EFFECT OF PRANAYAMA PRACTICES ON RESTING HEART RATE AND BREATH HOLDING TIME AMONG EARLY ADULTHOOD

The purpose of the study is to assess the effect of pranayama practices on resting heart rate and breath holding time among early adulthood. This study was delimited to the thirty early adulthood were selected from the students of M.S. University Departments, Tirunelveli at random. The study was delimited to the age group of 20 to 28 years. The selected subjects were divided in to two groups of 15 each. Group I underwent Pranayama practice for six weeks and Group II acted as control who did not take part in specific training. Resting heart rate and breath holding time were selected as dependent variables for this study and they were tested by using radial pulse and nostril hold methods respectively. The study was based on the groups pre-test and post-test design. The study was aimed at mainly in finding out the effects of training on selected dependent variables. The data collected from the three groups were statistically analysed for significance, the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used and the ‘F’ ratio was found out. Hence, to make the adjustments for difference in the initial means and test the adjusted post test means for significant difference, the analysis of covariance was used. In all the cases to test the significance, 0.05 level of significance was fixed. It was concluded that, the experimental group namely Pranayama practice group have achieved significant improvement on resting heart rate and breath holding time.