Yoga training and motor speed based on a finger tapping task.

A finger tapping task was used to assess motor speed (MS) of both hands in 53 adults and 152 children before and after yoga training and in 38 adults of a non-yoga (control) group. All subjects were right hand dominant. The 30-second tapping speed (TS) test was considered as three time intervals, i.e. 0-10 second (TS1), 10-20 seconds (TS2) and 20-30 seconds (TS3). There was a significant (Student's t-test) increase in all three TS values following 10 days of yoga in children and 30 days of yoga in adults. However for both groups at baseline and final assessments, TS2 and TS3 were significantly lower than TS1. Hence the TS was increased after yoga training during the first 10-seconds of the test but not during the next 20 seconds. These results suggest an increase in motor speed for repetitive finger movements following yoga training, but not in strength or endurance, as the increase was not sustained over 30 sec.