To assess the changes in the health-related fitness domains of adolescent Indian school children by implementing an eight-week exercise training regime using Suryanamaskar (Sun-salutations)
Post ethical approval, a randomized control, single-blinded, parallel-group, active control trial was conducted on 150 adolescent school children from both genders with a mean age of 13.92±0.08 years selected from 4 schools in an urban city in India. Group A (n=75) was prescribed a 12-step Suryanamaskar (SN), a sub-sect of Yoga, and considered a traditional Indian exercise regime. Group B (n=75) was prescribed Physical education (PE) exercises as per the guidelines of the Fit India program. Both interventions were performed at an intensity of 6/10 on the modified Borg scale for around 45 minutes, three days per week for 8 weeks. Dependent variables were aerobic capacity measured by the PACER test, body fat percentage by the skin fold caliper, flexibility by the sit and reach test, and muscular endurance by the Curl-up and push-up test for the trunk and upper limb respectively. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS 27 by the Wilcoxon Signed rank test and Mann Whitney U test with α set at p≤0.05 at a 95% confidence interval.
The gender ratio of group A for female: male was 45:37 while for group B was 42:39 with mean ages 13.84±0.76 and 14.01±0.84 years respectively (p=0.39). Both the groups were effective in improving all the parameters (p0.05) except the body fat percentage with the difference of 0.05±0.35 (p=0.18) in group A and -0.03±0.38 (p=0.44) in group B. Changes in the values of the aerobic capacity were similar for both the groups which improved by 3.32±1.85 mL/kg/min (p0.05) in group A and by 3.14±1.45 mL/kg/min (p0.05) in group B (p=0.67). But the Suryanamaskar group demonstrated significantly higher improvement (p0.05) for flexibility 3.06±1.48 inches (p0.05), truncal endurance 9.78±3.27 (p0.05) and upper limb endurance 7.74±3.78 (p0.05) as compared to the Physical Education group [1.31±1.08 inches (p0.05), 4.53±4.20 (p0.05), 3.35±3.14 (p0.05) respectively].
Exercises performed by the traditional Indian Sun-salutations provide a higher benefit in improving physical fitness parameters of flexibility and endurance of the trunk and upper limbs of adolescent school children than the PE programs. Additionally, both exercise interventions are equally effective in improving aerobic capacity. However, both interventions were uniformly ineffective in reducing the body fat percentage of this population.
Incorporating Suryanamaskar as an exercise regimen may offer an efficient solution to manage obesity and other non-communicable disorders associated with the altered lifestyle in the adolescent population and hence protect them from the risks of developing conditions like diabetes, coronary heart diseases, hypertension, etc in adulthood.
Health
Prevention
