Growing Popularity of Yoga

Design and Program

All participants are randomly assigned to an exercise (Yoga) group or a control group. Each group will consist of 100 people ranging from age 12 - 95. The participants selected to take part in the Yoga group will be polled before and after class by observers for affects on their health and well-being. At the end of twelve weeks they will take a nominal scale test. This test will be analyzed for cumulative effects of Yoga on health and well-being. All of the individuals in this program would be physically inactive before taking part in the program. The instrument is generalized for people who have not exercised in years or have been physically inactive for most of their life; both adults and children will be evaluated in this study. Along with the looming obesity epidemic among youth and adults in the United States and an overall aging population, a simple but elegant solution is needed to keep people in a better state of health and well-being, physically, emotionally and mentally. The 100 people in the Yoga group will be broken into sub sections based on physical ability to exercise, this is another great advantage of Yoga, everyone can practice in some form no matter what age group or physical ability they have. Exercises in the Yoga group are scaled to physical abilities of the participants. Yoga group participants will take part in two sixty minute instructor lead classes twice a week and will also be asked to participate in at least three other 20-30 minute self paced home practices per week. In the control group no exercises will be assigned. Validity is established by participants noticing the increased sense of well-being. They should be able to answer all of the questions with a Yes answer if they see the benefits the exercise program has brought to their lives during the twelve weeks of exercise and mindfulness training. The items will be evaluated along with the results of exit interviews from the participants after each exercise program is completed. All of the results will be tabulated for trends and negative or positive outcomes. Other studies have used nominal and ratio to study how Yoga impacts health and well-being. This study will follow those same roots and hope to expand upon previous studies results.

Conclusion:

The growing popularity of Yoga and the claims of health and well-being people receive from participating in this early form of exercise must be examined and studied by the whole scientific community. For thousands of years the people of India have used this form of exercise to maintain balance, well-being and health in their lives. If this benefit can be verified with solid scientific research and study, Western society must take a hard look at why this benefit has not already been made a greater part of their everyday lives. This study should be one of many leading to a change in how Yoga is viewed in the United States