Abstract
M.Phil. (Biokinetics)
Stress is an integral part of daily living and supports the ability to adapt. However, chronic
activation without the ability to express the physical response results in overloading the
physiological and psychological systems. Since urban South Africans are sedentary and
experience high levels of stress, they are developing stress related chronic conditions and
hypokinetic diseases (obesity, hypertension, depression). This study is aimed at decreasing the
chronic physical manifestations of the stress response through somatic awareness exercise and
aerobic exercise. The present investigation made use of a quantitative, comparative
experimental research design over an eight-week period using pre- and post-tests. Participants
were measured for psychological stress via a perceived stress scale and the chronic physical
manifestations were measured via heart rate, blood pressure and body sway. The number of
volunteers in the present study was 102 and they were recruited from corporate environments in
the Johannesburg area. Their ages ranged from 18 to 65 years. The sample consisted of females
(n = 42; % = 75) and males (n = 14; % = 25); white (n = 39; % = 69.6), black (n = 12; % = 21.4)
and Indian (n = 5; % = 8.9) participants and non-smokers (n = 41; % = 73.2) and smokers
(n = 15; % = 26.8). Untrained individuals were divided into 4 groups: a somatic awareness
exercise (n = 9), aerobic exercise (n = 15), combination of somatic awareness and aerobic
exercise group (n = 8) and a control group (n = 15). The aerobic group participated in aerobic
activity, somatic awareness group in somatic awareness exercise and the combination group
participated in both aerobic- and somatic awareness exercises. Individuals who trained were
placed in a separate exercise group (n = 9) and had to add somatic awareness exercises to their
weekly routines.