You can relieve stress at work with a little yoga at lunch. Being active also relieves back pain, researchers in the UK confirm.
The study involved 74 British officials aged 25 to 64 who experienced stress and complained of back pain. Participants were randomly divided into a group who practiced yoga for eight weeks and did not practice at all, LiveScience reported.
People from the active group took part in 50-minute yoga classes once a week, during lunch or after work. They also had DVD material at their disposal, so they could do 20 minutes of exercise at home twice a week.
After completing the study, participants answered questions related to back pain, stress levels and general well-being. At the start of the study, 10 people in the exercise group and 8 in the control group complained of back pain. After the end of the study, this concerned only 4 participants from the active group and as many as 13 from the control group.
In addition, yoga practitioners reported less stress and sadness at the end of the study.
This confirms previous research showing that yoga reduces stress and relieves back pain.
Researchers at Bangor University in North Wales stated that the majority of participants were women, so they could not be entirely attributed to men. In addition, the benefits of yoga can be attributed to the placebo effect – that is, activity helps because participants believe it does.
More studies are expected to show if yoga can reduce absenteeism. Bringing yoga into workplaces, whether at lunch or out, can provide an effective, convenient, and practical method of reducing the costly effects of stress and back pain, researchers wrote in Occupational Medicine. (PAP)
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