Yoga For Stress And Burnout: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Too much on, and no off switch? Stress is part of life, but when it never lets up it wears you down, and burnout is where it can end. The great yoga teachers and the medical doctors who worked with Mr BKS Iyengar agree on the way back: work the body, steady the breath, and let the alarm switch off. This guide brings together what each of them says about stress and burnout, and what modern research has found about yoga for burnout and the stress response. Last updated: 31 October 2026.

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Yoga for burnout and stress: the short answer

Does yoga help stress and burnout? Yes. Yoga lowers stress, and it helps people who are burnt out. A review of 36 studies found yoga brought stress down by a moderate amount, and most of all in the people who were most stressed to begin with. The body shows it too: across 42 trials, yoga was linked with lower cortisol (the main stress hormone), a slower resting heart rate and a stronger calming side of the nervous system. In Germany, Iyengar yoga lowered stress as much as a mindfulness course, and the gain lasted to 24 weeks. For burnout, trials in doctors and nurses found less exhaustion after yoga and breathing programmes. Mr Iyengar set out a whole chapter on yoga for stress, and the yoga doctors explain why it works: the out-breath is the body’s calming signal, and props let a worn-out body rest properly.

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 stress and burnout

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, two or three times a week. In the Iyengar yoga trials, 12 weeks of regular classes brought stress down by a large amount. Give it that long.
2. Breathe out longer than you breathe in (pranayama). A slow out-breath turns up the calming side of the nervous system, and it works within a single session. Pranayama trains it step by step.
3. Match the practice to the day. Wound up? Work hard in standing poses first, then rest. Worn out? Supported poses with props, and plenty of rest. Mr Iyengar called this balancing active and passive practice.
4. Put recovery in the diary. You may be under-recovered, not under-exercised. A class that ends in real rest is part of the work, not time off from it.
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 whole chapter on yoga for stress. Yoga works on the causes, and it turns negative stress into positive stress.
• Dr Timothy McCall: yoga works on the body, the breath and the mind at once, which is why he rates it so highly for stress.
• Dr Krishna Raman: deep breathing calms the body through the vagus nerve, and more practice is not always better.
• For men: stress often shows differently in men, and fewer men do yoga. What helps men start.
• The research: 18 studies listed below, from small Iyengar trials to a review of 223 studies of slow breathing.
• Take it further: a free ebook, our 2027 masterclass on anxiety, upsets and anger, and classes in Darwin and online.

Two related guides go deeper on their own topics: yoga for anxiety, upsets and anger, and yoga for sleep, insomnia and fatigue. This guide is about everyday stress, burnout and the stress response itself.

“We cannot eliminate stress and tension from our lives. That is not the point.”

What stress and burnout are

Stress is the body’s alarm. When something threatens us, the stress response kicks in: the heart speeds up, the breath gets quick and high, and the body releases stress hormones such as cortisol. That is the “fight or flight” response. It is meant to switch on, do its job, and switch off.

Think of a zebra that escapes a lion. Minutes later it is grazing again. The trouble for us is that our alarm is set off by deadlines, bills, traffic and the phone, and it often does not switch off. That is chronic stress: the alarm ringing for weeks or months. Mr Iyengar made the same point: the fight or flight response is as old as humankind, and modern life piles more on top of it.

Dr McCall’s list of conditions helped by yoga includes two in this family:

• Stress (no. 108): the body and mind stuck on alert, often with tight muscles, a tight jaw, headaches, an upset stomach and poor sleep.
• Burnout (no. 12): what long, unrelenting stress can leave behind.

The signs of burnout are usually measured in research in three parts:

• Exhaustion: drained, with nothing left in the tank, even after a weekend off.
• Distance: feeling cut off, cynical or numb about the work and the people in it.
• Less sense of achievement: feeling that nothing you do makes a difference.

Stress and burnout are not the same. Stress tends to feel wired: too much, too fast. Burnout tends to feel worn out: too little left. The yoga for each is a little different, as the sections below show.

“A positive stress is a life elixir.”

What Mr BKS Iyengar taught about stress

In short: yoga works on the causes of stress, not only the symptoms, and it turns negative stress into positive stress.

In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, Mr Iyengar gives stress a chapter of its own, “Yoga for Stress” (pp. 175 to 181), before the courses for single conditions. He came back to the subject in a talk, “Yoga for Stress-free Life”, printed in Astadala Yogamala, volume 3 (pp. 107 to 111). His main ideas, in our words:

• Yoga works on the causes. He calls asana and pranayama the most effective and most natural therapy for stress (his claim). The effect on the mind takes longer to feel, he says, because yoga deals with the causes, and not just the symptoms (p. 175).
• Pulled two ways. He describes the cause of stress as a tug of war: the mind is drawn out to the world, and at the same time we long to look inward. That conflict shows up as anguish, exhaustion and breathlessness (p. 176).
• Calm brings energy. In his words, “A relaxed person possesses dynamic energy that does not dissipate” (p. 176).
• Speed is a cause. He names the haste of modern life, and the chase for money, success and recognition, as drivers of stress (p. 177). In the later talk he says this “supersonic speed” drains the body, tenses the nerves and leads to sleepless nights (Astadala Yogamala, volume 3, p. 110).
• Good stress and bad stress. Positive stress drives us to create and achieve. Negative stress wears us down. “Yoga teaches you to transform negative stress into positive stress” (p. 179).
• Stress shows in the body. His list of signs includes tight muscles and joints, a tight jaw, indigestion, headaches, a tight feeling in the diaphragm, breathlessness and poor sleep (p. 179).
• Quick escapes do not last. He notes that people reach for alcohol, nicotine, tranquillisers or comfort eating, and that these bring only short relief (p. 180). Simple relaxation helps for a while, he adds, but does not reach the causes.
• Active and passive practice. He calls yoga with props “passive practice” and the classical poses without props “active practice”. The balance between them varies from person to person “and even from season to season”. Too much active practice can exhaust the body; too much passive practice can bring lethargy and restlessness (p. 181).
• Props when stress is high. If you are highly stressed or tired, he says it is best to practise with props (p. 181).

He also has a note for hot weather, which suits Darwin’s build-up and wet season: on a hot day, reclining poses, inversions and resting poses slow the body down and save energy (p. 181). And he tells the reader that food matters to stress too, with fresh, simple food keeping the mind clear (p. 178).

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

“Rushing saps the strength, whether you are in Delhi or New York.”

What Dr Timothy McCall says

In short: yoga works on the body, the breath and the mind at the same time, and that is why it is so good for stress.

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, “as found in scientific studies”, includes stress (no. 108) and burnout (no. 12). His points, in our words:

• The most complete approach. In a Yoga Journal article he called yoga “arguably the most comprehensive approach to fighting stress ever invented”, because it works on the body, the breath and the mind together.
• Active, then quiet. He reports work from a yoga research centre near Bangalore: an active practice followed by a quiet one gives deeper relaxation than quiet practice alone. That is how an Iyengar class is built.
• A story from the book. Ron, a self-described “typical type A” businessman, got stomach pains in slow traffic and once walked out of a business negotiation. He began a home practice in his late sixties and found the relaxation and the breathing mattered more to him than the poses. Now, stuck in traffic, he takes a few slow breaths.
• Two kinds of out of balance. In the depression chapter of his book, Iyengar teacher Patricia Walden describes two states from yoga: restless and driven (rajasic), and heavy and dull (tamasic). Each needs a different practice. The same idea fits stress and burnout, shown below.

“If the nerves are corroded and blocked with stress, how can prana circulate?”

What Dr Krishna Raman says

In short: deep breathing calms the body through the vagus nerve, long stress harms the body, and more practice is not always better.

Dr Raman is a Chennai physician who trained in yoga under Mr Iyengar. His question-and-answer book on yoga and medical science covers stress, exhaustion and the breath. His views, in our words:

• Deep breathing works the body’s brake. It stimulates the vagus nerve (the main nerve of the calming side of the nervous system), which calms the body and lowers the pulse and blood pressure.
• Long stress harms the body. In his view, stress hormones can do damage over time, including raising blood fats and blood sugar.
• More is not always better. He warns against overdoing practice: hours of a strong pose can leave a person with nervous exhaustion. For a burnt-out person, a short, well-judged practice beats a long, hard one.
• Rest comes at the end. In his view, Savasana (Corpse Pose) belongs at the end of a practice, after the work is done.
• Feed the mind as well. For stress that cannot be avoided, he suggests reading the classic texts, such as the Yoga Sutras, alongside practice.

“One has to question oneself whether yoga is meant for rejuvenation or exhaustion.”

Other yoga voices on stress and burnout

• Western relaxation only goes so far. Mr Iyengar wrote that Western techniques give “physical relaxation and superficial quietness”, while yoga works on the movements of the mind itself. Yoga Wisdom and Practice, Yoga for a Stress-free Life (pp. 208 to 210).
• Breath first, in the master’s own day. The same book notes that Mr Iyengar began each day with an hour of pranayama, to calm the mind and recharge his energy.
• Work stress and sick leave earn four stars. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?, a careful review of the yoga research, rates the evidence for yoga at work highly.
• “Acknowledge, accept, move through.” A firefighter learnt this three-word line in a forward bend. He uses it at home, and when he walks into a burning building. His story is in our ebook, Cutting Stress With Yoga.
• Long stress changes the brain, and the brain can change back. Neuroscientist Dr Lila Landowski, of the University of Tasmania, explained on ABC Radio National in 2018 how long stress affects the brain’s alarm centre and memory, and that the brain can adapt back when the stress eases.

For men: stress, burnout and yoga

In short: men often carry stress in ways that are easy to miss, fewer men do yoga or meditation, and yoga is a way to bring stress down that does not need a long talk about feelings.

• Men are less likely to look for support with stress and low mood. Traditional “tough it out” ideas of manhood hold many men back. Mokhwelepa and Sumbane 2025, a review of 47 studies. Read the study.
• In men, stress and low mood can show as anger, irritability, risk taking and drinking, not sadness. Men with probable depression reported three times as many of these outward signs. Rice 2016, a study of 91 Australian truck drivers. Read the study.
• Half as many men as women meditate, but the men who do find it helps. In a US survey of 34,342 adults, 5.2% of men and 10.3% of women meditated. Stress was the main reason, and 90% of men said it helped. Upchurch and Johnson 2018. Read the study.
• Many men see yoga as “not for blokes”. Men in Queensland said they preferred other exercise, saw yoga as feminine and felt the pull of “bloke” culture. Short information sessions and classes with other men were what might bring them in. Cagas 2020, interviews with 21 men in Queensland. Read the study.
• Men start yoga when someone they trust encourages them, and stay once they feel the benefits. Male role models and a focus on the physical side helped. Cagas 2024, focus groups and interviews on men and yoga. Read the study.

What men can do about it. Yoga suits men under stress, because it is something you do, not something you talk about. The standing poses are hard work, and you feel the benefit in the body first: looser hips and back, a slower breath, a quieter head. Start with a beginner class. Bring a mate or come alone, but give it 12 weeks. About a third of the people in our classes are men, and many men like our rope work and our classes for backs.

“Because of yoga I can relax in the midst of it.”

What the research shows

In short: stress is one of the best-studied uses of yoga, the body measures move in the right direction, and burnout has a smaller but growing set of trials. 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.

Yoga for everyday stress

• Yoga lowered stress by a moderate amount, and the effect was biggest in people who started out most stressed. Rhoads 2025, a review of 36 studies using the standard stress questionnaire. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered stress in the short term, against no programme, and quality of life improved. No harms were reported in the trials that checked. Schleinzer 2024, a review of 13 trials and 1,026 stressed adults. Note: over the longer term, against other active programmes, yoga in general did not come out ahead. These trials pooled many styles of yoga. Iyengar yoga has not yet been tested this way on its own, and in the RELAX trial below Iyengar yoga held its gain to 24 weeks. Why it matters. Read the study.
• Yoga ranked third of many ways to lower stress in older adults. Reminiscence therapy and exercise ranked first and second. Zhu 2025, a review of 23 trials in older adults. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

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

• Iyengar yoga lowered stress as much as a mindfulness course, and the drop was large and lasting. Stress fell by 6 points on the standard scale, and the gain was still there at 24 weeks. Fischer 2022, the RELAX trial, 102 stressed adults, comparing Iyengar yoga, a broader yoga programme and mindfulness. Read the study.
• Iyengar yoga lowered stress, anxiety and low mood, and lifted wellbeing. Twelve or 24 classes of 90 minutes over 3 months, against a waiting list. Michalsen 2012, a randomised trial of 72 distressed women. Read the study.
• After a single Iyengar class, the stress hormone cortisol fell. Stress and anxiety also eased over 3 months of two 90-minute classes a week. Michalsen 2005, a small controlled study (not randomised) of 24 distressed women. Read the study.

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga on its own for burnout. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. In our view as certified Iyengar teachers, the supported poses, props and slow breath at the heart of the Iyengar approach are exactly what the burnout research points to.

Stress at work and burnout

• Yoga at work lowered stress, by a medium-sized amount. Della Valle 2020, a review of 6 workplace studies, 266 people doing yoga and 221 not. Read the study.
• Yoga and mindfulness at work both lowered stress, improved sleep and improved heart rate variability. Wolever 2012, a pilot trial of 239 employees. Read the study.
• A daily breathing and meditation programme lowered burnout, work exhaustion, stress and depression in doctors, and raised their sense of fulfilment at work. About 30 minutes a day for 2 months, online, against stress management lessons. Korkmaz 2024, a trial of 129 doctors in Turkey, Germany and Dubai. Note: this was a breathing programme from another tradition, not Iyengar pranayama. Read the study.
• Yoga eased emotional exhaustion and distance in burnt-out nurses, and lifted their sense of achievement. Javeth 2025, a review of 3 trials in nurses. Read the study.
• Programmes for nurse burnout lowered burnout overall, and mindfulness and yoga programmes gave the most consistent gains in exhaustion and distance. Jimenez-Garcia 2026, a review of 63 studies. Read the study.

Stress in the body: cortisol, heart rate and HRV

• Yoga was linked with lower evening and waking cortisol, lower daytime blood pressure, a slower resting heart rate and higher heart rate variability. These gains held against other active programmes, though the studies varied a lot. Pascoe 2017, a review of 42 trials. Read the study.
• One 90-minute yoga session lowered cortisol and raised a marker of immune defence in saliva. Eda 2017, a small study of 23 women aged about 60. Read the study.
• Yoga, meditation and breathing programmes lowered cortisol and two inflammation markers. The studies varied a great deal. Shah 2022, a review of 11 trials. Read the study.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is the small change in time between heartbeats. Every breath in speeds the heart a little and every breath out slows it. A body that can make that shift easily is a body that can calm down. More on how to improve HRV.

Meditation and mindfulness

These trials tested mindfulness courses, not yoga or pranayama. In our view they overlap: you cannot do a yoga pose or pranayama well without being mindful.

• As stress fell after an 8-week mindfulness course, the brain’s alarm centre (the amygdala) became less dense. Hölzel 2010, a study of 26 stressed adults. Read the study.

Breathing practice (pranayama)

“Breathwork” is a loose word. It can mean slow, nasal pranayama taught step by step, or fast, forceful breathing with long holds. Look closely at what was taught. 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.

• Breathing practice lowered stress. Fincham 2023, a review of 12 trials and 785 adults. Read the study.
• Slow breathing raised heart rate variability during practice, straight after one session and after a training programme. Laborde 2022, a review of 223 studies. Read the study.
• Five minutes a day of a breath with a long out-breath lifted mood and slowed the breathing rate the most of the practices tested. One month, done remotely. Balban 2023, a trial at Stanford. More on cyclic sighing. Read the study.

No trial has yet tested Iyengar pranayama on its own for stress or burnout. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The calming out-breath at the centre of all three studies above is the heart of the pranayama we teach.

“Right practice of pranayama soothes the nerves and quietens the mind.”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach in Darwin, at Woolner and Coolalinga, and LIVE online.

• Active first, then quiet: the first half of a class works the body; the second half is for calm.
• Props in every class: bolsters, blankets, chairs and the wall, so a tired body is held and nothing is forced.
• Classes adapted to the people in them. No one-size-fits-all. Feel free to tell your teacher you are stressed or running on empty, and the practice is changed for you.
• Made for the Darwin build-up: in the hot months, more rest, more props and slower breathing, as Mr Iyengar advised for hot days.
• A practice for every kind of day: our gentle yoga and restorative yoga classes suit worn-out days.
• Breath and calm: every class ends in rest, and our pranayama classes teach the slow out-breath step by step.

Read more on stress and burnout

• Yoga for stress relief: what the research says, and what to do
• Yoga for stress management: why telling yourself to relax fails
• How to recover from burnout: a slow, supported way back
• How to calm your nervous system
• Nervous system regulation
• How to lower cortisol
• How to improve HRV
• Vagus nerve exercises
• Breathwork for beginners
• How to stop overthinking
• What is restorative yoga?
• Iyengar quotes on stress, 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. For a team at work, see private group classes.
• Masterclass: the calming practices for stress run through our 2027 Sunday Arvo Masterclass on anxiety, upsets and anger with Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist. Come for the poses, the sequences and the pranayama that put this into action. Bookings open soon.
• Retreats: a week of daily yoga and pranayama in Bali, a long way from your inbox. See the retreats.

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

Yoga for burnout and stress: questions people ask

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about stress?

Mr Iyengar gave stress its own chapter in Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health. He taught that asana and pranayama work on the causes of stress, not just the symptoms, and that yoga transforms negative stress into positive stress. He balanced active practice, the classical poses, with passive practice using props, and advised props whenever stress is high or you are tired.

What is the stress response, and why does it get stuck?

The stress response, or fight or flight, is the body’s alarm: the heart speeds up, the breath quickens and cortisol rises. It is meant to switch off once the danger passes. Modern life sets it off with deadlines, bills and traffic, so it can stay on for months. That is chronic stress. Yoga and a slow out-breath turn up the calming side of the nervous system.

What are the signs of burnout?

Burnout is usually measured in three parts: exhaustion that rest does not seem to shift, a growing distance or cynicism about work and the people in it, and a drop in the sense of achievement. In men it can also show as irritability, anger or drinking more. Trials in doctors and nurses found yoga and breathing programmes eased exhaustion and burnout.

Should I do a hard class or a restful one when I am stressed?

It depends whether you feel wired or worn out. Wired and restless? Work hard in standing poses first to use up the nervous energy, then rest. Worn out? Choose supported poses with props and plenty of rest. Mr Iyengar called this balancing active and passive practice, and said the balance changes from person to person and even from season to season.

Is it okay to do yoga when I am too tired to move?

Yes, with props. Mr Iyengar advised practising with props whenever you are stressed or fatigued, so the body is held and nothing is forced. Dr Krishna Raman warns that overdoing practice can bring nervous exhaustion, so a short, well-judged practice is better than a long, hard one. In class, tell your teacher, and the practice is made gentler for you.

Does yoga lower heart rate and raise heart rate variability?

Yes. A review of 42 trials linked yoga with a slower resting heart rate, lower daytime blood pressure, lower cortisol and higher heart rate variability, a sign the calming side of the nervous system is working. A review of 223 studies found slow breathing raised heart rate variability during practice and after a training programme.

Can stress be good for you?

Yes. Mr Iyengar wrote that positive stress drives us to create and achieve, while negative stress wears us down, and that yoga teaches you to transform negative stress into positive stress. In his words, a positive stress is a life elixir. The aim is not a life without stress, but a body and mind that can switch off after it.

Why are men less likely to do yoga for stress?

Studies of Australian and other men found many see yoga as feminine, prefer other exercise, and feel the pull of bloke culture. Men are also less likely to look for support with stress. Yet men who meditate say it helps, and men take up yoga when someone they trust encourages them. About a third of the people in Flametree classes are men.

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (Dorling Kindersley), chapter 5, Yoga for Stress (pp. 175 to 181). BKS Iyengar, “Yoga for Stress-free Life”, Astadala Yogamala, volume 3 (pp. 107 to 111), reprinted in Yoga Wisdom and Practice (pp. 208 to 210). BKS Iyengar, Light on Life. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), his Yoga Journal writing on stress, and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Krishna Raman MD and S. Suresh MD, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?. Dr Lila Landowski, “I stress, you stress, how do we stress less?”, ABC Radio National, Ockham’s Razor, 30 September 2018. Chris Lalor, Cutting Stress With Yoga (Flametree Yoga Studio). 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.