Impact of COVID-19 on Physical Fitness in Central Indian Athletes Aged 20-30 Years: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study.

Background Physical fitness is of utmost importance to athletes as it ensures better performance in competitive sports. Athletes who contracted COVID-19 frequently experienced persistent symptoms for weeks or months afterward. Due to the direct effects of COVID-19 infection on pulmonary, cardiovascular, and neurological systems, combined with the negative effects of isolation and inactivity, it has been observed that physical fitness decreases in individuals.

Autonomic Functions In Raja-yoga Meditators.

Stress, an inevitable and constant feature throughout the lifetime, induces autonomic dysfunctions, for which meditation is considered to be an antidote. So the case control study was planned including 50 Raja-yoga meditators practicing meditation for 5 years and 50 age matched non-meditators. Autonomic function tests were performed and results were compared using the Student-t test.

Effect of yoga on cardiovascular system in subjects above 40 years.

This study was conducted to examine the effect of yoga on cardiovascular function in subjects above 40 yrs of age. Pulse rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and Valsalva ratio were studied in 50 control subjects (not doing any type of physical exercise) and 50 study subjects who had been practicing yoga for 5 years. From the study it was observed that significant reduction in the pulse rate occurs in subjects practicing yoga (P<0.