title: Pranayama increases grip strength without lateralized effects.
abstract: The present study was conducted to determine whether breathing through a particular nostril has a lateralized effect on hand grip strength. 130 right hand dominant, school children between 11 and 18 yrs of age were randomly assigned to 5 groups. Each group had a specific yoga practice in addition to the regular program for a 10 day yoga camp. The practices were: (1) right-, (2) left-, (3) alternate- nostril breathing (4), breath awareness and (5) practice of mudras. Hand grip strength of both hands was assessed initially and at the end of 10 days for all 5 groups. The right-, left- and alternate-nostril breathing groups had a significant increase in grip strength of both hands, ranging from 4.1% to 6.5%, at the end of the camp though without any lateralization effect. The breath awareness and mudra groups showed no change. Hence the present results suggest that yoga breathing through a particular nostril, or through alternate nostrils increases hand grip strength of both hands without lateralization.
authors.affiliation: Vivekananda Kendra Yoga Research Foundation, Bangalore.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Raghuraj
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nagarathna
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Nagendra
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Telles
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001945:Breathing Exercises; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D018737:Hand Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015013:Yoga