ABSTRACT

The present study aims to do a comparative analysis of health-related components of physical fitness and adiposity levels between Kathak dancers and non-dancers. Participants included 206 female Kathak dancers and 235 physically active controls, ages 18–45 years. Participants performed handgrip strength test and modified push up test for assessing upper body muscular strength and endurance, half sit-up test for abdominal strength and endurance, wall sit, and squat test for lower body strength and endurance, and v-sit and reach test for flexibility. Eight somatometric measurements were recorded based on the ISAK Protocol for assessing the adiposity levels. Basic descriptive statistics were calculated to assess the distribution of various health-related components of physical fitness and adiposity indicators across the sample. Pearson correlation assessed the association between health-related components of physical fitness, age, and years of learning dance. Results revealed that of all the adiposity indicators, only waist-to-hip ratio was significantly higher in Kathak dancers than the non-dancers (M = 0.77 vs. 0.74, p = .028). Kathak dancers endorsed significantly higher scores in all the tests assessing muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility (p < .001) compared to controls. Kathak dance can be taken up as a form of exercise by females of all age-groups that may prevent the development of obesity and improve muscular strength. However, within Kathak dancers, there were high number of participants who reported lower abdominal endurance and lower back flexibility levels, which emphasize the need to encourage supplementary exercise training among Kathak dancers.

摘要

本研究旨在对 Kathak 舞者和非舞者之间的身体健康和肥胖水平的健康相关组成部分进行比较分析。参与者包括 206 名女性 Kathak 舞者和 235 名身体活跃的对照者，年龄在 18-45 岁之间。参与者进行了用于评估上半身肌肉力量和耐力的握力测试和改进的俯卧撑测试、用于腹部力量和耐力的半仰卧起坐测试、用于下半身力量和耐力的靠墙坐和深蹲测试以及 V-sit 和伸展测试为了灵活性。根据用于评估肥胖水平的 ISAK 协议记录了八个体测测量值。计算基本描述性统计数据以评估整个样本中身体健康和肥胖指标的各种健康相关组成部分的分布。皮尔逊相关性评估了身体素质、年龄和学习舞蹈年限的健康相关组成部分之间的关​​联。结果显示，在所有肥胖指标中，卡塔克舞者只有腰臀比显着高于非舞者（M  = 0.77 对比 0.74，p  = .028）。 与对照组相比，Kathak 舞者在所有评估肌肉力量、耐力和柔韧性的测试中都获得了显着更高的分数 ( p < .001)。卡塔克舞可以作为所有年龄段女性的一种锻炼方式，可以防止肥胖的发展并增强肌肉力量。然而，在卡塔克舞者中，有大量参与者报告腹部耐力和下背部柔韧性水平较低，这强调需要鼓励卡塔克舞者进行补充运动训练。