IMPACT OF YOGIC PRACTICES ON CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE IN INDIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

Abstract

Abstract: The present study aimed to find out the Impact of Yogic Practices on Cardiovascular
Endurance in Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. The study was conducted on 30 intellectually
disabled students (males and females) who were equally divided into an experimental group and a
control group. The subjects were students of B.B. Paul Mental Development Home, Mongshangei Lai
Leirak, Imphal West with age ranging between 18-25 years. The study was restricted to only
Cardiovascular Endurance (9 mins run/walk test) in which both experimental and control group were
assessed on the first day and after 12 weeks. The subjects of the experimental group underwent a
training of yogic practices (both asanas and pranayama) for 12 weeks. To find out the significant
difference between the groups, ‘t’ test was used with the help of SPSS Software. The level of
significance was chosen as 0.05. The analysis of the within-group comparisons indicated a notable
enhancement in cardiovascular endurance among participants in the yogic group, while no changes
were seen in the control group. There were no significant differences detected between the pre-test
results of the experimental and control groups; however, a significant difference was noted between
the two groups in the post-test. This study showed that a 12-week program of yogic practice effectively
improves cardiovascular endurance in individuals with intellectual disabilities.