1 2814 94 YOGA TRAINING AND MOTOR SPEED BASED ON A FINGER TAPPING TASK. A FINGER TAPPING TASK WAS USED TO ASSESS MOTOR SPEED (MS) OF BOTH HANDS IN 53 ADULTS AND 152 CHILDREN BEFORE AND AFTER YOGA TRAINING AND IN 38 ADULTS OF A NON-YOGA (CONTROL) GROUP. ALL SUBJECTS WERE RIGHT HAND DOMINANT. THE 30-SECOND TAPPING SPEED (TS) TEST WAS CONSIDERED AS THREE TIME INTERVALS, I.E. 0-10 SECOND (TS1), 10-20 SECONDS (TS2) AND 20-30 SECONDS (TS3). THERE WAS A SIGNIFICANT (STUDENT'S T-TEST) INCREASE IN ALL THREE TS VALUES FOLLOWING 10 DAYS OF YOGA IN CHILDREN AND 30 DAYS OF YOGA IN ADULTS. HOWEVER FOR BOTH GROUPS AT BASELINE AND FINAL ASSESSMENTS, TS2 AND TS3 WERE SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER THAN TS1. HENCE THE TS WAS INCREASED AFTER YOGA TRAINING DURING THE FIRST 10-SECONDS OF THE TEST BUT NOT DURING THE NEXT 20 SECONDS. THESE RESULTS SUGGEST AN INCREASE IN MOTOR SPEED FOR REPETITIVE FINGER MOVEMENTS FOLLOWING YOGA TRAINING, BUT NOT IN STRENGTH OR ENDURANCE, AS THE INCREASE WAS NOT SUSTAINED OVER 30 SEC. 1999 2 295 28 AGE RELATED DIFFERENCES OF SELECTED HATHA YOGA PRACTICES ON ANTHROPOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS, MUSCULAR STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY OF HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS. BACKGROUND: PHYSIOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF YOGA ON VOLUNTEERS OF A PARTICULAR AGE GROUP ARE AVAILABLE. HOWEVER, REPORTS ON EFFICACY OF A SPECIFIC YOGA PACKAGE ON THE POPULACE OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS FROM SIMILAR OCCUPATIONAL BACKGROUND IS STILL VERY LIMITED. THEREFORE, THE PRESENT STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO APPRAISE THE EFFECT OF A SPECIFIC HATHA YOGA PACKAGE ON ANTHROPOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS, FLEXIBILITY AND MUSCULAR STRENGTH OF HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS FROM SIMILAR OCCUPATIONAL TRADE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A TOTAL OF 71 PARTICIPANTS (GROUP ALL) FROM INDIAN AIR FORCE GROUND PERSONNEL VOLUNTEERED AND AGE WISE DIVIDED INTO 3 GROUPS - (I) GROUP I (GR. - I) (N1 = 27, 20-29 YEARS), (II) GROUP II (GR. - II) (N2 = 21, 30-39 YEARS) AND (III) GROUP III (GR. - III) (N3 = 23, 40-49 YEARS). ALL THE PARTICIPANTS UNDERGONE SELECTED HATHA YOGA TRAINING FOR 1 H DAILY FOR A PERIOD OF 12 WEEKS. PARAMETERS WERE RECORDED BEFORE AND AFTER THE TRAINING. PRE AND POST TRAINING DIFFERENCES WERE ASSESSED BY STUDENT'S T-TEST. RESULTS: BODY WEIGHT (ALL, GR. - II AND GR. - III [ALL P < 0.05]), BODY MASS INDEX (GR. - II AND GR. - III [BOTH P < 0.01]) AND FAT% (GR. - II AND III [BOTH P < 0.05]) WERE DECREASED SIGNIFICANTLY. NECK CIRCUMFERENCE WAS INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY IN GR. - I (P < 0.05) BUT DECREASED SIGNIFICANTLY IN GR. - III (P < 0.05). CHEST CIRCUMFERENCE (ALL (P < 0.001), IN GR. - I AND II [BOTH P < 0.05]), GRIP STRENGTH (ALL [LEFT: P < 0.01 AND RIGHT: P < 0.05], IN GR. - I [LEFT: P < 0.05 AND RIGHT: P < 0.01], IN GR. - II [RIGHT: P < 0.05] AND IN GR. - III [LEFT: P < 0.05 AND RIGHT: P < 0.01]), BACK LEG STRENGTH (GROUP WISE P < 0.001, P < 0.05, P < 0.01 AND P < 0.05 RESPECTIVELY) AND FLEXIBILITY (ALL P < 0.001) WERE INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: HATHA YOGA CAN IMPROVE ANTHROPOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS, MUSCULAR STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY AMONG VOLUNTEERS OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUP AND CAN ALSO BE HELPFUL IN PREVENTING AND ATTENUATING AGE RELATED DETERIORATION OF THESE PARAMETERS. 2015 3 1095 19 EFFECTS OF YOGA PRACTICE ON MUSCULAR ENDURANCE IN YOUNG WOMEN. THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO VERIFY THE EFFECTS OF A SYSTEMATIZED YOGA PRACTICE ON MUSCULAR ENDURANCE IN YOUNG WOMEN. TWENTY SIX WOMEN (24 +/- 3.5 YEARS OLD) PARTICIPATED IN SIX WEEKS OF YOGA CLASSES, AND TWENTY ONE WOMEN (25 +/- 5.1 YEARS OLD) PARTICIPATED AS THE CONTROL GROUP. THE YOGA INTERVENTION WAS COMPOSED OF EIGHTEEN SESSIONS, THREE TIMES PER WEEK, AT 1 H PER SESSION. THE MUSCULAR ENDURANCE OF UPPER LIMBS (PUSH-UP) AND ABDOMINAL (SIT-UP) WAS ASSESSED THROUGH THE PROTOCOL SUGGESTED BY GETTMAN (1989) [1] AND GOLDING, MYERS AND SINNING (1989) [2] TO THE MAXIMUM REPETITIONS PERFORMED IN 1 MIN. TO VERIFY THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES INTRA GROUPS AND BETWEEN GROUPS A SPANOVA WAS PERFORMED, AND THE LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE WAS P