A Comparative Study of HIIT and Yoga Practitioners on Emotional Dysregulation, Positive and Negative Affect and Perceived Stress

Abstract

The present study compared the effects of Yoga and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on the emotional dysregulation, positive and negative affect and perceived stress of young adults between the ages 20-30. For this research, a total of 80 participants, particularly, 40 yoga practitioners and 40 HIIT practitioners completed a questionnaire that consisted of a personal detail sheet, and scales such as the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). These subjects were selected using the Snowball Sampling method who had been actively engaging in either Yoga or HIIT practices for at least 6 months. Descriptive Statistics and the Shapiro-Wilk test were first administered on the collected data to check for Normality. After it was confirmed that the data is normal, we conducted a t-test to compare the means of the two groups, i.e., Yoga and HIIT practitioners. The statistics revealed no difference between Yoga and HIIT practitioners on their emotional dysregulation and negative affect, but a significant difference was observed on the levels of positive affect and perceived stress, with Yoga practitioners having significantly lower scores than HIIT practitioners. These findings tell us that while both forms of exercises help maintain our emotional wellbeing, Yoga offers additional benefits in lowering stress levels and improving positive emotions.