Yoga is one of the best ancient philosophies of life for the prevention and management of various psychosomatic ailments especially in the present scenario of stress whether physical or mental. Medical students are future doctors; and they should be fit physically and mentally in order to make others physically and mentally fit. Incorporating yoga in one’s own life is an important step towards that. Keeping this objective in mind, the present study was conducted on medical students to make them aware what yoga is and to encourage them to incorporate yoga in their life.

Aim: To study the effect of short term yoga practices on pulmonary function tests FVC, FEV 1,PEFR, and MEF 25-75%.

Material and Methods: The study was conducted on healthy medical students of M.B.B.S. 1st year (21 males and 15 females) of age group 17-21 years in the department of physiology, M.G.M. Medical College, and M.Y. Hospital, Indore. After obtaining an informed consent; and satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria the pulmonary function tests were performed on Ganshorn Power-Cube LF8 Beta System before subjecting the students to yoga training. The parameters taken were FEV1 and PEFR. Then the students were trained by experts from Yoga Center. The students performed the yoga practices in the morning for one hour, six days in a week, for four weeks under expert’s observation. The yoga practices consisted of Prayer, Omkar recitation, asana, Pranayama, and breathing exercises. Pulmonary function parameters were also tested after four-week yoga session. Data thus collected before and after performing yoga were compiled, tabulated and analyzed by using students’ ‘t’ test.

Result: There was significant improvement in FEV1 and PEFR as denoted by p value of <.05.

Conclusion: A Marked improvement can occur in various respiratory parameters after short-term yoga practices. By extending these results, we suggest that yoga practice may be applied as an alternative therapy or as an adjunct to conventional therapy for the prevention as well as management of respiratory diseases like bronchial asthma.

Keywords: Yoga; Pulmonary Function Tests; FVC; FEV1; PEFR; MEF; Students’ ‘t’ Test.