Percept Mot Skills. 2013 Aug;117(1):1131-40.

Reaction time following yoga bellows-type breathing and breath awareness.

Telles S1, Yadav A2, Gupta RK2, Balkrishna A2.

• 1Patanjali Research Foundation, Haridwar, India. shirleytelles@gmail.com
• 2Patanjali Research Foundation, Haridwar, India.

The reaction time (RT) was assessed in two groups of healthy males, yoga group (M age = 29.0 yr.) and non-yoga or control group (M age = 29.0 yr.), with 35 participants each.

The yoga group had an average experience of 6 months, while the control group was yoga-naïve. The yoga group was assessed in two sessions,
(i) bhastrika pranayama or bellows breathing and
(ii) breath awareness,

while the control group had a single control session.

The two experimental sessions, one with each type of breathing, and the control session consisted of pre- (5 min.), during (18 min.), and post-session epochs (5 min.). Assessments were made in the pre- and post-session epochs using a Multi-Operational Apparatus for Reaction Time.

Following 18 min. of bhastrika pranayama there was a statistically significant reduction in number of anticipatory responses compared to before the practice. This suggests that the immediate effect of bhastrika pranayama is to inhibit unnecessary responding to stimuli.

PMID:  24422341