Jump to navigation Jump to search For the family of spiritual practices that originated in Anti gravity yoga reviews, see Yoga. Yoga for therapeutic purposes is the use of modern yoga as a gentle form of exercise and relaxation to maintain or improve health.

Yoga in this sense often occurs in a class and may involve meditation, imagery, breath work and music. A «yoga boom» occurred in the 1980s, unconnected to religious practice. Since then, modern yoga has been used as a supplementary exercise practice. The more classical approaches of modern yoga such as Iyengar yoga, move at a more deliberate pace, emphasize proper alignment and execution and hold asanas for a longer time. They aim to gradually improve flexibility, balance, and strength.

Much of the research on the therapeutic use of modern yoga has been in the form of preliminary studies or clinical trials of low methodological quality, including small sample sizes, inadequate blinding, lack of randomization, and high risk of bias. A 2010 literature review stated, «although the results from these trials are encouraging, they should be viewed as very preliminary because the trials, as a group, suffered from substantial methodological limitations. One review found little evidence that yoga helps people with dementia perform their daily activities, while another showed there were no effects on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Only weak evidence was found to support the use of hatha yoga as a complementary therapy for rheumatic diseases, with no evidence of its safety. Although relatively safe, yoga is not risk free.