Indayugan: A Culturally Grounded Dance Intervention for Improving Health-Related Physical Fitness in Female College Students

Optimal physical fitness is essential for promoting the health and well-being of female college students. However, many show low engagement in Physical Education (PE) due to activities that do not align with their interests and identities. This quasi-experimental two-group pre-and post-test design examined the effects of Indayugan, a culturally inspired dance exercise that integrates Filipino folk and ethnic dances, on the health-related fitness of female students at a state university in Nueva Ecija, Philippines. The Experimental Group (EG) participated in an eight-week Indayugan intervention, while the Control Group (CG) engaged in traditional PE classes. Health-related fitness components, including cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle endurance, muscle strength, flexibility, and body composition, were assessed before and after the intervention using paired and independent samples t-tests. Results indicated that no significant differences were observed between groups at pre-tests (all p-values > .05). Paired-samples t-tests revealed that the CG showed modest but statistically significant improvements from pre-test to post-test in cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle endurance, flexibility, and BMI, with no significant difference in muscle strength. The EG, however, showed substantially greater improvement across each measure, illustrating the stronger impact of the Indayugan intervention, although there was no significant difference in muscle strength. Independent-samples t-tests on post-test scores confirmed that the EG outperformed the CG in cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, flexibility, and BMI, but showed no significant difference in muscle strength. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the Indayugan intervention can be effective in improving health-related fitness and cultural expression, highlighting the importance of culturally relevant practices when delivering a physical education curriculum to enhance student fitness, health, and participation.