HEART RATE RESPONSE DURING A VINYASA YOGA SESSION

The participants wore a belt around their chest (Polar, Finland) which had built-in electrodes to detect the electrical charge of each cardiac contraction and a transmitter to send the corresponding signal to a receiver that was connected to the program of the spirometer. [...]along with other values, HR was also stored for later analysis. The 90 minutes duration Vinyasa yoga sessions (this is the usual duration of a traditional yoga session) during phase 3 and 4 of the experimental design, were held on the same day of the week at the same time, with seven days apart (Figure 1) and consisted of four phases:1) Warm up: for fifteen minutes with a three-minute practice of ujjayi pranayama (breathing control technique) in supine position, as well as specific yoga postures and basic exercises from a stand position that activated all body muscle groups and joints; 2) Main part: for sixty minutes which included a) practice in Surya namaskar for fifteen minutes b) the remaining of the exercise of the main part for forty-five minutes, including standing asanas, supports, balances, positions in prone and supine, inverse and sitting asanas, practicing ujjayi pranayama; 3) Cool down: for 15-minutes including asanas in supine and sitting positions, breathing control techniques (nadisodhana pranayama) and relaxation techniques (nidra yoga) in supine position (savasana). According to the results of the ANÜVA, there was no significant interaction between the two factors (p=0.419) or significant main effect of gender (p=0.113) in participants' HR. The findings of this study could help exercise specialists and yoga professional teachers to better understand the practice of Vinyasa yoga with regard to the physiological requirements and prescription of this type of exercise. [...]as yoga practice studiestend to quantify the intensity of exercise during a session, both exercise practitioners and yoga teachers will be able to better define the content of a session based on the individual needs and limitations of each practitioner.