Yoga After Surgery, And Before It: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Got an operation coming up, or just home from one, and wondering how to get through it and back on your feet? The weeks before surgery and the months after it are both times when yoga, yogic breathing and a calm mind can do real work. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar, Dr Timothy McCall and the research say about yoga after surgery, and before it: for the nerves, for the lungs, for pain, and for getting moving again. Last updated: 8 November 2026.

By Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, Flametree Yoga Darwin.

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Does yoga help before and after surgery? The short answer

Yes. Yoga, yogic breathing and meditation are well worth adding to the care of your surgical team, both before and after an operation. In heart bypass surgery, a review of 17 studies found yoga lowered anxiety, pain and stress markers. Breathing exercises learned before surgery halved lung complications such as pneumonia in an Australian and New Zealand trial of 441 people. One 15-minute mindfulness session before a hip or knee replacement eased pain and anxiety and helped people move better six weeks later. And Mr BKS Iyengar rebuilt his own practice from the ground up after a severe accident in 1979.

Two things to keep in mind as you read. First, in every trial, yoga, breathing or meditation was added to the care people were already getting from their surgical team, not used instead of it. Second, the trials tested yoga in general, breathing exercises and meditation. None has yet tested Iyengar yoga, the style we teach, before or after surgery. In our view as certified Iyengar teachers, precise, well-supported poses taught by trained teachers are likely to go further than yoga in general. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves before and after surgery

1. Start before the operation. Come to a yoga class at your level in the weeks before. You go in calmer, stronger and knowing how to rest.
2. Learn the breath now. A slow, quiet breath, and pranayama learned with a teacher, is a skill you can take into hospital. In the trials, breathing practised before surgery cut lung complications and anxiety.
3. Settle the nerves. Relaxation and a few minutes of steady attention lowered anxiety and pain around the operation in trial after trial.
4. Come back gently, when your surgical team says so. Supported rest and breathing first, then standing poses, then your usual class. Tell your teacher what you had done and when.
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.

Who was Mr BKS Iyengar? Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major teacher 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, including one that is healing. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Overall evidence: Moderate. Best study: A review of 17 studies of 1,227 people having heart bypass surgery found that yoga, added to their usual care, lowered anxiety, pain and the body’s stress and inflammation markers (Chandrababu 2023). The reviewers rated the evidence moderate in quality.
• Mr BKS Iyengar: after a severe accident in 1979 he relearned his practice from the ground up, and wrote that he learned “wisdom through adversity”.
• Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr BKS Iyengar, author of Yoga as Medicine: post-operative recovery is no. 85 on his list of conditions helped by yoga, and pre-operative rehabilitation is no. 91.
• The research: yoga lowered anxiety, pain and stress markers in heart surgery; breathing practised before surgery cut lung complications; meditation and relaxation eased anxiety and pain; yoga added to rehabilitation helped after knee replacement.
• Stuart’s story: brain surgery after a fall at Edith Falls, and a recovery he partly puts down to yoga and pranayama.
• Related guides: knee and hip pain and joint replacement, heart health, breathlessness, anxiety and anger and back pain.
• Take it further: our free ebook Breathwork’s Original Toolkit, the 2027 masterclass on sleep and energy, and classes in Darwin and online.

Before and after surgery: what is involved

Every operation has two sides. Before, there is the wait: the worry, the sleepless nights, and a body that may already be in pain or out of condition. Getting ready in the weeks before an operation is often called prehab (short for prehabilitation, getting fitter for surgery). After, there is the recovery: pain, tiredness, a wound that needs to heal, lungs that need to open up again after the anaesthetic, and muscles and joints that need to move again.

It is very common. Australian hospitals recorded about 3.1 million hospital stays for surgery in 2024 to 2025, nearly a quarter of all hospital stays, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. In 2023 to 2024, about 778,500 admissions came from public hospital waiting lists for planned surgery.

Why does the breath matter so much? After an operation on the chest or belly, it often hurts to breathe deeply, so people breathe in short, guarded breaths. Surgical teams watch closely for lung problems after these operations, such as pneumonia and partly collapsed areas of lung (atelectasis), and that is where the breathing trials below come in. Worry adds to it: an anxious body holds its breath and braces against pain.

How yoga breaks into the guarded circle

Because the reason for an operation matters too, several of our other guides go further:

• Knee and hip pain, and joint replacement
• Heart health, including recovery after bypass surgery
• Back pain, for before and after back operations
• Breathlessness, asthma and COPD, for the lungs
• Anxiety and anger, for the nerves before an operation
• If your operation was for breast or prostate cancer: breast cancer and recovery and prostate cancer

“These injuries made me a humble disciple of yoga, a better teacher and an encouraging performer.”

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about recovery?

In short: rebuild patiently, from the ground up, with props and the breath. We have not found a section on surgery in the books of Mr Iyengar’s that we hold, so what follows is his own story and his general teaching. It is known from long practice and teacher experience, and has not been tested for surgery by modern research. Not yet tested is not the same as wrong.

In 1979, when he was about 60, Mr Iyengar had a severe accident. In Light on Life (Kindle edition, chapter “Bliss: The Divine Body”) he wrote that it “robbed me of my prowess”, like a sportsman who damages an arm or back. “So I had to learn wisdom, wisdom through adversity.” He relearned even Triangle Pose (Trikonasana) “from the soles of my feet up”, and said it made him a master of teaching it in a way he had never been before.

• Start where the body is. In Iyengar teaching, the pose is adapted, with props, to the body in front of the teacher. After an operation that means a version the body can do today.
• Props make it possible. He pioneered blankets, bolsters, belts, blocks and chairs so that a weak, stiff or tired body can still do the work of a pose, supported.
• Rest is part of the practice. Supported rest poses calm the nerves and let the body recover, rather than being time off from yoga.
• The breath is never forced. Pranayama comes gradually, soft and slow, and is learned with a teacher.

Mr Iyengar’s way back, in outline

His daughter Geeta S Iyengar made the same point in Yoga: A Gem for Women: “In cases of accident when other forms of exercise are impossible, the door of Yoga is open.”

“Props benefit in two ways; one is extension and the other is relaxation, taking place at the same time.”

What does Dr Timothy McCall say?

In short: both sides of an operation are on his list. Dr McCall’s June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga puts “Post-Operative Recovery” at no. 85 and “Pre-Operative Rehabilitation” at no. 91. Our encyclopaedia uses his list as its backbone and builds on it with newer research.

• What his list rested on (no. 85): an Indian study from 1991 of a simple breathing device, the Pink City lung exerciser, used to protect the lungs after upper abdominal surgery.
• What his list rested on (no. 91): a 2018 study in which a week of yoga breathing before lung surgery improved lung function.
• What has come since: reviews of yoga in heart surgery, Cochrane reviews of breathing training before surgery, and trials of mindfulness before joint replacement. They are set out below.

What the research shows

In every study below, the yoga, breathing or meditation was added to normal surgical care. Studies are listed with their main finding first. The trials tested yoga in general, not Iyengar yoga. Why that matters.

Yoga and heart surgery

• Yoga lowered anxiety, pain, and inflammation and stress markers in people having heart bypass surgery. Chandrababu and colleagues, 2023, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice: a review of 17 studies with 1,227 patients, average age 58. Every study reported a benefit, and the reviewers rated the evidence moderate in quality. Read the study.
• Yoga added to cardiac rehabilitation clearly improved quality of life, with gains in stress, anxiety and low mood. Chandrababu and colleagues, 2026, Journal of Education and Health Promotion: a review of 11 papers with 4,489 people with coronary heart disease, including people after bypass surgery. Read the study.
• A year after bypass surgery, men who did yoga-based rehabilitation had better heart pumping, cholesterol and blood sugar where these had been poor, and less stress, anxiety and low mood. Raghuram and colleagues, 2014, Indian Heart Journal: a randomised trial of 250 men in Bengaluru, India, compared with rehabilitation using physiotherapy. Read the study.
• Five years on, the yoga group still had better mental health and less stress. Amaravathi and colleagues, 2018, International Journal of Yoga: the 5-year follow-up of 300 bypass patients randomised to yoga-based or usual rehabilitation. Read the study.
• Fifteen years after bypass surgery, men who had done yoga-based rehabilitation had a 59% lower risk of death than those who had done conventional exercise-based rehabilitation. Majumdar and colleagues, 2025, Scientific Reports: long-term follow-up of the same trial of 300 men. The yoga programme began before the operation with relaxation and breathing, added poses in stages, and continued at home for a year. The authors call this an exploratory follow-up. Read the study.
• Three months of yoga nidra (guided deep relaxation) after bypass surgery helped the calming side of the nervous system recover. Antony and colleagues, 2025, Cureus: 32 people, measured by heart rate variability, compared with standard care. Read the study.

“Your body is your child, look after it.”

Breathing before and after surgery

• One 30-minute session before surgery, teaching breathing exercises to start as soon as people woke up, halved lung complications, including pneumonia. Boden and colleagues, 2018, BMJ: a randomised trial of 441 adults having major upper abdominal surgery at three hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. Read the study.
• Training the breathing muscles before surgery roughly halved pneumonia and cut partly collapsed lung. Katsura and colleagues, 2015, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: 12 trials with 695 people before heart or major abdominal surgery, using a hand-held breathing trainer. Read the study.
• Before open heart surgery, breathing training halved lung complications and shortened the hospital stay by 1.7 days. Cursino de Moura and colleagues, 2023, Journal of Physiotherapy: 8 trials with 696 people. The reviewers rated the evidence high quality for pneumonia and hospital stay. Read the study.
• Five days of yoga-based breathing before heart surgery lowered anxiety, before the operation and after it. Azeez and colleagues, 2021, International Journal of Yoga: a randomised trial in Chandigarh, India, with 40 people analysed. Read the study.
• Pranayama before bypass surgery lowered anxiety about the operation, with the largest effect of the three groups. Mardan and colleagues, 2026, Nursing Science Quarterly: a randomised trial of 122 people in Baghdad, comparing pranayama, virtual reality and usual care. Read the study.
• After keyhole gallbladder surgery, pranayama and deep breathing both eased shoulder pain and improved sleep compared with usual care. Kurt and colleagues, 2025, Nursing and Health Sciences: a randomised trial of 66 people. Plain deep breathing eased the pain a little more. Read the study.

Most of these trials tested breathing exercises or a breathing trainer, not pranayama as taught in an Iyengar class. That still counts for the breath: the common thread is a slow, full breath, practised before the operation so it is ready afterwards. In our classes, pranayama means slow, quiet breathing such as ocean breath (Ujjayi) and staircase breath (Viloma), learned gradually with a teacher, never forceful breathing.

“You cannot catch a horse in a field by running after it. But if you stand still and hold out an apple, the horse will come to you.”

Knee and hip replacement

• People who added yoga poses to their physiotherapy after a knee replacement had less pain and stiffness, at three days, six weeks and three months. Bedekar and colleagues, 2012, International Journal of Yoga: 56 people in Pune, India, assigned in turn to each group rather than at random. Read the study.
• One 15-minute mindfulness session before a hip or knee replacement eased pain and anxiety straight away, and people moved better six weeks after surgery. Hanley and colleagues, 2021, Pain: a randomised trial of 285 people, compared with a session of pain education. Read the study.
• Experienced yoga practitioners and teachers returned to their practice about two months after a hip replacement, could do all 14 classic poses they were asked about, and had no complications five years on. Yun and colleagues, 2021, Cureus: a study of people who had a hip replacement from the front of the hip (an anterior approach). Read the study.

After a hip replacement, your surgeon will give you movement precautions for the first weeks or months, often about deep hip bends, crossing the legs and twisting. Some yoga poses take the hip to the end of its range, so tell your teacher about your new hip, and they will adapt the poses. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting. Our knee and hip pain guide goes further.

“Your brain may say, ‘We can do it.’ But the knee may say, ‘Who are you to dictate to me? It is for me to say whether I can do it or not.’”

Meditation, relaxation and guided imagery

• People who learned a meditation practice before bypass surgery were much less anxious two and five days after the operation, and their stress hormone cortisol was lower. Kiran and colleagues, 2017, Annals of Cardiac Anaesthesia: a randomised trial of 150 people in India. Read the study.
• Preparing the mind before surgery, including relaxation, went with less pain, less distress and about half a day less in hospital. Powell and colleagues, 2016, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: 105 trials with 10,302 people. The reviewers rate the evidence low quality, because the trials differed so much. Read the study.
• Guided imagery (a guided, calming visualisation) before surgery lowered anxiety and pain after surgery in adults. Álvarez-García and Yaban, 2020, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice: a review of 21 trials, 8 of them pooled. Read the study.

Anxiety five days after bypass surgery

To be fair to the whole record: most of the yoga trials come from heart surgery, many from one hospital programme in India. For knee replacement there is one trial that did not assign people at random, and for most other operations there are no yoga trials yet. That is why we rate the overall evidence Moderate, not Strong.

Iyengar yoga studies

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga before or after surgery. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. What we have is long experience: Mr Iyengar’s own recovery after his 1979 accident, and decades of Iyengar teachers adapting poses with props for students who are healing. Where Iyengar trials have been run for other conditions, they tested yoga taught by trained Iyengar teachers, and in our view as certified Iyengar teachers that is likely to show something beyond what studies of yoga in general show. Why the difference matters in the research.

How long and how often?

Some of the benefits came from very little. One 15-minute mindfulness session before joint replacement, and one 30-minute session teaching breathing exercises, both made a difference. Five days of yoga breathing before heart surgery lowered anxiety. After surgery, the knee replacement trial asked for yoga three days a week for three months, and the heart surgery programme ran for a year, with benefits still showing 5 and 15 years later.

Yoga, pranayama and mindfulness: how they work together

Several of the studies above tested meditation, a mindfulness session, relaxation or breathing exercises, not yoga poses. That still counts for our classes. Mindfulness is steady, present attention, and yoga poses and pranayama (yogic breathing) are old routes to that same state. Before an operation, that steadiness is what settles the nerves; after it, it is what lets you breathe fully and move without bracing. No trial separates which part does the work.

We suggest coming to both a yoga class and a pranayama class. Mr Iyengar taught that asana (poses), pranayama and meditation are not divided, and in our experience the two together do more than either alone. See every class time. We trace the history and the links in Yoga And Mindfulness: Why The Mindfulness Research Points Back To Yoga And The Breath.

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach yoga before and after surgery in Darwin and online. Before an operation, come to class as usual, at your level: standing poses for strength, supported poses for rest, and the breath. After an operation, when to come back is your surgical team’s call. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting. Then tell your teacher what you had done and when, and they will adapt every pose to where you are.

• Supported rest first: lying with the legs up the wall, or back over a bolster, calms the nerves and lets the breath open, with no strain on a healing body.
• Standing poses, step by step: with the wall or a chair for support, they rebuild strength and balance in the legs, as they did for Stuart.
• Props in every class: blankets, bolsters, belts, blocks, chairs and the wall, so every pose can be adapted to how your body is on the day.
• A soft breath: our pranayama classes teach slow, quiet breathing, never forceful breathing while a wound heals.
• Gentle and restorative classes: for the early weeks, when energy is low.

See the timetable and book a class. Yoga goes alongside the care of your surgical team, not instead of it.

Take care with these after surgery

The way back to class, step by step

Read more on recovery, joints and the breath

• Hip and knee pain, and joint replacement
• Heart health and yoga
• Yoga for asthma, COPD and breathlessness
• Yoga and anxiety
• Back pain and yoga
• Brain injury and concussion, with Stuart’s full story
• Yoga and sleep, for the tired weeks of recovery

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 the timetable and book.
• Masterclasses: Yoga for sleep and energy, Sunday 10 January 2027, one of our 2027 masterclasses with Chris Lalor, where you get the supported rest poses and breath that make rest actually restore you. Facing a joint replacement? Yoga for arthritis is on Monday 28 December. See the 2027 masterclasses.
• Retreats: a week of daily yoga in Bali, once you are well on the way back. See the retreats.

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

Yoga after surgery: questions people ask

Does yoga help recovery after surgery?

The research points that way. A review of 17 studies of people having heart bypass surgery found yoga, added to usual care, lowered anxiety, pain and stress markers (Chandrababu 2023). After a knee replacement, adding yoga poses to rehabilitation went with less pain and stiffness (Bedekar 2012). Yoga works alongside the care of your surgical team, not instead of it.

Can yoga cure the problem I am having surgery for?

No. Yoga does not replace an operation your surgical team recommends. What the research points to is calmer nerves, less pain, better breathing and an easier recovery around the operation. Mr Iyengar saw yoga as working on the whole person, body, breath and mind, and that is what it brings to recovery.

Does yoga before surgery help (prehab)?

Yes, in the trials. Five days of yoga breathing before heart surgery lowered anxiety before and after the operation (Azeez 2021). One 15-minute mindfulness session before a hip or knee replacement eased pain and anxiety and improved movement six weeks later (Hanley 2021). Breathing practised before surgery cut lung complications in reviews of trials.

Can breathing exercises before surgery help?

Yes. In a trial of 441 people at three hospitals in Australia and New Zealand, one 30-minute session teaching breathing exercises before abdominal surgery halved lung complications, including pneumonia (Boden 2018). Reviews of breathing training before heart and abdominal surgery found much the same. In our classes, pranayama teaches a slow, quiet breath you can take into hospital.

How soon after surgery can I do yoga?

That depends on the operation and how you are healing, and it is your surgical team’s call. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting. Gentle breathing and supported rest can often begin early; standing poses and a full class come later. Tell your teacher what you had done and when.

Is yoga safe after a hip or knee replacement?

With care, yes. Experienced yoga practitioners returned to their practice about two months after a hip replacement, with no complications five years on (Yun 2021). Some poses take the hip to the end of its range, so follow your surgeon’s precautions about bending, crossing and twisting, and tell your teacher, who will adapt the poses with props.

Can yoga help with anxiety before an operation?

Yes. Yoga breathing, pranayama and meditation all lowered anxiety around heart surgery in randomised trials (Azeez 2021; Mardan 2026; Kiran 2017). A Cochrane review of 105 trials found that preparing the mind, including relaxation, went with less pain and distress afterwards (Powell 2016). A slow out-breath the night before is a good place to start.

Does yoga help after heart surgery?

In a trial of 300 men after bypass surgery in India, yoga-based rehabilitation improved stress and mental health, and 15 years later the yoga group had a 59% lower risk of death than the group given conventional exercise-based rehabilitation (Majumdar 2025, an exploratory follow-up). Our heart health guide goes further. Read the heart health guide

Can I do yoga after surgery in Darwin or online?

Yes. Flametree Yoga teaches Iyengar yoga in Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online, with pranayama classes for the breath and gentle and restorative classes for the early weeks. New students can begin with our new-student offer of 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Book a class

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Light on Life (Kindle edition), Astadala Yogamala volume 7, Yoga Wisdom and Practice and Iyengar: His Life and Work. Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women. Stuart’s account, as told in our brain injury guide. Timothy McCall MD, his June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga and its reference list. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Surgery and other interventions (2024 to 2025) and elective surgery figures (2023 to 2024). Studies as linked above, each looked up in PubMed in November 2026. Everything is summarised in our own words.

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