Exercise and Mental Health: A New Approach based on an Ancient Philosophy

随着加拿大人越来越关注自己的健康，健康和健身行业面临着新的机遇和 挑战。大多数锻炼计划都声称有类似的、通用的健康益处，而且几乎没有证据表明 支持他们的主张。因此，锻炼提供者有机会评估他们的计划，确定 他们提供了具体的好处，并向其目标市场传递了明确的信息。在目前的提案中， 行业合作伙伴茧瑜伽希望将室内瑜伽课的效果与跑步的效果进行比较 身体、精神、认知和社会支持。基于之前的研究，我们期望：1)瑜伽组 将在心理健康和认知表现方面与跑步组得分相似2) 瑜伽组在感受到的社会支持方面会得到更高的分数。这项研究的结果可能 因此，确定客户通过参加演播室内瑜伽课可以预期的具体好处(与 基于非演播室的集体锻炼计划)。该项目是一个合作的蚕茧瑜伽，麦克马斯特 大学和亨伯学院。研究人员将比较12周运行计划的效果与 12周瑜伽治疗抑郁症、压力和焦虑、学习和记忆、身体健康 (心血管健康、力量、灵活性)和感受到的社会支持。参与者将被随机分配到 瑜伽或跑步，并将在学习开始时完成评估，经过12周的锻炼计划和 三个月的时间，在此期间我们将跟踪他们的日常锻炼。预期的结果是瑜伽 该计划将提供与根据压力、焦虑和抑郁症状跑步相当的好处。本研究 还将提供关于感知到的社会支持的作用和有氧运动的具体好处的新数据 比起在学习和记忆上的力量和灵活性。拟议项目的结果将使 通过提供支持其益处的证据，来改善他们为客户提供的服务 定期参加演播室内的课程。此外，研究结果将提供对以下科学益处的洞察 瑜伽，并加强我们对锻炼如何改善精神和身体健康的了解。

As Canadians focus increasingly on their health, the health and fitness industry is facing new opportunities and challenges. Most exercise programs claim similar, generic health benefits, and few, if any, have evidence to support their claims. Thus, there is an opportunity for exercise providers to evaluate their programs, identify the specific benefits they offer, and deliver a well-defined message to their target markets. In the current proposal, industry partner Chrysalis Yoga wants to compare the effects of in-studio yoga classes to running on measures of physical, mental, cognitive and social support. Based on previous research, we expect: 1) the yoga group will have similar scores to the running group on measures of mental health and cognitive performance and 2) the yoga group will score higher on measures of perceived social support. The results from this study may therefore identify specific benefits that clients can expect by attending in-studio yoga classes (compared to non-studio based group exercise programs). This project is a collaboration between Chrysalis Yoga, McMaster University and Humber College. The investigators will compare the effects of a 12 week running program to a 12 week yoga program on symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety, learning and memory, physical fitness (cardiovascular fitness, strength, flexibility) and perceived social support. Participants will be randomized to yoga or running and will complete assessments at study entry, after 12 weeks of exercise program, and after a three month period during which we will track their exercise routine. The expected findings are that the yoga program will provide comparable benefits to running on symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. This study will also provide novel data on the role of perceived social support and the specific benefit of aerobic exercise compared to strength and flexibility on learning and memory. The results from the proposed project will allow Chrysalis Yoga to improve the service they offer to their clients, by providing evidence to support the benefits of regular attendance to in-studio classes. Further, results will provide insight into the scientific benefits of yoga, and strengthen our knowledge of how exercise can improve mental and physical benefits.