The Effect of an Eight-week Aerobic and Yoga Training on the Level of Depresion in Non-Athlete Females Aged Over 40 Years in Ahvaz Oil Industry

The Purpose of this research was to study the effect of an eight weeks aerobic and yoga training on the level of depression in non-athlete females aged over 40 years in Ahvaz Oil Industry. The method of this investigation in field-quasi-experimental. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) whose reliability and validity were confirmed, was used. The relevant questionnaire was distributed among 317 females who enrolled in Shahrak Naft club and Koye Fadaian Eslam as the research population. 60 subjects showing high depression level according to BDI were divided into three groups of yoga, aerobic and control. Aerobic and Yoga groups took part in training protocol consisting of 8 weeks , 3 days a week and 60 minutes a day. Descriptive statistics, t-test, one –way ANOVA, Spearman correlation and follow up Tukey test at ?=0.05 were used to analyze the data. The results showed that aerobic and yoga training significantly reduced the level of depression, but aerobic training was more effective than yoga . The findings also showed a significant negative relationship between depression and the level of education in females. Significant relationship was seen between age, weight and the level of depression but aerobic training was more effective in reducing the weight. The results of the present study indicated that different kinds of physical activity had a positive effect on depression symptoms . Therefore, it can be suggested that physical activity can be used as a cheap and suitable methods to reduce depression symptoms in non-athlete females.