Term of Award

Spring 2012

Degree Name

Master of Science in Kinesiology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Health and Kinesiology

Committee Chair

Barry Joyner

Committee Member 1

Jim McMillan

Committee Member 2

Brandonn Harris

Abstract

The literature supports that yoga practice decreases stress, anxiety, and improves overall mood, with reports of these changes after only one session of yoga. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the change in anxiety and mood and compare RPE and %MHR after a single 15, 30 and 60 minute session of Vinyasa yoga in a healthy college population. It was hypothesized that (1) the total POMS score, scores for the six POMS subscales, state anxiety, and (2) values of RPE and %MHR would be significantly different from 30 and 60 minutes, but 30 and 60 minutes would not be significantly different. Methods: Female participants (N=12) aged between 18 and 21 years (M = 20.17, SD = .193 years) were recruited from yoga physical activity classes at Georgia Southern university. To answer the first hypothesis two-Way ANOVA's (3x2) with repeated measures on both factors were used to examine the durations (three levels) by time (pre-post) interaction. To answer the second hypothesis, a one-way ANOVA (3x1) with repeated measures was used. Significance was set at α = 0.01. Results: For total POMS score, vigor, tension, depression, confusion, and state anxiety there was no significant interaction (p>0.001) between the durations and pre- and post- scores and there was no significant difference among the durations (p>0.001), but there was a significant difference between the average of pre- and post- scores (p<0.001). The post-score were significantly lower than pre-scores. For RPE there was a significant difference across the three durations (p=0.001). Contrasts showed that RPE for 60 minutes was significantly higher than RPE for 15 and 30 minutes (p<.001), but there was no significant difference between 15 and 30 minutes (p=0.055). For %MHR there was no significant difference across the three durations (p=0.445). Conclusions: The current study supports Vinyasa yoga as a moderately-intense physical activity (50-70%MHR) which could be used as an alternative form of physical activity that may positively influence cardiovascular health. Additionally, similar psychological benefits experienced with practicing Hatha or general yoga were observed in this study, with no statistical difference between improvements in psychological measures between 15, 30 and 60 minutes. Therefore, people with a limited amount of time for physical activity can practice 15 minutes of Vinyasa yoga, twice a day, and still gain the desired psychological benefits while also meeting the ACSM/CDC physical activity requirements for cardiovascular health.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

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