The effects of various kinds of yoga exercises on grip strength- the case of experienced people

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of various kinds of short-term yoga exercises on grip strength, which is a good index of physical condition. The subjects were two males and three females with 0.5-8 years of yoga experience, who performed yoga exercises for 15-120 minutes every day. They performed all or some of the following yoga exercises five times separately: 1) shava-asana (SA; lO min), 2) uddiyana-bandha (UB; 10 min), 3) kapala-bhati (KB;
10 mm), 4) asana (AS; 30 or 75 min), 5) sukha-purvaka-pranayama (SP; 10 min), and also performed these exercises in combinations: 6a) KB&SP (25 min), 6b) BYAKUR-ENGEGYOU (BRGG; 120 min). Grip strength was measured just before and after each performance with the use of a popular type (Smedley type) dynamometer. Our findings were as follows:
1) The grip strength of a subject after UB was significantly smaller on holidays and significantly greater on weekdays than before. This implies that the effect of the same exercise depends on the existing physical condition.
2) The grip strength of the right hand of a subject, who complained of a chronic pain in the right shoulder was 2.4kgf smaller after UB, but the grip strength of his left hand without any trouble did not show any change.
3) Combinations of the exercises did not increase grip strength any more than the individual exercises did.
4) The effects of UB and KB varied from subject to subject. These exercises increased or decreased grip strength significantly, or made no change.