Browsing by Author "Manjunath N. K."

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Bio-mechanics of yogasanas : A study of alignment and proficiency
(SVYASA, 2022-12-22) Mohan Kishore D.; Manjunath N. K.
BACKGROUND Yoga is a traditional Indian way of keeping the mind and body fit, through physical postures (asanas), voluntarily regulated breathing (pranayama), meditation and relaxation techniques. The recent pandemic has seen a huge surge in the number of yoga practitioners, many practicing without proper guidance which leads to unexpected injury. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The present study was designed to develop a technology-driven pose estimation method to assess and evaluate yoga postures to understand the level of accuracy. It will assist practitioners to perform any yoga posture with the support of a machine learning algorithm. METHODS Participants Twenty practitioners in the age group of 18 to 60 years performing different postures in real time were captured and fed separately to the proposed architectures and a comparison of the estimated accuracy was done. Design The present exploratory study included a group of 20 yoga practitioners to assess the accuracy and proficiency of yoga postures. Assessments: The image of a yoga practitioner performing an asäna is captured by a camera and fed separately to the four deep learning architectures, which then estimate the pose performed by the practitioner by comparing it with the pre-trained model. An error is shown if it does not match any of the five asanas. Intervention: The five yoga poses considered for posture estimation are (a) Ardhacandräsana (Half-moon pose) (b) Täòäsana (Mountain pose) (c) Trikoëäsana (Triangular pose) (d) Vérabhadräsana (Warrior pose-II) (e) Våkñäsana (Tree pose) Results: In this work, four distinct deep learning architectures-Epipolarpose, Openpose, Posenet, and Mediapipe-were utilized to evaluate yoga postures. The results show that, despite only utilising one camera, Mediapipe outperforms the other approaches in terms of accuracy. Five yoga postures have had their poses estimated using various suggested methods. Following the model's validation, the posture correctness of 20 real-time sample photos was estimated using the model. Conclusions: The health and fitness industry can employ human pose estimation efficiently. The huge range of poses with high degrees of freedom, the occlusions caused by the body or other objects blocking limbs as viewed from the camera, and the wide range of appearances or clothes make pose assessment for fitness applications particularly difficult. The mediapipe design offers the best estimation accuracy, according to this study, which evaluates the estimation of five different postures
Evaluation of effects of yoga V/s physical training on performance measures in school children - A randomized controlled trial
(SVYASA, 2021-01) Satish V. P.; Manjunath N. K.; Raghavendra Rao M.
BACKGROUND: Educators, researchers, and health care providers working with children have long been interested in understanding what causes children with average intelligence to suffer from academic underachievement, particularly when these academic difficulties are not the result of physical, social and environmental factors. The stress to perform and its accompanying physiological and behavioral stress response can result in mood swings, emotional distress, loss of sleep and cognitive impairment. Preliminary studies have also shown both exercise and yoga to improve attention, memory and physical performance in socially disadvantaged children when compared to dance. Studies have also shown that yoga practices that involve äsanas, breathing and meditation improve spatial memory scores and show improvement in letter cancellation task and aerobic capacity. However, these findings have limitations as they are from a small cohort of population with different approaches being used across studies. AIM: To evaluate the effects of yoga program versus physical exercise on executive function and physical performance measures in school children OBJECTIVES: 1. To evaluate the effects of yoga vs physical exercise on executive function such as attention span, working memory and mental speed in higher primary and high school children in rural areas. 2. To evaluate the effects of yoga vs physical exercise on cardio-respiratory fitness and physical performance, strength, balance and flexibility in higher primary and high school children in rural areas. METHODS: PARTICIPANTS: A total of 802 students were randomized to receive either yoga (n=411) or physical activity (n=391) intervention across ten schools. INTERVENTION: The intervention group received daily yoga classes on school working days for a period of two months of the study while the physical training group received a standard test of physical exercises to maintain physical fitness. ASSESSMENTS: Were done before intervention and after two months of intervention. DATA EXTRACTION: Data was analyzed using SPSS 18.0 for Windows using an intention to treat approach. The mean difference following intervention was compared between groups using independent samples t-test and within groups compared using paired samples t test. For variables with a non-normal distribution we used independent samples Mann Whitney test and Wilcoxon’s test. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in net scores of Six Letter Cancellation Test (t= -4.21, p<0.001) Digit Letter Substitution Test (t= -4.9, p< 0.001), in yoga compared to physical exercise groups. There was significant improvement in Alphabetical Trail Making Test (TMTA) in yoga group (t=3.46; p=0.001).as compared to control groups. There was a significant improvement in all cardio respiratory fitness measures within yoga and exercise group following intervention. Similar improvements were observed for measures of strength and balance. However, there was significant increase in Hand grip strength in yoga compared to physical exercise group (t= -1.12, p< 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the effects of yoga are better in improving performance measures on mental tasks compared to physical performance measures /physical intervention in higher primary and high school children.