Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Nov 17;10(4):107.
doi: 10.3390/diseases10040107.

Psychophysiological Adaptations to Yoga Practice in Overweight and Obese Individuals: A Topical Review

Alexios Batrakoulis  1
Affiliations
Review

Psychophysiological Adaptations to Yoga Practice in Overweight and Obese Individuals: A Topical Review

Alexios Batrakoulis. Diseases. .

Abstract

Physical activity has been documented as a foundational approach for weight management and obesity, improving several cardiometabolic and mental health indices. However, it is not clear whether yoga practice can induce beneficial improvements in anthropometric and body composition parameters, performance, metabolic health, and well-being among overweight/obese people. The aim of this topical review was to catalog training studies examining the psychophysiological responses to yoga interventions in order to detect which outcomes have been investigated, the research methods applied, and the conclusions. The inclusion/exclusion criteria were met by 22 published articles involving 1178 (56% female) overweight/obese participants. This brief review on yoga-induced adaptations demonstrates that this widely used meditative movement activity can meaningfully improve the vast majority of the selected markers. These beneficial alterations are focused mostly on various anthropometric and body composition variables, cardiovascular disease risk factors, physical fitness parameters, quality of life, and stress in previously inactive overweight/obese individuals. Instead, yoga-based physical exercise interventions investigating anxiety, depression, mood state, exercise enjoyment, affect valence, and adherence were limited. Further research should focus on the yoga intervention configuration and potential mechanisms behind favorable changes in various psychophysiological indices through large-scale, rigorously designed randomized controlled trials implementing long-term interventions in overweight/obese individuals.

Keywords: exercise; obesity; overweight; physiological responses; psychological responses; yoga.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The psychophysiological effects of yoga interventions in overweight and obese individuals. MHR: maximum heart rate; RPE: rating of perceived exertion. [34,43,46,56,57].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flowchart of the systematic literature search.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. World Health Organization Overweight and Obesity. WHO Fact Sheet N°311 Website. [(accessed on 9 June 2021)]. Available online: https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight.
    1. World Health Organization . Noncommunicable Diseases Country Profiles 2018. World Health Organization; Geneva, Switzerland: 2018.
    1. Tremmel M., Gerdtham U.G., Nilsson P.M., Saha S. Economic Burden of Obesity: A Systematic Literature Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2017;14:435. doi: 10.3390/ijerph14040435. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gasmi A., Noor S., Piscopo S., Menzel A. Lifestyle Genetics-Based Reports in the Treatment of Obesity. Arch. Razi. Inst. 2021;76:707. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Do K., Brown R.E., Wharton S., Ardern C.I., Kuk J.L. Association between cardiorespiratory fitness and metabolic risk factors in a population with mild to severe obesity. BMC Obes. 2018;5:5. doi: 10.1186/s40608-018-0183-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.

LinkOut - more resources