Yoga For Asthma, COPD And Breathlessness: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Short of breath on the stairs? Tight in the chest, or reaching for the puffer more than you would like? Breathlessness, asthma and COPD all make every breath feel like work. Mr BKS Iyengar and the medical doctors who worked with him give the same first answer: open the chest, then learn to breathe. This guide brings together what each of them says, and what modern research has found about yoga for asthma, COPD and breathlessness. Last updated: 31 October 2026.

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Yoga for asthma, COPD and breathlessness: the short answer

Does yoga help asthma and COPD? Yes. Yoga helps people breathe more easily. In asthma, the reviews found better quality of life and fewer symptoms after yoga. In COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, long-term lung damage that includes emphysema), people walked further and their lungs worked better, and the gains came from yoga that trained the breath. Mr Iyengar’s own order is poses first: relax and open the chest, so that when breathing practice (pranayama) comes, the lungs are ready for it.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: most trials tested “yoga” of many styles, taught by teachers with very different training. The trials that tested Iyengar yoga specifically, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, found it helped people with COPD walk further and feel less anxious and tired, and in our view well-taught Iyengar yoga is likely to go further than the average. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for breathlessness, asthma and COPD

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, several times a week. Chest-opening and supported poses come first. The trials that worked ran for about 12 weeks, so give it time.
2. Breathe through your nose, with a long, soft out-breath. The nose warms, cleans and moistens the air. A slow out-breath settles the whole system.
3. Add pranayama when your teacher sees you are ready. It starts lying down, slow and quiet, with no breath holds.
4. Calm the mind. Fear and stress tighten the chest and the diaphragm (the main breathing muscle), and a tight chest makes breathing harder. Supported poses and slow breathing bring it all down.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major person who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Mr BKS Iyengar: open the chest with poses first; pranayama comes when the chest is soft and free.
• Geeta S Iyengar: creating space is the first lesson of pranayama; months of poses come before it.
• Dr Timothy McCall: asthma and COPD are both on his list of conditions helped by yoga.
• Dr Krishna Raman: yoga brings asthma attacks down in number and strength, in his view; pranayama helps COPD, “but not at first”.
• The research: 19 studies listed below, from small Iyengar trials to reviews of thousands of people.
• Take it further: a free ebook on pranayama, pranayama classes, and yoga classes in Darwin and online.

“The ribs are the wings of the body. Open your wings.”

What breathlessness, asthma and COPD are

Breathlessness means you cannot get enough air, or breathing takes more effort than it should. It has many causes. Two of the most common long-term ones are:

• Asthma: the airways (the tubes that carry air into the lungs) narrow and swell, bringing chest tightness, coughing and wheeze. About 2.8 million Australians, 11% of us, have asthma.
• COPD: lasting damage to the airways and air sacs, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Breathing out becomes slow and hard, and air gets trapped in the lungs. It mostly affects people over 45, and is among the leading causes of illness in older Australians.

In both, fear and tension join in. A tight chest makes breathing harder, and hard breathing makes people more anxious. That loop is where yoga comes in.

“My chest was expanding only half an inch.”

What Mr BKS Iyengar taught about breathlessness and asthma

In short: poses come first. Relax, open and extend the chest, then bring in pranayama.

In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, Mr Iyengar sets out a yoga approach for breathlessness, colds, sinusitis, bronchitis and asthma. In a 2008 article for Yoga Rahasya, the Pune institute’s journal, he went further and answered a common mistake head on: the idea that people with asthma should start with breathing practice. A few ideas run through it all.

• Poses first, not pranayama. Doctors often send people with asthma to learn breathing practice. He wrote that they should start with poses alone, learning to expand and contract the lungs through the poses. In his words: “In emphysema, one cannot exhale so how can one teach the art of inhalation?”
• Soften the chest before you breathe into it. During asthma, the muscles between the ribs and around the chest and neck tighten and harden. First comes relaxing, opening and extending the chest, so warmth and some elasticity return. Then simple pranayama can begin.
• Never force it. He warned that forcing pranayama during an attack makes the attack stronger, and that headstand and shoulder stand are not done during an acute attack, only between attacks.
• Lift the chest, free the diaphragm. For breathlessness he describes lungs that have lost their springy return, air held in, and a squeezed diaphragm. His approach opens and lifts the chest through standing poses and backbends, then supported inversions and reclining poses, and only then breath practice and rest.
• Calm the nerves. He listed bronchial asthma among the ills that stress brings on (Astadala Yogamala, volume 3), and called uneven breathing “an indication of stress” (Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, p. 36).
• Support helps. Even a simple seated pose with the back supported, he wrote, relieves breathlessness and choking in asthma (his claim, p. 102).

In Light on Pranayama he adds detail for later stages: Ujjayi (the ocean breath) with a long in-breath is his suggestion for asthma (p. 132), and for emphysema he has people rest lying on wooden planks with pillows under the head (p. 252). He is also clear that pranayama is not deep breathing (Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, p. 54).

We do not publish his sequences. A sequence needs a teacher who can see your chest and your breath and adapt each pose, which is what a class is for.

“The chest expansion gives a feeling of happiness and joy.”

What Geeta S Iyengar taught about the breath

In short: make space first. Pranayama is learnt slowly, lying down, within your own capacity.

Geeta S Iyengar, Mr Iyengar’s daughter, taught pranayama to students from all over the world, and hers is the approach we follow most closely at Flametree. She knew breathlessness at first hand: as a child she had kidney disease, was often breathless, and at about nine sometimes lost consciousness. Yoga became her way back, a family story we tell as her story, not as a promise.

• Space comes first. In her teaching, creating space in the chest is the very first lesson of pranayama.
• Poses before pranayama. Four to six months of poses before pranayama, with beginners kept to the simplest stages of Ujjayi (Yoga: A Gem for Women, ch. XIV).
• Chin down, chest up. When the breastbone drops, she taught, the attention drops with it.
• Know your limit. Each student finds and works within their own capacity.
• Rest half-sitting first. For a heavy chest, a half-sitting rest on a bench or bolsters comes before lying flat.

“Suppose you are suddenly frightened, then what happens to your diaphragm? It shrinks.”

What Dr Timothy McCall says

In short: asthma and COPD are both on his list of conditions helped by yoga, and his bibliography includes an Iyengar yoga study in chronic lung disease.

Dr McCall is a US medical doctor and yoga therapist, author of Yoga as Medicine and former medical editor of Yoga Journal. His June 2019 list of 117 conditions helped by yoga includes asthma (no. 5) and COPD (no. 18), and his book gives asthma a chapter of its own.

• One woman’s story. In his chapter on anxiety, Dr McCall tells of “Graciella” (not her real name), who had a long history of asthma. Breath awareness frustrated her at first. In the end she credited yoga with ending both her anxiety and her long-standing asthma, without inhalers. That is her claim, about her own life, and one person’s story.
• An Iyengar study on his list. Under COPD, his bibliography lists a Canadian pilot of Iyengar yoga in people with chronic lung disease (Santana 2013). Its results are in the Iyengar trials below.

“Listen to the lungs and do not use force on them for inhalation.”

What Dr Krishna Raman says

In short: yoga makes asthma attacks fewer and milder, in his view, and pranayama helps COPD, “but not at first”.

Dr Raman is a Chennai physician who trained in yoga under Mr Iyengar. His question-and-answer book on yoga and medical science covers asthma, COPD, smoking and breathlessness. His views, in our words:

• Asthma: in his experience, yoga lowers how often attacks come and how severe they are.
• COPD: pranayama is very helpful, “but not at first”. Uddiyana (the strong abdominal lift) is left out for now, and the quick-pumping breath Kapalabhati is not for current or former smokers at the start.
• Start simple. Begin with Ujjayi. An even breath in and out is safe and very helpful. Master the simple kinds before alternate nostril breathing.
• Better, not more. The aim is to use oxygen well, not to take in more of it: slower, fuller breaths, through the nose, which filters and moistens the air.
• Breathless in class? For beginners, getting out of breath during practice is not harmful, in his view. Wrong pranayama, done with strain, can bring on breathlessness.
• In the tropics: practise early in the morning in fresh air if you can. A short time in air conditioning is fine. Good news for Darwin.

Other yoga voices on asthma and the breath

• The aim in asthma is to clear and widen the airways, so breathing out gets easier. Two kinds of work: heavily supported poses during an attack, and supported backbends and inversions between attacks. Sam Motiwala and Rajvi Mehta, writing for the Iyengar institute’s journal Yoga Rahasya.
• “Asthma is now a thing of the past.” Amrish Mody had asthma from birth. After an Iyengar course in 1982, he says his chest measurement grew from 33 to 39 inches as poses gradually took over his days. His claim and his figures, one man’s story, told in Yoga Rahasya.
• Nothing strenuous, and open the chest from the bottom up. Iyengar teachers in Atlanta taught nearly 150 inner-city children with asthma in three public schools, giving at least 15 minutes of each 45-minute class to chest opening and rest. Kathleen Pringle and Anna Leo, Yoga Rahasya, 2004.
• Does yoga work for the lungs? Yes. And the benefits last while you keep practising. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?, a careful review of the yoga research.

“When the chest opens, the mind opens, and we feel emotionally radiant, and stability comes.”

What the research shows

In short: COPD has the clearest results, asthma close behind, and breathing practice carries much of the gain. Most of these studies tested yoga in general, of many styles. The Iyengar yoga trials are listed on their own below. Why the difference matters.

COPD and emphysema

• Yoga improved how far people could walk in six minutes (by about 25 metres), lung function and quality of life. The gains came from breathing-focused programmes, not from programmes built on poses alone. Cramer 2019, a review of 11 trials and 586 people with COPD. Read the study.
• Pranayama helped people walk further: about 28 metres more after 12 weeks, while the education-only group walked about 15 metres less. Lung measures of trapped air also moved the right way. Kaminsky 2017, a small pilot trial of 43 people with moderate to severe COPD, pranayama plus education against education alone. Read the study.
• Yoga brought less breathlessness, less tiredness, a lower pulse and better oxygen levels. Daily yoga with breathing practice, pranayama and meditation for 12 weeks. Ranjita 2016, a trial of 81 coal miners with COPD, compared with a waiting list. Read the study.
• Mind-body exercise, yoga included, improved lung function and walking distance against standard care. Zhu 2024, a review of 15 trials and 1,047 people with stable COPD. Read the study.
• Yoga ranked top for walking distance among the movement practices tested for breathlessness. Li 2025, a network review of 44 trials and 2,957 people with long-term heart or lung breathlessness. Read the study.

Asthma in adults

• Yoga brought small gains in quality of life and symptoms. Five of the trials tested yoga breathing alone. Yang 2016, a Cochrane review of 15 trials and 1,048 people with asthma. Read the study.
• Against usual care, yoga improved asthma control, symptoms, quality of life and peak flow (the fastest breath out), with no serious side effects. Cramer 2014, a review of 14 trials and 824 people. Read the study.
• Breathing exercises improved quality of life at 3 months and eased over-breathing symptoms. Fourteen of the trials used yoga breathing. Santino 2020, a Cochrane review of 22 trials and 2,880 adults with asthma. Read the study.
• Two thirds of people used their reliever inhaler less, and asthma control scores improved. A mixed programme of yoga breathing, belly breathing and pursed-lip breathing, under 10 minutes a day for a month. Karam 2016, 74 adults with asthma, no comparison group. Read the study.
• Yoga did better than control groups for asthma symptoms, and in COPD, tai chi and yoga raised exercise endurance. Heredia-Rizo 2023, an overview of 27 reviews (4 on asthma, 23 on COPD). Read the study.

Asthma in children

Two studies, two different results, both good news.

• Humming and chanting Om brought asthma under control in 68% of children, against 39% on medicine alone. Quality of life improved and a marker of airway swelling fell; lung function tests did not change. Twelve weeks of home-based, online Bhramari (humming bee breath) and Om chanting, alongside usual medicine. Yadav 2024, a trial of 110 children aged 8 to 15 in New Delhi. Read the study.
• Yoga added to usual care improved children’s lung function at 6 and 12 weeks. Yadav 2025, a review of 6 trials, 480 children pooled. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

These trials tested Iyengar yoga specifically, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, with props and adapted poses.

• Iyengar yoga helped older people with COPD walk further, safely: about 72 feet further after 12 weeks, while the usual-care group walked about 28 feet less. They also did better at everyday tasks, and distress about breathlessness fell. A modified Iyengar programme of poses and timed pranayama, twice a week. Donesky-Cuenco 2009, a pilot trial of 29 older adults with COPD. Read the study.
• Some in the Iyengar yoga group gained on two of the three measures, and those who started yoga straight away did better than those who waited. Donesky 2012, a closer look at who gained in the same COPD trial. Read the study.
• Iyengar yoga lowered anxiety and fatigue, and people wrote of better breathing, mobility, energy and sleep. Twelve weeks of Iyengar yoga, two classes a week. Santana 2013, a Canadian pilot of 25 people with COPD or high blood pressure in the lungs, from lung transplant clinics. Read the study.

The Iyengar trials so far are in COPD and chronic lung disease, and they point the same way as Mr Iyengar’s own long, patient approach. Longer Iyengar trials in asthma have not yet been done. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. Why Iyengar trials matter.

Breathing techniques for breathlessness

Looking for breathing exercises for shortness of breath, or COPD exercises gentle enough to start with? The biggest review so far points the same way as the yoga trials:

• Breathing techniques lowered breathlessness and quality of life improved consistently, with no harms reported. Pursed-lip and belly breathing were tested most; yoga breathing was tested in three small studies. Burge 2024, a review of 73 trials and 5,479 people, mostly with COPD or asthma. Read the study.

Pranayama, breathing retraining and loose “breathwork”

Not every breathing study tested pranayama. Some tested breathing retraining of the Buteyko kind, which aims to breathe less, through the nose. That is breathing retraining, not pranayama. It helped too:

• Breathing retraining lowered asthma symptoms and cut reliever use by about two puffs a day. In the same trial, a breathing device meant to copy pranayama did no better than a dummy device: a gadget, not pranayama taught by a teacher. Cooper 2003, a trial of 90 adults with asthma. Read the study.
• Both breathing groups improved asthma control, and the retraining group cut its steroid inhaler use more. Cowie 2008, adults with asthma, Buteyko retraining against breathing and relaxation taught in a clinic. Read the study.
• Yoga, Buteyko retraining and clinic breathing training all improved quality of life in asthma. Burgess 2011, a review of 41 studies of breathing retraining. Read the study.

“Breathwork” is a loose word. Some breathing methods are slow and calming; some are fast and forceful, with long breath holds. Pranayama, mindfulness and breathwork overlap, and where they overlap they mostly calm, but they also differ, so it matters what was actually taught, how and by whom. No trial has yet tested Viloma (the staircase breath) or Ujjayi (the ocean breath) on their own for asthma or COPD. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The pranayama we teach for breathlessness is slow, nasal and quiet, learnt step by step, and we do not teach forceful breathing for it. Why the kind of breathing matters, and our review of the Air Hunger breathwork film.

Meditation and mindfulness

Mindfulness and meditation have not yet been well studied on their own for asthma or COPD. Pranayama trains the same steady, present attention through the breath, and calm is at the heart of every programme that worked above.

For men

COPD hits men harder. In Australia, men’s death rates from COPD ran 1.4 to 1.7 times women’s between 2011 and 2021, and men are admitted to hospital with it more often. Asthma is also more common in boys than girls (10% against 6.3% in 2022). Yet men come to yoga far less often than women.

Mr Iyengar himself was a frail boy whose chest, he said, expanded only half an inch, and he became a man whose practice was famous worldwide. Men are often stiff through the chest and shoulders, which is exactly where breathing gets stuck. A class that opens the chest, strengthens the back and teaches a slow out-breath is a good place for any man with a tight chest to start. 2 free classes, then 10 at half price.

“Slow, soft, quiet exhalation so the brain cells quieten.”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach.

• Chest opening first: supported backbends over bolsters and chairs, standing poses that lift the ribs, and the wall for support.
• Classes adapted to the people in them. No one-size-fits-all. Tell your teacher about your asthma or COPD if you wish, and the poses are changed for you.
• Nothing strenuous, nothing forced. Rests come before you need them, and forceful breathing is not part of the work.
• Pranayama when you are ready: lying down, slow and quiet, starting with Ujjayi and Viloma, no breath holds. Humming comes in when the teacher sees you are ready, and not while you have a cough.
• Gentle and restorative days: our gentle yoga and restorative yoga classes suit low-energy days, and our pranayama classes run at 6.30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in Darwin and online.

Treya, one of our online pranayama students, wrote after ten classes that her lungs had become stronger, just when life got stressful. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting, and keep up the yoga alongside.

Read more on breathing and the lungs

• How to improve lung capacity: what breathing exercises did for COPD and asthma in the trials
• Breathwork: benefits, types and a free ebook and breathwork for beginners
• Nose or mouth? How to stop mouth breathing
• Ujjayi, the ocean breath, Bhramari, the humming bee breath and alternate nostril breathing
• Breath of fire: why Kapalabhati comes last
• Cyclic sighing: the long out-breath and vagus nerve exercises
• Yoga and anxiety, upsets and anger
• Iyengar quotes on the breath, explained

Take it further

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See every class time.
• Pranayama: live pranayama classes with Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, at 6.30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or start any time with the 4 pranayama video classes.
• Masterclass: our 2027 Sunday Arvo Masterclasses with Chris Lalor include anxiety, upsets and anger, and sleep and energy. Bookings open soon.
• Retreats: a week of daily yoga and pranayama in Bali, by the sea air. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Yoga for asthma and COPD: questions people ask

Is yoga good for asthma?

Yes. Reviews of the trials found that yoga improved quality of life and symptoms in asthma, and against usual care it improved asthma control and peak flow. In children, humming and chanting Om alongside usual medicine helped asthma come under control. Mr Iyengar’s approach starts with poses that relax and open the chest.

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about asthma and breathlessness?

Mr Iyengar taught that people with asthma should start with poses, not breathing practice. First relax, open and extend the chest so warmth and elasticity return, then begin simple pranayama. He set out yoga approaches for breathlessness, bronchitis and asthma in Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, using chest-opening poses, supported backbends and inversions, and rest.

Why do Iyengar teachers start asthma students with poses rather than breathing practice?

Because a tight chest cannot breathe well. In asthma the muscles between the ribs and around the chest tighten. Mr Iyengar wrote that forcing breathing practice into a tight chest makes things worse, so poses come first to soften and open it. Geeta Iyengar gave beginners four to six months of poses before pranayama.

Has Iyengar yoga been tested for COPD?

Yes. In a 2009 trial, older people with COPD who did a modified Iyengar programme of poses and timed breathing twice a week for 12 weeks walked further and managed daily tasks better, safely. A 2013 Canadian Iyengar yoga pilot in chronic lung disease found less anxiety and fatigue.

What is the difference between pranayama and breathing retraining such as Buteyko?

Pranayama is yoga breathing taught by a trained teacher: slow, nasal techniques such as the ocean breath, the staircase breath and the humming breath, learnt lying down first. Buteyko breathing retraining aims to breathe less, with short pauses. Both have helped people with asthma in trials, but they are different practices.

Can humming help asthma?

In one trial it did. Children with asthma who hummed and chanted Om at home for 12 weeks, alongside their usual medicine, were far more likely to have their asthma under control than children on medicine alone. Humming also raises nitric oxide in the nose about 15 times, a gas that helps open small airways.

Why do I get short of breath when I am stressed?

Stress and fear tighten the chest and the diaphragm, so each breath gets shallower and faster. Mr Iyengar called uneven breathing an indication of stress. Yoga loosens the chest with poses and slows the breath with a long, soft out-breath, which calms the whole system.

Where can I do yoga for asthma or COPD in Darwin or online?

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online across Australia, with bolsters, chairs and blankets to open the chest in every class, plus pranayama classes at 6.30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. New, or away 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes, then 10 at half price.

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (Dorling Kindersley), the courses for breathlessness, bronchitis and asthma; Light on Pranayama; Astadala Yogamala, volumes 3, 7 and 8; Sparks of Divinity; Yoga Wisdom and Practice; and “Clearing Misconceptions: Asthmatic Patients Should be Taught Pranayama”, Yoga Rahasya, 2008, Vol 15 No 2. Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women, and her teaching in Pune and Sydney as passed on in the Iyengar tradition. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), chapter 8, and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Krishna Raman MD and S. Suresh MD, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ. Sam Motiwala and Rajvi Mehta, Amrish Mody, and Kathleen Pringle and Anna Leo, in Yoga Rahasya. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, reports on asthma and COPD. Studies as linked above. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.