ABSTRACT
Background: Extensive research is going on in the field of Yoga by various researchers. Even though thereis less work in effect of Yoga on physical fitness parameters.Objectives: The present study was aimed to find out the exact effects of Yoga and Surya Namaskar (SN)on the selected physical fitness parameters.Material and Methods: In this cross sectional descriptive study, subjects doing regular Yoga and SN(n=51) for more than 6 months and age, sex matched control subjects (n=52) were selected by conveniencesampling technique. Parameters compared were shoulder wrist flexibility, hip trunk flexibility, aerobic capacity,peak anaerobic power and peak expiratory flow rate.Results: Study group had significantly higher scores of shoulder wrist flexibility and hip trunk flexibility(p0.001 ) and peak anaerobic power (p=0.018). And no significant differences were observed in aerobiccapacity (p=5.22) and peak expiratory flow rate (p=0.139).Conclusion: Subjects who were practicing Yoga and SN, have better flexibility and peak anaerobic powerthan control group.