Arthritis And Yoga: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Rest the sore joint, or move it? If you have arthritis, that question comes up every day. The great yoga teachers and the medical doctors who worked with Mr BKS Iyengar give the same answer: move it, the right way. This guide brings together what each of them says about arthritis, and what modern research has found. Last updated: 31 October 2026.

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Arthritis and yoga: the short answer

Is yoga good for arthritis? Yes. Yoga helps arthritis. Across the reviews, people with knee osteoarthritis (wear-and-tear arthritis) had less pain and stiffness and moved better after yoga. In rheumatoid arthritis (where the immune system attacks the joints), yoga added to usual care lowered disease activity and improved daily function. Mr Iyengar set out a yoga approach for the main joints of the limbs, and the yoga doctors explain why it works: movement feeds the joint, and props let you move without forcing 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 too, 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 arthritis

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, several times a week. Two or three classes a week is a good start, and more is better. The trials that worked ran for 8 weeks or more, so give it time.
2. Add breath work (pranayama). It calms the mind and brings stress, anger and upsets down, and stress makes arthritis worse.
3. Keep moving on slow days. Choose gentle or restorative poses, with props, rather than stopping. Stillness feeds stiffness.
4. Cut back on foods that inflame. Sugary and highly processed foods fuel inflammation, and inflamed joints swell and hurt more. Yoga and breath work make it easier to eat mindfully.
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: a yoga approach for each joint, worked from the far end of the limb towards the sore spot.
• Dr Timothy McCall: “use it or lose it”. Movement pumps fluid through cartilage.
• Dr Loren Fishman: a whole book on yoga for arthritis, joint by joint, with props.
• Dr Krishna Raman: correct alignment protects joints; strong thighs brace the knee.
• The research: 17 studies listed below, from small Iyengar trials to reviews of thousands of people.
• Take it further: a free ebook, our January 2027 arthritis masterclass, and classes in Darwin and online.

“Unfortunately, the thinking is in the head, but the doing is in the knee!”

What arthritis is

Arthritis means pain and stiffness in the joints. About 3.7 million Australians have it, and almost half of people over 75. The two main types are:

• Osteoarthritis: the cartilage (the smooth cushion at the end of the bones) wears and the joint changes. Knees, hips, hands and the spine are most often affected.
• Rheumatoid arthritis: an autoimmune condition (the body’s defences attacking its own tissue). The joint lining becomes inflamed, often in the hands and feet on both sides, and tiredness is common.

Psoriatic arthritis and gout are other types.

What Mr BKS Iyengar taught about arthritis

In short: keep the joint moving, work towards it from the outside in, and never force it.

In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, Mr Iyengar sets out a yoga approach for 72 health conditions, including seven kinds of arthritis. A few ideas run through all of them.

• Work from the outside in. He starts away from the sore joint, at the far end of the limb, and works gradually towards it. The joints around it are prepared first.
• Break the vicious circle. For the hip, he describes the circle that arthritis sets up: pain leads to less movement, and less movement leads to more stiffness. The answer is to keep the joint moving and the muscles around it working.
• Calm the brain. He held that practice calms the brain and soothes the nerves, which raises a person’s ability to bear pain.
• Be patient. He is clear that a joint may not fully recover, but suffering can be eased. His advice to the student: “do not get discouraged” if it takes time.

His approach for each joint, in our words:

• Shoulders: the arm and shoulder are moved gradually, through standing poses, twists and inversions.
• Elbows: the arm and shoulder are worked first, then the elbow is brought into the work.
• Wrists and fingers: the same outside-in logic, applied to the small joints of the hand.
• Hips: a long course that keeps the hip moving in every direction, through standing poses, seated and lying leg work, and forward bends.
• Knees: the course builds strength and support in the leg around the knee, so the joint is braced rather than loaded.
• Ankles: standing poses and leg stretches, followed by rest.
• Rheumatoid arthritis: because the whole body is affected and tiredness is common, his course is gentler and more restorative.

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

“I got them back after 10 to 12 years of patience with efforts.”

What Dr Timothy McCall says

In short: movement feeds cartilage, and yoga works on the habits that wear it.

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 conditions helped by yoga includes osteoarthritis (no. 68) and rheumatoid arthritis (no. 97). His book gives arthritis a full chapter, built around Marian Garfinkel, an Iyengar teacher who studied with Mr Iyengar from 1974 and led early Iyengar yoga studies on hand and knee arthritis.

• Use it or lose it. Cartilage has no blood supply of its own. Movement pumps joint fluid through it, which is how it is fed.
• Yoga works on the causes of wear. Alignment, posture, movement habits and body awareness all drive cartilage damage, and all are things yoga trains.
• Stress matters. He notes stress is believed to make both kinds of arthritis worse, and yoga calms it.
• More space in the joint. Garfinkel’s aim in each pose is to create space inside the joint.
• Pain and the mind. For severe arthritis, meditation changes a person’s relationship with pain.
• Rheumatoid arthritis needs a gentler start: more props, slower progress, and restful poses, breathing or meditation on flare days.

“If the joints are hard, there is a traffic jam in our body.”

What Dr Loren Fishman says

In short: the right kind of movement is the arthritic joint’s best friend.

Dr Fishman is a New York rehabilitation physician on the Columbia University medical faculty. After studying at Oxford he spent a year in Pune with Mr Iyengar. With yoga therapist Ellen Saltonstall he wrote Yoga for Arthritis (Norton, 2008), a whole book on the subject.

• Joint by joint. The book is organised by joint and teaches around 100 classical poses, each with easier and harder versions.
• The right movement. He and Saltonstall describe movement as the best friend of an arthritic joint, provided it is the right type of movement. Yoga takes joints through a large range of motion without the pounding of many sports.
• Careful, mindful movement works on most of the causes of cartilage wear, in their view.
• Props: walls, chairs and blocks keep stiff hips moving while reducing wear.
• Small classes: Saltonstall suggests avoiding fast classes with little instruction, and big classes of more than 10 to 15 people.

“They don’t use their joints to the optimal level, therefore the joints are rusted.”

What Dr Krishna Raman says

In short: correct practice protects joints; the thigh muscles brace the knee.

Dr Raman is a Chennai physician who trained in yoga under Mr Iyengar. His question-and-answer book on yoga and medical science covers knees, hips and joint replacements. His views, in our words:

• Correct practice does not wear joints. In his long experience, joints do not wear out with correct, long-term practice.
• Do not lock the knees. The quadriceps (front thigh muscles) should brace the joint instead.
• Standing poses come first. They prepare the hips for seated poses and forward bends.
• Knees: he sees well-aligned standing poses, and Virasana (Hero Pose, kneeling and sitting between the heels, usually on a prop), as among the best toning for the knee.
• After a joint replacement: in his view, standing and inverted poses can continue, without undue force.

“An injured knee? A stiff back? That is your problem child.”

Other yoga voices on arthritis

• Moving keeps the joint lining making joint fluid, and avoiding movement sets off a downward spiral. The spiral: shortened muscles, weakness, unstable joints, fear and low mood. She planned practice around three kinds of day, shown below. Her words: “Stop and rest before it becomes necessary.” Dr Mary Pullig Schatz, a medical doctor and yoga teacher, writing in 1985.
• Arthritis poses fall into four kinds: strengthening standing poses, knee-stretching poses with a rolled towel or rope, poses that take weight off the joints, and a short list of poses to leave out. From Mr Iyengar’s therapy classes in Pune.
• The evidence for yoga in rheumatoid arthritis and knee osteoarthritis earns four stars each. Her tip for teachers: props and alignment matter most. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?, a careful review of the yoga research.

What the research shows

In short: the knee has the most evidence, rheumatoid arthritis is close behind, and the trials keep coming. 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.

Knee and hip osteoarthritis

• Yoga eased pain about as much as the best types of exercise. No exercise type was clearly ahead of the others. Liang 2025, a review of 92 trials and 6,079 people with knee or hip osteoarthritis. Read the study. Note: this review pooled many styles of yoga and teachers. It shows what yoga in general does, not what Iyengar yoga, taught by teachers with six or more years of training, would do against exercise. That has not yet been tested. Why it matters.
• Yoga lowered pain and stiffness and improved physical function. Lu 2024, a review of 8 trials and 756 people with knee osteoarthritis. Read the study.
• Yoga improved pain and function, most consistently when practised for 8 weeks or more. Zhou 2026, a review of 14 studies and 1,183 people with knee osteoarthritis. Read the study.
• Ten of 14 yoga programmes reduced pain or improved function. The ones that worked ran about 8 weeks, around 53 minutes a session, and included breathing practice and relaxation. Biswas 2024, a review of 16 trials of yoga for osteoarthritis. Read the study.
• Yoga helped knee pain, function and stiffness, compared with both exercise and non-exercise groups. Lauche 2019, a review of 9 trials and 640 people, mainly with knee osteoarthritis. Read the study.
• Mind-body exercise, yoga included, eased pain compared with doing nothing. Wu 2025, a review of 13 trials and 558 people with knee osteoarthritis. Read the study.
• Yoga improved mental health scores. Pan 2026, a review of 29 trials and 2,095 people with knee osteoarthritis. Read the study.
• All three groups had less pain, and yoga with a changed walking pattern was the only programme that lowered the load on the inside of the knee. Bokaeian 2021, a trial of 59 people with knee osteoarthritis. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

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

• Adapted Iyengar yoga lowered knee pain and improved function, with no adverse events. Eight weeks, once a week. Kolasinski 2005, a small knee osteoarthritis pilot, co-written by Marian Garfinkel. Read the study.
• Yoga eased hand pain during activity and tenderness, and improved finger movement. A yoga-based programme once a week for 8 weeks, compared with no programme. Garfinkel 1994, a hand osteoarthritis trial. Read the study.

Yoga for rheumatoid arthritis, and both types together

• Yoga improved physical health, walking distance (by about 125 metres), mood and depression scores, and some gains were still there 9 months later. Eight weeks of yoga, compared with a waiting list. Moonaz 2015, 75 adults with rheumatoid arthritis or knee osteoarthritis. Read the study.
• Yoga improved physical function, disease activity and grip strength. Ye 2020, a review of 10 trials and 840 people with rheumatoid arthritis. Read the study.
• Yoga added to usual medical care improved disease activity and function, and every trial found a benefit on at least one measure. Biswas 2025, a review of 5 trials in rheumatoid arthritis. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered disease activity and IL-6, a blood marker of inflammation. Suresh 2026, a review of 8 trials and 651 people with rheumatoid arthritis. Read the study.
• Yoga alongside medicines lowered disease activity and shifted immune cells and inflammation markers in a healthier direction. Eight weeks of yoga. Gautam 2023, a trial of 64 people with active rheumatoid arthritis. Read the study.
• In rheumatoid arthritis, yoga was linked with lower inflammation markers and less depression, with no harms reported. Baishya 2025, a review of 26 trials across autoimmune conditions. Read the study.

Meditation and mindfulness

These trials tested mindfulness programmes, not pranayama. The results are encouraging for the mind, and pranayama trains the same steady attention through the breath.

• Mindfulness reduced depression and distress and raised people’s confidence in managing their condition. DiRenzo 2018, a review of 5 trials and 399 people with rheumatoid arthritis. Read the study.

Breathing practice (pranayama)

No trial has yet tested pranayama on its own for arthritis. Breathing practice was part of most of the yoga programmes that worked, though the papers rarely say which techniques were taught, or how. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The pranayama we teach (staircase, ocean, alternate nostril, humming and a gentle shining skull breath) is slow, nasal and taught step by step. Why the kind of breathing matters.

Guidelines

• Yoga is conditionally recommended for knee osteoarthritis. American College of Rheumatology and Arthritis Foundation, 2019 guideline (Kolasinski 2020). Read the guideline.

“But the knee may say, ‘Who are you to dictate to me?’”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

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

• Props in every class: chairs, blocks, belts, blankets and the wall, so each pose fits your joints.
• Classes adapted to the people in them. No one-size-fits-all. Tell your teacher which joints are sore, and the poses are changed for you.
• Strong legs, free joints: standing poses build the thigh and hip strength that braces knees and hips.
• A practice for every kind of day: our gentle yoga and restorative yoga classes suit slow or sore days.
• Breath and calm: every class ends in rest, and our pranayama classes go further.

Read more on arthritis and joints

• Yoga for arthritis: the research, and how to protect sore joints
• Iyengar yoga for knees and knee arthritis
• Knee pain relief
• Yoga for hip pain and tight hips
• Menopause joint pain
• Chair yoga for seniors

“Do not get discouraged.”

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.
• Masterclass: arthritis is the first of our 2027 Sunday Arvo Masterclasses with Chris Lalor, in January. Bookings open soon.
• Retreats: a week of daily, adapted yoga in Bali. See the retreats.

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

Arthritis and yoga: questions people ask

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about arthritis?

Mr Iyengar set out a yoga approach for arthritis of the shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers, hips, knees and ankles, and for rheumatoid arthritis, in Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health. His method is to work gradually from the far end of a limb towards the sore joint, keep the joint moving to break the cycle of pain, stillness and stiffness, and use props so no joint is forced. His rheumatoid arthritis approach is more restful.

Should you rest an arthritic joint or move it?

Move it, the right way. Dr McCall and Dr Fishman agree on this. Dr Timothy McCall’s arthritis chapter puts it as use it or lose it: movement pumps fluid through cartilage, which has no blood supply of its own. Mr Iyengar warned of the vicious circle where pain leads to less movement and more stiffness. On days when a joint is hot and swollen, keep to gentle, supported poses.

Which doctors who worked with Mr Iyengar have written about arthritis?

Dr Loren Fishman, a Columbia University rehabilitation physician who studied with Mr Iyengar in Pune, co-wrote Yoga for Arthritis (2008) with yoga therapist Ellen Saltonstall. Dr Timothy McCall gives arthritis a full chapter in Yoga as Medicine. Dr Krishna Raman, a physician who trained with Mr Iyengar, covers knees, hips and joint replacements in his question-and-answer book on yoga and medical science.

Is yoga as good as other exercise for arthritis?

Yoga sits with the best. A 2025 analysis of 92 trials with over 6,000 people with knee or hip osteoarthritis found yoga eased pain about as much as the top exercise types, with no type clearly ahead. Yoga also brings calm and better mood, which other exercise often misses, and it can be adapted on a sore day.

Do breathing and meditation help arthritis?

Yes, mainly for mood and coping. A 2018 review of mindfulness trials in rheumatoid arthritis found less depression and distress and more confidence in managing the condition. Breathing practices were part of most of the yoga programmes that worked for osteoarthritis, though no trial has yet tested breathing on its own for arthritis.

How long does yoga take to help arthritis?

Give it about 8 weeks of regular classes. The reviews found programmes of 8 weeks or more gave the most consistent results for knee pain, and effective programmes averaged around 50 minutes a session. Mr Iyengar’s own advice was not to get discouraged if it takes time.

Can yoga help rheumatoid arthritis?

Yes. In reviews of rheumatoid arthritis trials, yoga added to usual care lowered disease activity scores and improved how well people managed daily tasks. A 2023 trial found yoga also shifted immune cells and inflammation markers in a good direction. Mr Iyengar and Dr McCall both recommend a gentler, more supported practice for rheumatoid arthritis.

Where can I do yoga for arthritis in Darwin or online?

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online across Australia, with chairs, blocks, belts and blankets in every class. 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 arthritis courses and the introduction to yoga for ailments. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), chapter 9, Arthritis, and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Loren Fishman MD and Ellen Saltonstall, Yoga for Arthritis (W. W. Norton, 2008), from the publisher’s and authors’ published descriptions. Krishna Raman MD and S. Suresh MD, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ. Mary Pullig Schatz MD, Yoga Journal, 1985. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Arthritis, National Health Survey 2022. 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.