Abstract
Physical abilities decline with age, but regular physical exercise in the third age can significantly slow down these changes. The objective of this research is to determine and compare physical abilities of the two different groups of women of the third age, only one of them regularly engaged in physical activities. The sample of examinees were 13 women aged 62, who regularly practice yoga in an organized way for at least one year, three times a week for one hour; and 12 women aged 62, who do not practice regularly. The sample of variables consisted of 6 variables from the area of physical abilities: lifting in sitting position, forward bend in sitting position, trunk-bending in standing position, balance on one foot, high jump from a standing start, hand tapping. The testing was done according to the protocol predicted in the Eurofit battery of tests for the adults. The results show that the tests from the group that do exercises achieved better results in all tests, but that difference was statistically significant (at the level of significance 0.01) only at two tests: lifting in a sitting position (14,59 - 0.885 at the experimental compared to the 8,17 -5,49 at the control group) and balance on one foot (8,08 - 3,82 at the experimental, compared to 12,92 - 4,68 at the control group).