, Swiss-Ball, Aerobics). The statistical techniques employed in the study were descriptive statistics – mean and standard deviation and comparative statistics-analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA). In the case of significant results, the post hoc test – least significant difference (LSD test) was used at the 0.05 level of significance for the analysis. Statistically, great improvement was found in the fat percentage of experimental group III i.e., the Aerobics exercise group as compared to the other three groups. Also, the group performing Swiss Ball exercise had greater improvement in body fat percentage as compared to the other two groups (Pilates and Control). Similarly, the Pilates exercise group also showed some improvement as compared to the control group. There was no improvement in body fat percentage in the control group.