A Pragmatic Comparison Between Aerobic Exercise and Suryanamaskar in Stress Management in Medical Professionals: A Quasi-experimental Study

Background Stress is an episodic process in an individual’s life that depends upon the circumstances that elicit this process, later jeopardizing an individual’s mental balance and leading to depression and anxiety. Yoga is a traditional component of physical activity that contains three main domains, namely, maintaining the correct posture (asanas), control over one’s breath (pranayama) and meditation with complete concentration (dhyana), which are proven to be effective in enhancing the psychological, physical, and spiritual wellbeing of an individual along with mindfulness. The purpose of the present study was to compare aerobic exercise (AE) and Suryanamaskar (SN) in terms of the best intervention in lowering the level of stress in medical professionals (MPs). Methods A quasi-experimental study including a pragmatic comparison was conducted involving 30 participants who were divided into two groups A and B. The participants in group A did treadmill walking and the participants in group B were made to perform the complete cycle of SN with all the 12 asanas for four weeks. Results The outcomes demonstrated that both AE and SN had significant statistical values in terms of pre- and post-intervention Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores, resting heart rate, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Also, when post-intervention mean values of both the groups were compared for all the parameters, only mean PSS values were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion The current study concluded that both AE and SN were beneficial in decreasing the level of stress in MPs with SN being statistically more significant in reducing stress levels than AE. Both interventions are safe to perform.