Cooperative Extension (CE) is a nationwide system that addresses leading concerns for United States residents from agricultural production to healthy youth development. As 80% of Americans are not meeting the Physical Activity Guidelines (PAG), promoting physical activity is a recent addition to CE priority areas. To build capacity of CE to offer physical activity, training on physical activity within the system is needed. Since yoga is a public health intervention growing in popularity due to its link to flourishing and mental well-being, this is a holistic practice that may target physical and mental health in the United States. Due to the variety of yoga practices one could engage with it is important to clarify the link between physical activity and yoga. This dissertation included four studies to promote physical activity and yoga within CE.
Study one established the efficacy of a virtual micro-credentialing program for CE professionals (N = 64) that increased their knowledge about physical activity programming and increased their own physical activity levels. The second study was an iterative and pragmatic investigation of wellness initiatives for CE professionals to increase flourishing and physical activity within themselves. The third study explored the degree to which temperature and tempo of yoga classes impacted measured heart rate and rate of perceived exertion. Preliminary evidence suggests that ~30% of the yoga class contributed to moderate-vigorous physical activity, regardless of the temperature and speed. The fourth study was a systematic appraisal of urban and rural yoga studio offerings. The results included that most studios offer 60-minute classes, focused on asana (movement) rather than the other limbs (components) of yoga. This work also resulted in a studio audit form for CE professionals to assess yoga studios for appropriateness to recommend to their participants. Future work includes scaling out the micro-credentialing program and determining the degree to which knowledge of physical activity leads to physical activity program adoption (study 1); ensuring CE professionals have access to wellness initiatives to avoid burn out (study 2); ongoing investigation of the physiological benefits of yoga (study 3); and testing the utility of the studio audit form (study 4). / Doctor of Philosophy / Physical activity is an important part of living a healthy life and can look different for everyone. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend for people to get 2 days of full body strength training along with 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity each week. Aerobic activity is activity that gets your heart rate up. In the first manuscript of this dissertation, Cooperative Extension professionals were trained in how to promote physical activity and physical activity programming. Cooperative Extension is a nationwide program that helps get research knowledge from the universities to the public. The second manuscript looks at how Cooperative Extension professionals were able to incorporate more mindfulness, yoga, and self-care for themselves through employee wellness programs, and which programs worked best in a practical way. The third manuscript looks at if the physical practice of yoga can increase heart rate to moderate to vigorous intensity zones in order to determine if a typical community-based yoga flow could contribute to meeting the aerobic components of the Physical Activity Guidelines. Based on this study, yoga can help participants get into the moderate intensity aerobic activity zone. The fourth manuscript explores the research and development of a yoga studio audit tool. This tool helps assess yoga studios so that public health professionals can recommend the studio that is the right fit for their clients.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/109645 |
| Date | 11 April 2022 |
| Creators | Dysart, Susanna Frances |
| Contributors | Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, Harden, Samantha M., Serrano, Elena L., Butner, Katrina Lindauer, Davy, Kevin P. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
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