A comparative assessment of yogasana and karate training on cardio-autonomic function in adolescents: An empirical study.

Background: Scientific findings reveal regular practice of traditional mind body exercises may reduce the invasion of chronic stressors and regain psychophysiological balance. This neuroautonomic relationship is assessed through several electrophysiological tools Heart Rate Variability (HRV) being one such measure. The present study compares the long-term cardio autonomic effects of yogasana - the physical aspect of yoga and another eminent but unexplored mind-body martial art form- karate.

Methods: 90 male school going subjects - 30 experienced yoga (age: 15.5 ± 1.83 yrs); 30 karate (age: 15.23 ± 2.07 yrs) practitioners and 30 active age-gender matched controls (age: 15.46 ± 1.77 yrs) were conveniently sampled, after effect size calculation. Time and frequency domain HRV was compared using One-way ANOVA followed by LSD Post Hoc Test after normality distribution of the data was checked.

Results: High frequency power normalized unit (HF nu) showed significantly higher values among yoga practitioners (45.18 ± 16.00 nu) followed by karate practitioners (43.21 ± 18.14 nu) compared to the active control group (32.90 ± 15.76). The Low frequency normalized unit (LF nu) was at (53.90 ± 18.64 nu) and LF/HF Ratio at (1.40 ± 1.10) in the yoga group showed significantly lowest values.

Conclusions: Yogasana maintains stable parasympathetic dominance through its postures and steady breathing patternology, while karate practitioners being stress resilient show low sympathetic-vagal tone with a steady heart brain wellbeing.