Yoga For Archery: What India’s Olympic Archers Did Every Day For Seven Months
By Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and Certified Yoga Therapist, and Dr Stuart McGill, Yoga Teacher, Flametree Yoga Darwin
What do you need at full draw? A steady body under a heavy bow, and a quiet mind behind the arrow. Then you need both again, shot after shot.
Yoga for archery, meaning regular yoga classes for archers, builds that steadiness: strong legs, a still trunk, strong shoulders and upper back, a steady breath and calm attention. In a 2025 trial of 83 young state-level archers, eight weeks of yoga improved their scores on a test of attention.
This page sets out what Olympic archers have said about yoga and meditation, what the research found (and what it did not test), the kinds of yoga that help an archer, and how to start, in Darwin or live online.
Yoga for archery in short
Yoga for archery is regular classes that build the steady posture, shoulder strength, even body and calm mind an archer uses on every shot.
- India’s 2016 Olympic archers did an hour of yoga a day for about seven months before Rio.
- A German Olympic silver medallist credits daily meditation and a breath practice from yoga.
- In a trial of 83 young archers, yoga improved attention scores. It did not measure arrow scores.
- Standing poses build a steady base; twists and supported backbends balance a one-sided sport.
- One class a week helps, and more helps more.
- Start with 2 free classes and 2 free ebooks.
At Full Draw, An Archer Leans On Four Things Yoga Builds
Strong legs and a still trunk.
And an upper back that holds the draw.
The draw works one side harder.
Steady attention on the line.
Iyengar yoga builds all four together. A simplified picture, known from practice.
Yoga for archery in one picture: steady underneath, calm on top.
What is Iyengar yoga, the yoga we teach archers?
Who was Mr BKS Iyengar? Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, through his books and his teaching, and he pioneered the use of props such as chairs, blocks, belts and the wall. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. It’s the style we teach at Flametree, in Darwin and live online. More in Why Yoga Works For Sport.
Does yoga build strength and flexibility together? Yes, and both are necessary. In a held pose your own body is the weight, and your muscles hold it there. Iyengar yoga builds strength and flexibility at the same time, and muscle pulling on bone loads the bone too.
Which Olympic archers use yoga or meditation?
The best-known archery story comes from India’s team for the 2016 Rio Olympics. We have not found an Australian archer’s yoga story yet, so we will not make one up.
India’s Rio 2016 team: an hour of yoga a day for seven months
Four years earlier, in London, pressure had cost India’s archers. Deepika Kumari, then world number one, went out in the first round.
So from January 2016, the Rio team of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi, Bombayla Devi and Atanu Das did an hour of yoga every day with an instructor, Rakesh Kumar, for about seven months. He even travelled with them to Rio. The practice included poses to strengthen the back, shoulders and knees, a forceful bellows-style pranayama (yogic breathing), a deep relaxation practice and meditation.
Deepika told ESPN that with yoga they could now “control our breathing” and their heart rate while shooting, and that they felt “a lot more confident” in tense moments. (Susan Ninan, ESPN, 5 August 2016.)
Notice the dose: daily, for months. That is the kind of regular practice that makes a difference.
Lisa Unruh: daily meditation before her Olympic silver
Germany’s Lisa Unruh won individual silver at Rio 2016. In an interview with the German magazine Bogensport, retold by Bow International, she said she began meditating at the end of 2015 to improve her concentration and focus. She practised about five days a week: counting her breaths, and a forceful breathing practice (kapalabhati) that comes from yoga. She meditated every day in Rio, and when asked whether it helped, she said: “Yes, definitely.” (Bow International, 8 March 2021.)
Meditation is a mindfulness practice, and yoga poses and yogic breathing both produce mindfulness. More in Yoga And Mindfulness.
The kyudo student who drew an empty bow for weeks
Frank Mauro, a New York yoga and breath teacher, once tried kyudo (Japanese archery) while teaching in Japan. On the Guys Talking Yoga podcast he recalled that the basics alone took weeks: picking up the bow and drawing it, over and over, with no arrow, then “see you next week.” He kept wondering when he would get to shoot. Years later, when his own breathing practice stalled, he went back to the very beginning, the way kyudo had taught him. (Guys Talking Yoga, episode 50, 26 April 2023.)
Archers know this already: the foundations come first. Iyengar yoga works the same way, building the basics carefully, class by class.
Want to try it? Register for 2 free classes and 2 free ebooks, or just walk in: if you are new, your first class is free. Every option is in how to start, further down.
Yoga for archery: strong legs, level arms
A standing pose with the arms held level and strong. Stuart beside the rock pools: legs working, chest lifted, shoulders and upper back holding the arms out, much as they hold a bow.
What does the research say about yoga for archery?
What The Research Shows
One randomised trial has tested yoga in archers, and it found better attention. Mindfulness trials in archers and shooters point the same way. No trial has yet measured whether yoga raises arrow scores in competition. Not yet studied is not the same as not working.
- Yoga improved young archers’ attention. 92 state-level archers aged 12 to 20 were split into two groups, and 83 finished. The yoga group did a 60-minute session (loosening, breathing, poses, breath control, meditation and relaxation) three times a week for 8 weeks. Their scores on the Attention Network Test (a computer test of how well you focus and ignore distractions) improved compared with archers who kept to normal training. The study did not measure arrow scores, and the authors call it preliminary. Baishya, Hazarika and Metri, International Journal of Yoga, 2025. Read the study
- Elite archers took to a short yoga programme. 14 elite archers did 6 yoga sessions over 2 weeks. All took it up, 13 of 14 stayed to the end, and there were no adverse events. Their competition anxiety fell, and their reaction time, accuracy, self-confidence and balance improved against their own starting point. There was no comparison group. Baishya, Hazarika and Metri, International Journal of Yoga, 2025. Read the study
- Mindfulness training went with better archery shooting. 23 archers did a mindfulness programme, 8 sessions over 4 weeks. Their shooting in a simulated competition improved, and so did their thinking skills, against their own starting point. This tested mindfulness training, not yoga, and there was no comparison group. Wu and colleagues, Frontiers in Psychology, 2021. Read the study
- Mindfulness sharpened the attention of national shooting and archery teams. 62 athletes from China’s national shooting and archery teams did 5 to 8 weeks of mindfulness training. Their scores on the same attention test improved afterwards. This tested mindfulness training, not yoga. Lu and colleagues, Frontiers in Psychology, 2021. Read the study
- Twenty minutes of mindfulness kept eyes on the target. 78 university athletes did 20 minutes of mindfulness meditation or 20 minutes of letting the mind wander, then shot in a virtual reality contest. The mindfulness group looked at the targets for longer and shot better. This tested one mindfulness session, not yoga. Gao and Zhang, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 2023. Read the study
- Across nine trials, mindfulness helped precision sports. A review of 9 trials with 290 athletes found mindfulness practice had a large effect on shooting and dart-throwing results, though results varied a lot between trials. The authors say it seems reasonable to use mindfulness training in precision sports, and that more high-quality trials are needed. Bühlmayer and colleagues, Sports Medicine, 2017. Read the study
- A fair limit: five minutes of slow breathing before a shot did little for the score. 67 people did 5 minutes of slow breathing, paced breathing or nothing, then a pressured pistol-shooting task. Slow breathing lowered worry, but heart rate did not change and there was little effect on performance. This tested a short breathing exercise just before shooting, not regular classes. Conlon and colleagues, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2022. Read the study
Several of these studies tested mindfulness training, not yoga. 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. No trial separates which part does the work. The archery trials above tested yoga in general, not Iyengar yoga: why the difference matters is in Yoga Or Iyengar Yoga?
What about releasing between heartbeats? You may hear that top archers time the release between heartbeats. That idea comes from studies of a handful of rifle and pistol shooters. It has not been shown in archers, and we do not claim yoga trains it. What yoga does train is a steadier breath and steadier attention, class after class.
Why and how does yoga help an archer?
Archery asks you to hold a heavy draw steady, again and again, mostly with one side of the body. A good archery posture needs a steady base, a still trunk, strong shoulders and upper back, and a quiet mind. Shoulder pain is common: in one study of 200 elite teenage archers at a European championship, 43.5% had shoulder pain in training (Vasilis and colleagues, 2024). The good news: yoga builds shoulder strength and range, a steady trunk, balance and calm, and the one archery trial found better attention.
Seven kinds of practice do most of the work. We name the kinds here. Your teacher shows you the poses themselves in class, adjusted to your body.
What we find: flexibility comes from extending your range of movement, and that means straightening your arms and legs. Many people in sport, and in gyms, Pilates and CrossFit, cannot fully straighten their arms, because strong, short muscles hold them a little bent. For an archer that is the bow arm and the drawing arm, and they never get enough flexibility there until they build that straightness through yoga. Shoulders and hips are often stiff too, from short muscles and short, tight tendons.
- Standing poses build a steady base. They work the legs, hips and trunk together, and many hold the arms out or up while the legs work. That is the steady archery posture: a firm stance, a still trunk, and shoulders that hold their place.
- Work for the shoulders and upper back builds strength and range. Arm positions in standing poses, and poses that use the wall, belts and ropes, build strength around the shoulder blades and free the front of the shoulders.
- Twists even out a one-sided sport. The draw works one side harder, shot after shot. Twists to both sides turn the spine evenly and help a back that has held the same shape all session.
- Supported backbends open the chest. With a chair or bolster holding you, the chest and the front of the shoulders open, the opposite of the rounded shape a long day can leave.
- Balance work with a wall or chair steadies the stance. You start with support and use less as you get steadier. Mr Iyengar’s daughter Geeta Iyengar wrote: “Attention is sharpened with the demand to balance.” (Geeta S Iyengar)
- Restorative poses help you recover. With props holding you, tired shoulders and a tired back can settle after a long shoot.
- Breath work (yogic breathing) steadies the mind. A slow, steady breath steadies attention, which is what you want on the line.
That is our teaching, known from practice. Every pose is done on both sides, with props so a stiff body can do it well.
Yoga for archers Darwin: a steady stance, with the wall to help
A standing pose using the wall. Chris with her back heel against the wall: the wall gives feedback, so the stance stays steady and the arms stay level, the same steady base an archer stands on.
Twists for a one-sided sport
A seated twist by the sea. Chris turning evenly from the spine: twists to both sides help balance out a sport that works one side harder.
How much yoga does an archer need?
One class a week helps, and more helps more. This is Flametree’s view as teachers, from many years of classes:
- One class a week works.
- Two or three a week work better.
- Five or six a week work better again.
The same holds for pranayama (yogic breathing) classes. Regular classes are the point. A quick routine before a shoot, with no classes behind it, makes very little difference.
Do we practise what we teach? Yes. Stuart does at least an hour of yoga and an hour of pranayama every day. Chris practises between one and three hours a day, and does pranayama almost every day.
Yoga for archery: a steady breath, a quiet mind
Breath work turns attention inward. Chris seated on a cushion, hands over the eyes: regular yogic breathing builds the steady breath and quiet mind an archer wants on the line.
How do I put yoga for archery into action?
Come to classes. Learn more about yoga, and build your strength, fitness, flexibility and mindfulness. Then you can see for yourself whether it works for your shooting.
These classes suit most archers (Darwin time, from the beginner timetable updated 12 November 2026):
- Beginner 1 classes: every day of the week, at Woolner (19B Bishop St, near Parap) and Coolalinga (Shop T31, Coolalinga Central), and some live online.
- Gentle Yoga: Fridays 10.15 to 11.15am, Woolner and live online. Slow and easy, with plenty of props.
- Yoga For Backs: Wednesdays 7.15 to 8.15pm, Woolner, open level. The whole back, from the lower back up through the neck and shoulders.
- Restorative Yoga: Saturdays 4 to 5.15pm, Woolner and live online, open level.
- Restorative Yoga and Immune System Yoga: Thursdays 5.45 to 7.15pm, Woolner and live online, open level. The timetable asks for 3 months of yoga first, or your teacher’s OK.
- Pranayama (yogic breathing): once you have some beginner classes behind you, your teacher will tell you when to add one.
Online yoga for archers. Live outside Darwin? Our live interactive online classes work from anywhere in Australia, with a teacher who can see and guide you. See our live online classes.
Yoga for archery clubs: a group class at your club, at our Woolner studio or live online, is a simple way for members to try it together. Details are in the offers below.
New to archery in the Top End? Darwin Top End Bowhunters at Howard Springs holds a social shoot on Wednesday evenings and a shoot on Sunday mornings, and its website says the first 3 shoots are free for visitors (the club’s membership page). We mention it as a local club; we have no link with it.
How do I start yoga for archery in Darwin or online?
- 2 free classes, plus 2 free ebooks. New to Flametree, or back after 3 months or more? Choose 2 free ebooks (the sport and men’s book is Stay In The Game) and get 2 free classes, live online or in our Darwin studios. Claim them here
- Or just come along, at the studio or online, and your first class is free. That is one free class. Register first and you get two free classes and two free ebooks, plus a few short reminders and tips to help you get started. So registering gets you more. Pick a beginner class.
- Then the half price beginner 10-pass with 2 free. 10 half price classes plus 2 free, $59.50. That is 12 classes, $4.96 a class, in our Darwin studios or live online.
- Then the unlimited beginner weekly pass, to come as often as you like: studio, $17.95 a week; studio and online, $21.95 a week; online only, $10.95 a week.
- A private lesson: private class pass, $109, or 5 private lessons at 10% off. Talk to us to set a time.
- For archery clubs: group class, $149 a session, at your club, at our Woolner studio or live online. Book 10 sessions together for 10% off: contact us.
Once you have started: to learn much more about how this yoga works, come to our 2027 masterclasses, six afternoons with Chris from Monday 28 December 2026 to April 2027, in Darwin or live online.
Start free, then pick the option that suits you.
Yoga for archery questions, answered
Is yoga good for archers?
Yes. Archery asks for steady legs, a still trunk, strong shoulders and upper back, a steady breath and a quiet mind, and yoga builds these together. In a trial of 83 young state-level archers, eight weeks of yoga improved their scores on a computer test of attention compared with a control group. That trial did not measure arrow scores.
Can yoga help archers hold a steadier posture and anchor?
Yoga builds what a steady archery posture rests on: strong legs, a still trunk and strong shoulders and upper back. Standing poses work all three at once, and a held pose trains you to stay steady for longer. That is our teaching, known from practice; no trial has yet measured anchor steadiness after yoga.
Can yoga help archers with shoulder and back trouble?
Yoga is well worth trying. Shoulder pain is common in archers: in one study of 200 elite teenage archers, 43.5% had shoulder pain in training. Yoga builds shoulder strength and range, a steady trunk and an even back, with both sides worked equally. Tell your teacher about your shoulder or back, and they will adjust the poses to suit you.
Can yoga calm shaky hands and target panic?
Yoga and yogic breathing build calm, steady attention, and that is what an archer needs on the line. In a 2025 trial, yoga improved young archers’ attention scores, and trials of mindfulness training in archers and shooters found better attention too. No trial has yet tested yoga for target panic itself.
How does the breath help an archer at full draw?
A steady breath steadies attention. The Indian archers who did daily yoga before Rio 2016 said it helped them control their breathing and feel more confident. The research on breathing just before a shot is mixed: in one trial, five minutes of slow breathing lowered worry but did little for pistol scores. We teach breath work as regular classes, not as a quick trick before a shot.
Is yoga good for archers over 50?
Yes. Many people start yoga in their fifties, sixties and later. Iyengar yoga uses chairs, blocks, belts and the wall so a stiff body can do each pose well, and it builds strength and flexibility together. Start with Gentle Yoga or a Beginner 1 class.
Where can an archer try yoga in Darwin?
Flametree teaches beginner and gentle classes at Woolner (19B Bishop St, near Parap) and Coolalinga (Shop T31, Coolalinga Central), and live online. Archery clubs can book a group class at the club, at our Woolner studio or live online, at $149 a session.
Can archers do yoga online from home?
Yes. Our live interactive online classes work from anywhere in Australia, with a teacher who can see and guide you. A club can also have a live online group class shown on a big screen in the clubhouse.
More for sportspeople: golf yoga, yoga for lawn bowls, and the whole Yoga For Sport section.
Sources: Susan Ninan, ESPN, 5 August 2016; Bow International, 8 March 2021 (from an interview in Bogensport); Guys Talking Yoga podcast, episode 50, 26 April 2023; Baishya, Hazarika and Metri, International Journal of Yoga, 2025 (two studies); Wu and colleagues, Frontiers in Psychology, 2021; Lu and colleagues, Frontiers in Psychology, 2021; Gao and Zhang, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 2023; Bühlmayer and colleagues, Sports Medicine, 2017; Conlon and colleagues, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2022; Vasilis and colleagues, Sports (Basel), 2024; Darwin Top End Bowhunters, membership page, read 13 November 2026. Research via PubMed. Athletes’ stories are their own accounts, not proof. This page is general information.
