Postgraduate student Yatsun Zhang¹
Dr. Med. T.A. Shilko^1
1National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk

Keywords: Qigong gymnastics, female students, physical fitness, mental health and emotionality, physical health, special health group, physical education and sports.

Background. For the last few decades, the Russian health system has been reporting deterioration of the university students’ health standards, since most of the Russian students are prone to unhealthy lifestyles and bad habits associated with physical inactivity. The numbers of university entrants qualified with the special health group are also on the rise [5]. The physical inactivity and different chronic diseases are inevitably associated with emotional stressors which further undermine the working capacity and intellectual functionality of the students. These are the reasons why the physical health and mental health improvement initiatives are in a growing priority in the adaptive health research community [4].

Furthermore, it is widely acknowledged that the academic physical education service for special health group needs to be improved by a variety of models including, as demonstrated by a few studies [1, 6], adapted versions of Chinese Qigong gymnastics that have proved beneficial for physical health and mental health standards of special health group students. Thus the Qigong gymnastics Ba Duan Jin practices designed to relax body and calm down mind (with the trainee focusing his/ her thoughts on own self associating with flowing water or flying clouds) have been successfully applied to improve physical health / mental health standards by many universities in China [2, 3].

Objective of the study was to rate and analyze benefits of a Chinese Qigong gymnastics model for special health group to complement the adaptive academic physical education and sport service.

Methods and structure of the study. The new Qigong gymnastics model testing experiment was run at the National Research Tomsk State University’s Physical Education and Sport Department, with 76 female students sampled for the study. The sample was split up into Experimental and Reference Groups (EG, RG) of 38 people each, with the RG trained under the standard physical education and sport curriculum, whilst the EG trainings were dominated by the special-health-group-adapted Chinese Qigong gymnastics model. Both groups were trained twice a week for 1.5 hours for one semester. The physical fitness, mental health and emotionality of the sample were tested by SCL-90 questionnaire survey to rate 90 symptoms on the following 9 test scales:

1. Somatization meaning mostly local bodily discomforts with the symptoms including headache, muscle pain etc;

2. Obsessive-compulsive issues with proneness to obsessive meaningless thought(s) or useless behavior;

3. Interpersonal sensitivity that means communicational issues with feels of awkwardness, shyness, inferiority etc;

4. Depression with the relevant depressive sentiments and fears;

5. Anxiety that means the personality anxiety with active frustration avoidance behavior;

6. Hostility in three aspects: thoughts, feelings and behavior, including attacks on material objects, arguments and tantrums;

7. Phobic anxiety including fairs of empty spaces with the relevant physical symptoms;

8. Paranoid thinking with excessive sensitivity to disappointment, doubt, resentment, constant discontent with others; and

9. Psychoticism that mostly refers to a few specific behavior and health disorders including auditory hallucinations.

Physical fitness of the sample was rated by standard movement coordination (monopodalic eyes-closed balance), flexibility (standing bents), legs strength (squats), and abs strength (recumbent to sit) tests.

Results and discussion. Qigong Ba Duan Jin is one of the most popular versions of the Chinese Qigong gymnastics believed to be at least 2500 years old. Unlike the traditional practices (weightlifting, muscle endurance and strength trainings) focused on body only, the Qigong gymnastics Ba Duan Jin practices are designed to integrate mind and body for harmonized physical and mental progress [3]. The pre-experimental tests of both groups found no significant intergroup differences; whilst the post-experimental tests showed a statistically significant progress of the EG versus RG in the movement coordination, flexibility and leg strength test rates: see Table 1.

Table 1. Pre- versus post-experimental physical fitness test rates of the sample

Given in Table 2 hereunder are the pre- versus post-experimental mental health and emotionality test rates of the sample – that show significant progress of the EG versus RG in the somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety and phobic anxiety test rates (p <0.05). Of special interest was the significant falls in the interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, paranoid thinking and psychoticism test rates in the EG versus RG (p> 0.05).

Table 2. Pre- versus post-experimental mental health test rates of the sample

Note: ※ statistically significant intergroup difference, р<0.05

Conclusion. The new Chinese Qigong gymnastics model for special health group students was tested beneficial as verified by the EG versus RG progress in the physical health rating monopodalic eyes-closed balance, standing bents and squats tests and mental health and emotionality rating somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety and phobic anxiety tests.

References

1. Wu Hai Long Popularization of Qigong Ba Duan Jin in National Fitness Sport. Sportivnye tekhnologii. 2015. No. 4. pp. 104-105.
2. Ying Jian, Shang Yi, Li Xiaoqing, Zhang Yihe Reflections on Health Problems. Medical Treatment Qigong. Modern distance learning Chinese medicine. 2011. No. 8. pp.131-133.
3. Analysis of factors influencing the effect of Qigong exercise on health. Rukovodstvo po sportivnoy kulture. 2015. No. 4. pp. 51-54.
4. Shilko V.G., Potovskaya E.S., Shilko T.A. et al. Change in role of stress factors among female students in fitness training process. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2018. No.10. pp. 57-59.
5. Shilko V.G., Potovskaya E.S., Shilko T.A. et al. Academic sports to build stress tolerance in female students. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2018. No. 11. pp. 17-19.
6. Shilko T.A., Yatsyun Zhang, Yang Zhaoqi, Qianyu E. Benefits of Chinese Qigong (ba duan jin) gymnastics for senior women's life quality. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2019. No. 11. pp. 34-36.

Corresponding author: tashilko@gmail.com

Abstract

Objective of the study was to rate and analyze benefits of a Chinese Qigong gymnastics model for special health group to complement the adaptive academic physical education and sport service.

Methods and structure of the study. The new Qigong gymnastics model testing experiment was run at the National Research Tomsk State University’s Physical Education and Sport Department, with 76 female students sampled for the study. The sample was split up into Experimental and Reference Groups (EG, RG) of 38 people each, with the RG trained under the standard physical education and sport curriculum, whilst the EG trainings were dominated by the special-health-group-adapted Chinese Qigong gymnastics model. Both groups were trained twice a week for 1.5 hours for one semester.

Results and conclusions. After the educational experiment, we found a statistically significant improvement of the coordination skills, flexibility, and leg strength in the Experimental Group as opposed to the Control Group. The female students practicing the Chinese Qigong gymnastics demonstrated a significant improvement in their psychological and emotional state. For example, somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety, and phobic anxiety decreased in the Experimental Group females as compared to the Control Group ones (p<0.05). It should be noted that interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, paranoid thinking, and psychoticism decreased in the Experimental Group, too (p>0.05).

The new Chinese Qigong gymnastics model for special health group students was tested beneficial as verified by the EG versus RG progress in the physical health rating monopodalic eyes-closed balance, standing bents and squats tests and mental health and emotionality rating somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety and phobic anxiety tests.