The Impact of Hatha Yoga Practice on Flexibility: A Pilot Study

Copyright: © 2014 Petrič M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited Background: In modern times people have to cope daily with various challenges that can leave an impact on their body flexibility. Physical inactivity is one of the reasons for the diminishment of our natural body flexibility. The consequence of physical inactivity is decreased flexibility of soft tissues surrounding joints. Simple yoga techniques including body postures and breathing techniques can restore natural body flexibility. Methods: Our study involved 9 young healthy females (mean age 23.8 ± 2.9 years). The training program was held twice a week over a period of five months. The program included therapeutic yoga exercises, with the aim of increasing joint mobility as well as stretching shortened skeletal muscles. We used goniometric measurement procedures for measuring joint mobility (for shoulder, hip and ankle joints), linear measurement procedures for measuring the active mobility of the thoracolumbar part of the spine and specific assessing tests for evaluating skeletal muscle shortness. Measurements of body flexibility were taken three times over the five months period. Results: The results obtained by measuring joint mobility showed significant increase of mobility in elevation through abduction, shoulder retroflexion, hip flexion, internal and external hip rotation, dorsal flexion and inversion o