The study's main objective was to investigate the significant changes in aerobic capacity (VO2max) of Women Soccer following the progressive yogic exercise intervention. A total of fifty (N=50) women soccer players between 18 to 30 years of age from the KRYPHSA and YWC), Imphal, were selected randomly and divided into experimental (N1=25) and control (N2=25) groups. The experimental group only had been assigned the yogic exercise intervention 6 times in a week for duration of 12 weeks in the morning before attending the regular football training and the control group was not treated with any specific intervention exercise except regular football training. The yogic exercise intervention composed of Asanas, Pranayamas, Om-chanting and Meditation. Cooper’s 12 minutes Run-Walk test was administered to assess the VO2max in pre-intervention, 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks. The Repeated Measures Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was adopted to determine the overall significant changes in aerobic capacity (VO2mx) and the level of significance was set at 0.05 to interpret the substantial differences. The result of the study showed a progressive improvement of 4, 8, and 12 weeks of yogic exercise intervention on the VO2max within the experimental group. There were significant improvements in the control group from pre-intervention to 12th week, 4th to 12th week, and 8th to 12th week in VO2max. But, no gradual improvement was evidenced at all within the control group. Further, the result showed non-significant difference in the aerobic capacity (VO2max) between the experimental and control groups after the course of 12 weeks. The result might be because of the control group players evolved the same periodized regular soccer training except for yogic exercise intervention. They might acquire the chance to improve aerobic capacity (VO2max). The present study concluded that there was found the gradual increase of aerobic capacity (VO2max) of women soccer players during the course of 12 weeks yogic exercise intervention.

Yoga, exercise intervention, VO2max, Soccer.