Author(s): WOO, M., LEE, S., Institution: UNIVERSITY OF ULSAN, Country: KOREA, SOUTH, Abstract-ID: 841

Stress is a strong risk factor of mental health. Stress causes various psychological, physiological, behavioral reactions, and muscle pain. One of the effective ways to relieve the stress is exercise. Especially yoga not only improves stress-related mental disorders, but also helps maintain balance in the autonomic nervous system. In present study, stress management exercise program was developed using Iyengar yoga. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of the exercise program on mental health, muscle pain, and autonomic nervous system.
Women raising children with disabilities are exposed to chronic parenting stress. Therefore, the participants in the study were 27 women aged 40-59 years old with disabled children without any heart-related or musculoskeletal disease. They were randomly assigned to exercise group and the control group. To measure the mental health, the Beck Depression Inventory, State and Trait Anxiety Questionnaire, Parenting Stress Questionnaire for Disabled Parents, Psychological Stress Response Scale, and Resilience Questionnaire were used. A visual analogue scale was used to track pain changes in the neck, shoulder, back, and lower back muscles. The stability of the autonomic nervous system was measured through heart rate variability. The main sites of stress-induced muscle pain are the trapezius, sternocleidomastoid, masticatory, and erector spinae. Therefore, the exercise program for neck, shoulder, back, and waist was developed to relax and strengthen those muscles and correct posture. The exercise program consisted of 1) preparation, 2) muscle relaxation and posture correction, 3) finish stages. The exercise group participated in Iyengar yoga for 60 minutes at a time, twice a week for 8 weeks, a total of 16 times, and the control group was allowed to maintain their daily life. Mental health, muscle pain, and heart rate variability were measured before and after yoga, and were also measured before and after each yoga session.
As a result, participation in 8 weeks Iyengar yoga leads to reduce depression, stress response, fatigue, frustration and decrease the pain in neck, shoulder, back and waist. Heart rate variability after yoga was higher than one before yoga. The result implies that stress management exercise program reduces muscle pain and improves mental health and stability of autonomic nervous system. Exercise program using Iyengar yoga might be an effective alternative medicine to improve stress.