表达对母亲的感激的话:瑜珈真有那么神奇吗

在过去的几年中，瑜珈是我们这个小小的大学城里最流行的运动之一。经常会收到朋友们的邀请，参加他们的课程，他们说这样我们的身体会变的更强壮，柔韧性更好，同时也会拥有更好的自我感觉。

But Greta and I both have fitness routines that work well for us. I like to go for a morning run, I bike, and I play soccer, and Greta not only walks for 30 minutes on the treadmill every day, she also walks to and from work, 1.3 miles each way. Despite our assurances that we enjoy these things, devout yoga fans seem convinced that we're missing out on something: a chance to improve our self-esteem.

我与 Greta 都已经在做适合自己的运动了。我喜欢晨跑，骑自行车，踢足球，而 Greta 每天都在跑步机上走30分钟，上下班也走路，每天1.3英里。尽管我们做这些运动乐在其中，那些狂热的瑜珈迷们说我们错过了一些好东西：提升自身气质的绝好机会。

Despite all the hype about yoga and self esteem, there hasn't been a lot of research demonstrating a connection, especially in comparison to other forms of exercise. But Steriani Elavsky and Edward McAuley have conducted a new study comparing yoga to walking. They recruited 164 women age 42 to 56, with offers of a free fitness program. At the study outset, all the women were paid $20 to undergo both psychological testing for measures such as their body image, physical self-esteem, and global-self esteem, as well as physical measures like weight and body fat percentage. Then they were randomly divided into three groups: yoga, walking, and control (no exercise).

尽管关于瑜珈的广告与功效让人很心动，可是还没有确切的研究表明瑜珈有如此的效果，也没有瑜珈与其他运动方式的比较。最近Steriani Elavsky 与 Edward McAuley 做了一项研究，比较瑜珈与走路的不同之处。他们招募了164名年龄在42与56岁之间的女性志愿者,给她们提供一项免费的健身服务。在试验开始前，他们付给每位志愿者20美金，去做心理测试，比如对自身体态的看法,自我感觉是否良好 ，别人对你的感觉怎样，以及其它体重，身体脂肪含量等指标。然后志愿者们被分成三组，一组练习瑜珈，另一组通过步行来锻炼，最后一组什么运动都不做。

The yoga group participated in a 90-minute Hatha yoga class twice a week for four months, while the walking group met for 60 minutes three times a week on an indoor track or a university quad. The yoga classes focused on meditation, strength, flexibility, and balance, while the walkers focused on building aerobic endurance, walking up to 45 minutes at 75 percent of the heart rate reserve by the end of the study period. The women in the study were rated as sedentary or low-active at the start of the study and had an average Body Mass Index of 29.6 and body fat percentage of 37.6, which put them on the borderline of being clinically obese.

做瑜珈那组连续四个月，每周两次参加90分钟的Hatha瑜珈课程，步行那组每周三次，每次60分钟在室内或大学校园内散步。练习瑜珈的主要点是沉思，力量，柔韧性及平衡性，步行主要是有氧运动，在研究结束时，在步行45分钟后，心率是以前的75%。在研究刚开始时，这些参加的女性在身体综合评分中是偏低的，她们的身体肌肉比重是29.6，脂肪比重是37.6，这个指数在临床上已经是属于快到肥胖的界限。

At the end of the study period, the participants who remained (a few dropped out of each group) repeated the psychological measures they had taken at the start. The results: While there was a trend for walking and yoga to increase both types of self-esteem, there was no significant difference between any of the three groups' gains in physical self-esteem or global self-esteem.

研究结束时，志愿者们又做了一次开始时做过的心理测试（有一些人没有坚持下来，中途退出）。结果表明，联系瑜珈与步行的那2组人对自己的自信心都有所提高，对于3组志愿者在自信心方面的提高程度没有显著区别。

But physical self-esteem is measured by dividing the concept into several different types of esteem, and in several of these areas, there were significant effects:

身体的自信心方面可以分成几种不同类型，在

   

  Walking    Yoga    Control

步行  瑜珈   无运动

Physical condition    0.61    0.30    0.23

身体指数  0.61   0.30   0.23

Body attractiveness    0.34    0.23    0.05

外形魅力   0.34   0.23   0.05

Strength    0.32    0.03    0.09

力量  0.32  0.03  0.09

Sport competence    0.09    0.04    0.09

运动能力  0.09  0.04  0.09 

For physical condition and strength esteem, walking yielded significantly larger gains than either the yoga or the control group. For body attractiveness esteem, both walking and yoga yielded larger gains than the control group.

对于身体指数与力量方面，步行那组显然要比瑜珈及另一组提高的多。对于外形魅力，步行与瑜珈这两组要不另一组提高的多。

So while yoga does offer some gains in certain aspects of physical self-esteem, those gains are never significantly greater than the gains experienced by walkers. Interestingly, while the yoga participants' heart rates were significantly lower than the walkers during their activity, there was no significant difference in participants' perceived exertion. It's possible that more physically demanding forms of yoga might offer equivalent benefits to walking. It's also possible that over a longer period or more intense participation, the physical and global self-esteem measures would also rise to significance.

因此瑜珈在提高自身的自信心方面的确能起一些做用，不过这些与参加步行那一组相比，不是很显著。另一有趣的现象是，联系瑜珈者的心率比步行者的要低很多。然而这两组人对自己所做的运动强度并没觉得有明显的不同。练习瑜珈时对身体动作要求较高，这样对走路也很有帮助。从长远看，无论是对自身的自信心，还是其它方面，都会得到很大提高。undefined

But this study doesn't support the notion that yoga is a better form of exercise than Greta's daily walking routine. Many other exercise forms have also been found to have beneficial self-esteem effects, and yoga hasn't yet been found to offer a unique advantage over any of them. So if you like yoga, there's no reason to stop doing it, but if you like some other form of exercise, you shouldn't feel pressured to add yoga to your regimen.

不过这个研究并不是说瑜珈要比步行好，其它还有很多运动也是有相同的作用，瑜珈并不是有此功效的唯一运动。如果你喜欢瑜珈的话，继续坚持做，如果你做的是其他的运动，也不要觉的非要做瑜珈不可。