During our EPHE 311 class last week, I was doing a push up and realized that it was easier than a push up has ever felt before. I was confused at first because I couldn’t remember the last time that I did a push up. Quickly I realized that the cause of my easier-than-usual pushup had to be because I had been practicing yoga frequently. This was the first time that I really felt like yoga was making a difference for me physically.

I always hear people say that practicing yoga regularly improves your strength and physical health/appearance, but I wasn’t sure if I really believed it… until I felt it for myself. I always thought traditional strength training was the only way to get stronger, but it turns out that practicing yoga regularly and holding certain postures for a long period of time can drastically improve not only balance, coordination and flexibility, but also strength!

Below is a good yoga video focused on building strength:

While it is important to balance all types of yoga, tending to the spiritual, emotional, and physical health, the physical aspect (Hatha yoga) is why many people do yoga, and kids can also greatly benefit from the physical aspects of yoga!

Sparked by my curiosity, I decided to look into how yoga can improve children’s lives in a physical way. The article “The effects of yoga practice on balance, strength, coordination and flexibility on healthy children aged 10-12 years,” talks about the improvement yoga can make in children’s lives by increasing their balance, strength, coordination and flexibility. They use the term ‘healthy’ children because there are many studies done on how yoga can benefit ‘non-healthy’ children, so this study is based off of ‘healthy’ children.

The Study

For 8 weeks, 26 children participated in this study, practicing yoga led by a registered yoga teacher for 40 minute sessions, 1-3 times per week. Multiple tests were done to assess the children’s balance, strength, coordination and flexibility before and after the experiment. The results were that the trial did not improve their strength and bilateral coordination, but it did improve their balance and flexibility.

Although this study did not conclude with improved strength in children, it did state that it may benefit people by improvements in energy, muscle tone, fine motor coordination, flexibility, postural alignment, cardiovascular fitness, attention, concentration, behaviour and relaxation.

‘Non-healthy’ children, such as children with asthma, behavioural disabilities and cancer have been studied to see their improvements due to yoga, and were found to have increased hand-grip strength, endurance and motor performance.

While research in how yoga affects children’s balance, strength, coordination, and flexibility have been limited, there are studies that show that yoga improved children’s flexibility and balance. Unfortunately, strength has not been shown to significantly improve from yoga in children, but this may be because of the lack of studies.

Reference

Donahoe-Filmore, B., & Grant, E. (2019). The effects of yoga practice on balance, strength, coordination and flexibility in healthy children aged 10-12 years. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 23(4), 708-712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2019.02.007