Effects of yoga practice on muscular endurance in young women

• We verify the effects of a systematized yoga practice on muscular endurance.
• Yoga intervention improves upper limb and abdominal muscular endurance.
• Isometric contraction performed in yoga postures improves muscle endurance.

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 ≤ 0.05. The findings suggest that yoga provides improvement in upper limb and in abdominal muscular endurance.