Investigation of the effect of perception of health level, flexibility and body mass index of pilates mat exercises in middle AGE women

Objective: The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of 10-week pilates mat exercises on perceived health, flexibility and body mass index (BMI) in middle-aged women. Method: In this research, 28 middle age women participated as experimental group and 14 women participated as control group. Pilates mat exercise was applied to the experimental group for 10 weeks, 3 minutes per week and 60 minutes per day. The control group did not participate in any exercise program. flexibility test, BMI measurements and perceived health level questionnaire were administered to both groups before and after exercise. In this research, statistical results were calculated by using SPSS 21.0 package program. Paired Sample T-Test was used in parametric tests. In the control group, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Numbers test was used. Results: While there was no statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test averages of the experimental group in the research, flexibility values and perceived health levels were statistically significant (p<0,001). In the control group, while there was no statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test averages of BMI values and flexibility values, statistical significance was found to be detrimental to the control group (p<0,01). Conclusion: In this research, it was concluded that regular 10-week pilates exercises showed a positive increase in perceived health and flexibility values in middle-aged women. Keywords: body mass index, flexibility, perceived health, pilates