Circulation And Yoga: Varicose Veins, Cold Hands And Feet, Low Blood Pressure And Fainting

Do you go dizzy when you stand up, faint at the sight of a needle, or fight cold hands, cold feet and heavy, aching legs? These are all problems of circulation: getting blood where it needs to go, and back again. Mr BKS Iyengar set out a yoga approach for each of them, and for fainting the research is now strong. This guide brings it all together, with how to improve circulation the yoga way. Last updated: 1 November 2026.

Get 2 Free Yoga Classes And 2 Free Ebooks

How to improve circulation with yoga: the short answer

Yes. Yoga helps circulation, and the best evidence is for fainting. In two randomised trials, people with the common faint (vasovagal syncope) who added yoga to their usual care had far fewer faints over a year: about one each, against nearly three or four for those without yoga. Two reviews that pooled the trials agree. For varicose veins, small trials found yoga eased heaviness and symptoms. For cold hands and feet and for low blood pressure, Mr Iyengar’s yoga approach is the guide, because no trial has yet tested yoga on them. Not yet studied is not the same as not working.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: the fainting and vein trials tested “yoga” taught in many ways. No trial here tested Iyengar yoga, taught by trained Iyengar teachers. 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 better circulation

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, several times a week. The fainting trials ran for 3 to 12 months. Standing poses work the legs and, in Mr Iyengar’s approach, take warmth out to the hands and feet.
2. Put your legs up at the end of the day. For varicose veins and tired legs, Mr Iyengar rests and raises the legs rather than working them hard. Legs up the wall is the simplest way in.
3. Breathe smoothly. Never hold the breath and strain. Straining with a held breath stops blood flowing up out of the legs; slow ocean breath (Ujjayi) keeps it flowing. Pranayama (yoga breathing) also steadies the nervous system that sets off a faint.
4. Come up slowly. Rise from lying down, and from forward bends, in stages. It gives your blood pressure time to catch up, so you stay steady on your feet.
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 cold extremities, varicose veins and low blood pressure. Warm and work for cold hands, rest and raise for veins, restful for low pressure.
• Dr Timothy McCall: fainting is no. 63 on his list; his book explains why lying and inverted poses calm the body.
• Geeta S Iyengar: her own hints for low blood pressure, with a different emphasis from her father’s.
• Dr Krishna Raman: smooth breath, braced knees and morning standing poses.
• The research: 15 studies listed below, led by two fainting trials and two reviews.
• Take it further: a free breathing ebook, and classes in Darwin and online.

“The windows of one’s existence depend upon the circulatory and the respiratory systems”

What poor circulation is

Your heart pumps blood out through the arteries. The veins bring it back. When that flow slows, or the pressure drops, you feel it. The four problems in this guide:

• Fainting (vasovagal syncope): the common faint. A reflex suddenly drops the heart rate and blood pressure, too little blood reaches the brain for a moment, and you go down. “Vasovagal” means the vagus nerve and the blood vessels are involved.
• Low blood pressure (hypotension): pressure too low to supply the brain well. Mr Iyengar lists tiredness, fainting, light-headedness, blurred vision and nausea. Many people notice it most when they stand up quickly.
• Varicose veins: veins just under the skin of the legs become long and widened, because their one-way valves no longer close well. Legs ache, feel heavy and tired, and may cramp. They are common in pregnancy and in people who stand for long hours.
• Cold hands and feet: too little warm blood reaches the hands and feet. In Raynaud’s, the small vessels of the fingers and toes clamp down in the cold.

High blood pressure and heart disease have their own guides: high blood pressure and heart health.

“Never perform asanas mechanically, for then the body stagnates.”

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about circulation?

In short: warm and work outwards for cold hands and feet; rest and raise the legs for varicose veins; keep it restful for low blood pressure.

In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, Mr Iyengar gives a whole group of courses for the heart and circulation, opening with a short explanation of the heart, arteries, veins and capillaries (the tiny vessels that feed every cell). Three of the courses belong here. In our words:

• Cold extremities (p. 264). He describes blood collecting in the trunk instead of reaching the hands and feet, and links it to a sluggish thyroid, stress or nervousness. His course uses standing poses, twists and inverted poses. The aim is to send effort and warmth outwards, to the edges of the body.
• Varicose veins (p. 267). Here the legs are rested and raised rather than worked hard: leg raising, supported inversions, seated and reclining poses and forward bends. Hero pose (Virasana, sitting between the heels) opens his list.
• Low blood pressure (pp. 270 to 271). Gentle and mostly restorative: reclining poses, forward bends and a few supported inversions. Nothing is forced.
• Match the pose to the person. His chapter on yoga for ailments says poses must suit the person, and asks for patience.

In Yoga Wisdom and Practice he writes about blood and circulation. His view is that asana and pranayama improve the quality and flow of the blood, and that in a supported shoulder stand the blood in the veins flows back to the heart “without any strain”, helped by gravity (his claim). In The Tree of Yoga he calls breathing and circulation two “gates” of health (pp. 86 to 88): when they are blocked there is trouble, and the poses take blood to the blocked places.

In Light on Yoga, his first book, Mr Iyengar’s appendix on ailments points the same way. For varicose veins (p. 433) he lists inversions with a few kneeling and seated poses, close to the Hero pose and raised legs above. For low blood pressure (p. 416) he gives inversions, forward bends, seated poses and rest, with breathing at first done without holding the breath. For a clot in the legs (p. 432) he keeps it very quiet: one supported inversion if it is possible, seated poses, breathing and rest.

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

“Through practice we manufacture our own blood, our own vital energies”

What does Dr Timothy McCall say about fainting?

In short: fainting is on his list of conditions helped by yoga, and his book explains why lying and upside-down poses calm the body.

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 neurocardiogenic syncope (fainting) at no. 63. His book has no chapter on fainting, but two of its chapters explain the pieces, in our words:

• The blood pressure reflex. In his insomnia chapter, Roger Cole, a certified Iyengar teacher and research scientist, explains how the baroreflex (the body’s blood pressure sensor) makes lying and inverted positions calming, while standing keeps us alert. The same reflex is the one that misfires in a faint.
• Come up slowly. In his high blood pressure chapter, he suggests slowing every move out of a pose, such as getting up from lying down, so you do not go light-headed.
• Never strain with a held breath. The same chapter warns against bearing down while holding the breath in any pose. It sends blood pressure swinging.
• Calm the nervous system. Through the book, yoga shifts the body from fight or flight towards rest and digest.

“The heart faces the floor in all the forward extensions and this gives rest”

Low blood pressure: Mr Iyengar’s restful way, and Geeta Iyengar’s emphasis

In short: Mr Iyengar keeps low blood pressure restful; his daughter Geeta S Iyengar gives her own hints, with a different emphasis.

Mr Iyengar’s course for low blood pressure is the quiet one in his book: reclining poses, forward bends where the head and heart rest, and a few supported inversions. Everything is supported and nothing is rushed. In our classes this is the approach we lead with.

Geeta S Iyengar, his daughter and a great teacher in her own right, gives her own hints for low blood pressure in Yoga: A Gem for Women (hint 32, pp. 84 to 85). Her emphasis is different: her list gives more weight to the active inverted poses. That is her approach, and a teacher chooses between the two for the person in front of them. She also writes:

• Deep breathing, stage II, is for low blood pressure, low mood, fear and low energy (p. 313, her claim).
• For dizziness in backbends, keep the eyes wide open rather than closing them (p. 241, her advice).
• Cold hands and feet are among the signs of anxiety and low mood that she says are common in women after 35 (p. 251, her claim).
• Varicose veins and swelling: she lists poses she says ease them in pregnancy (pp. 269 and 273, her claim).

“When the legs are shaky, the mind is also shaky.”

What does Dr Krishna Raman say?

In short: breathe smoothly in the poses, brace the knees, and do standing poses while the legs are fresh.

Dr Raman is a Chennai physician who trained in yoga under Mr Iyengar. His question-and-answer book on yoga and medical science covers veins, blood pressure and breathing. His views, in our words:

• Varicose veins: in his view yoga brings relief.
• Do not hold the breath in poses. He links it to headache, palpitations and dizziness.
• Keep the chin down in pranayama. A raised chin, he says, makes blood pressure swing. He also notes the chin lock (Jalandhara bandha) lowers blood pressure for a while.
• Do not lock the knees. The thigh muscles should brace the joint.
• Standing poses suit the morning, when the leg muscles are fresh.

Other yoga voices on circulation

• Shoulder stand leaves the feet and legs less swollen, in the view of Dr J. T. Shah, a physician whose book Therapeutic Yoga carries a foreword by Mr Iyengar. He lists it among the benefits of the pose (his claim).
• The Pune case files lean on rest for the legs. In 1997 files from the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, a student with fainting and blood pressure problems was given head-supported forward bends and a long rest; a student with arthritis and varicose veins was given hero pose, inverted work and forward bends, ending with the legs at rest. The book Yoga the Iyengar Way follows the same lines for varicose veins.
• In the Darwin heat, ankles and legs swell more easily. We cover the heat in swollen ankles in the heat and yoga for the Build-Up.

“Dizziness means over exertion which sends you a message of discomfort.”

What the research shows

In short: fainting has the strongest evidence, varicose veins has small but positive trials, and cold hands and low blood pressure are not yet studied for yoga. All of these studies tested yoga in general, not Iyengar yoga. Why the difference matters.

Fainting (vasovagal syncope)

• Yoga added to usual care cut faints by about two thirds, at 3, 6 and 12 months. At 12 months the yoga group averaged 1.1 faints against 3.8, and their day-to-day function scores were far better. Yoga was taught by a certified instructor. Shenthar 2021, a randomised trial of 97 people with repeated faints and a positive tilt test, Bangalore. Read the study.
• Yoga cut faints and near-faints from 2.5 to 0.7 a year, and 43% of the yoga group had none at all, against 16% without yoga. Quality of life improved too. Sharma 2022 (LIVE-Yoga), a randomised trial of 55 people at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Read the study.
• Of the non-drug approaches, yoga had the largest effect on repeat faints. Tilt training and muscle-tensing moves helped too. Alharbi 2023, a review of 18 randomised trials and 1,130 people. Read the study.
• Yoga added to usual care lowered the number of faints and near-faints. Abdelazeem 2022, a review of 4 studies and 309 people with repeated faints. Read the study.
• Three months of yoga, three times a week, cut faints from about 4 to about 1, and tilt tests improved. Gunda 2015, a pilot study of 44 young people, mostly women, with neurocardiogenic syncope, USA. The yoga was learnt from a DVD. Read the study.
• Faints fell from about 5 to almost none, and 96.8% had no faint in nearly three years. The programme included a standing yoga move based on mountain pose (Tadasana), with drinking enough and other advice. Rao 2024, 157 people with vasovagal syncope, India. A companion pilot was published in 2022. Read the study.
• Structured exercise cut repeat faints from 24% to 7%. Not yoga, but it points the same way: moving the body helps. Esmailian 2026, a review of 8 studies and 435 people. Read the study.

Dizzy when standing up (orthostatic intolerance and POTS)

• Lying-down yoga brought a normal response to standing in the two women who had POTS (a fast heartbeat on standing). Oka 2025, a 12-week pilot of 10 women with ME/CFS (long-term fatigue), Japan. Read the study.
• Exercise improved heart rate on standing in every study reviewed. Not yoga. Cortez 2025, a review of 7 studies of exercise for POTS. Read the study.

Varicose veins and weak leg veins

• Yoga eased vein symptoms, fatigue and a marker of vessel inflammation. Six days a week for 12 weeks, against lifestyle advice, with no significant side effects. Yamuna 2024, a randomised trial of 100 male factory workers with chronic venous insufficiency (weak leg-vein valves), Bangalore. Read the study.
• Yoga with naturopathy eased leg heaviness and varicose vein symptoms, and lowered an inflammation marker. Chauhan 2023, a randomised trial of 50 people with uncomplicated varicose veins, India. Read the study.
• Varicose vein symptom scores fell after 90 days of a traditional Tamil yoga. V R 2026, a pilot of 30 patients, India. Read the study.
• With ocean breath (Ujjayi), the main leg-vein valve kept opening and closing with the breath, and blood flowed freely. Straining with a held breath shut it. Kovalko 2025, an ultrasound study of 10 healthy people standing, Poland. Read the study.

Cold hands and feet (Raynaud’s)

• A daily guided relaxation practice made Raynaud’s episodes less severe, and lifted quality of life and mood. Not yoga, but a mind-body practice close to it. Padilla 2025, an 8-week study of 16 people, USA. Read the study.

No trial has yet tested yoga for everyday cold hands and feet. Not yet studied is not the same as not working.

Low blood pressure

No trial has yet tested yoga for low blood pressure itself. The fainting and POTS trials above are the nearest. Mr Iyengar’s restful approach is the guide.

Iyengar yoga studies

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, for fainting, low blood pressure, varicose veins or cold hands and feet. The trials above tested yoga in general, taught in many ways, and still found it helped. In our view, the precision, props and long teacher training of Iyengar yoga are likely to add to that. Why the kind of yoga matters.

Breathing practice (pranayama)

Only one study here looked at breathing alone: the ocean breath (Ujjayi) ultrasound study above, in healthy people. Many of the fainting programmes included breathing, though the papers rarely say which techniques were taught, or how. “Breathwork” can mean very different things, from slow, nasal pranayama to forceful breathing with long holds. The pranayama we teach (staircase, ocean, alternate nostril, humming and a gentle shining skull breath) is slow, smooth and taught step by step. For more on calming the nervous system, see vagus nerve exercises.

How this comes together in a Flametree class

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

• Standing poses for warm hands and feet: strong, working legs and an open chest, as Mr Iyengar teaches for cold extremities.
• Legs up, often: supported inversions and legs up the wall are part of most classes, with props so they are restful.
• Smooth breath, no straining: we teach you to keep breathing in every pose.
• Slow transitions: we bring you up in stages from lying and from forward bends.
• Classes adapted to the people in them. Tell your teacher if you feel faint easily, have low blood pressure or have varicose veins, and the poses are chosen for you.
• Calm to finish: every class ends in rest. Our restorative yoga and gentle yoga classes suit low-energy days, and our pranayama classes go further with the breath.

For men

Men get varicose veins and weak leg veins too, especially men who stand all day at work. The best varicose vein trial above was of 100 men in factories, and 12 weeks of yoga eased their symptoms and tiredness. Men do far less yoga than women, so most never find this out. Bring a mate or come alone, but give it 12 weeks.

Read more on circulation, legs and blood pressure

• Vertigo exercises and yoga: when the room spins, rather than going faint
• Swollen ankles in the heat: why they puff up, and the legs-up poses that ease them
• Legs up the wall: what it does and how to set it up
• Shoulder stand, the “queen of yoga poses”
• Lower blood pressure with Iyengar yoga
• High blood pressure: what Mr Iyengar, the yoga doctors and the research say
• Heart health: what Mr Iyengar, the yoga doctors and the research say
• Vagus nerve exercises
• Yoga for jet lag: Geeta Iyengar’s simple standing poses after a long flight

“One need not feel disheartened if progress is slow.”

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.
• Retreats: a week of daily, adapted yoga in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions, including bones, balance and falls, stress and burnout and restless legs.

Circulation and yoga: questions people ask

Can yoga help with fainting (vasovagal syncope)?

Yes. In two randomised trials of people with repeated faints, adding yoga to usual care cut faints by more than two thirds over a year. In one, 43% of the yoga group had no faints or near-faints at all, against 16% without yoga. Two reviews that pooled the trials agree, and one found yoga had the biggest effect of the non-drug approaches. Dr Timothy McCall lists fainting at no. 63 on his list of conditions helped by yoga.

How do you stop fainting the yoga way?

Yoga works on the reflex behind the common faint. Regular classes calm the nervous system, smooth breathing without straining keeps blood moving, and coming up slowly from lying down and forward bends gives blood pressure time to catch up. The fainting trials ran for 3 to 12 months of regular practice, so give it time.

How can I improve circulation with yoga?

Mr BKS Iyengar used standing poses, twists and inversions to send warmth out to cold hands and feet, and rested, raised legs for tired legs and varicose veins. Smooth ocean breath (Ujjayi) keeps blood flowing up from the legs, where straining with a held breath stops it. A class several times a week, with legs up the wall at the end of the day, is a good start.

Does yoga help varicose veins?

Small trials say yes. In a 2024 trial of 100 factory workers who stand all day, 12 weeks of yoga eased vein symptoms, fatigue and a marker of vessel inflammation. A 2023 trial of yoga with naturopathy eased leg heaviness. Mr Iyengar rests and raises the legs for varicose veins, and Dr Krishna Raman says yoga brings relief.

Why are my hands and feet always cold, and can yoga help?

Mr Iyengar described cold extremities as blood collecting in the trunk instead of reaching the hands and feet, and linked it to a sluggish thyroid, stress or nervousness. His course uses standing poses, twists and inversions to send warmth outwards. Geeta S Iyengar notes cold hands and feet among the signs of anxiety in women after 35. No trial has yet tested yoga for cold hands and feet; not yet studied is not the same as not working.

What did Mr Iyengar teach for low blood pressure?

His course for low blood pressure in Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (pp. 270 to 271) is gentle and mostly restorative: reclining poses, forward bends and a few supported inversions. His daughter Geeta S Iyengar gives her own hints in Yoga: A Gem for Women, with more weight on the active inverted poses. In class, the teacher chooses what fits the person.

Why do I feel dizzy when standing up?

When you stand, blood drops into the legs and the body has to raise blood pressure quickly to keep the brain supplied. If that is slow, you feel light-headed. Coming up in stages helps, and Dr McCall suggests slowing every move out of a pose. In a small 2025 pilot, lying-down yoga brought a normal response to standing in two women with POTS, a fast heartbeat on standing.

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

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online across Australia, with props in every class so legs-up and restful poses are easy. 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 heart and circulation courses (pp. 264 to 271) and the introduction to yoga for ailments; Light on Yoga, Appendix II, pp. 416, 432 and 433; Yoga Wisdom and Practice, Yoga and Blood Circulation; The Tree of Yoga; Astadala Yogamala. Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), the high blood pressure and insomnia chapters, and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Krishna Raman MD and S. Suresh MD, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ. Dr J. T. Shah, Therapeutic Yoga. Pune medical case notes, Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, 1997. Silva Mehta, Mira Mehta and Shyam Mehta, Yoga the Iyengar Way. 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.