Hot Yoga Leads to Greater Well-being: A Six-week Experience-sampling RCT in Healthy Adults

Practicing hot yoga may bring significant psychological benefits, but it is largely unstudied. We examined the effects of hot yoga on multifaceted well-being indicators with 290 healthy yoga-naïve volunteers partaking in a six-week randomized controlled trial. Participants completed questionnaires pre- and post-intervention, and reported their emotional experiences four times per day throughout an experience-sampling study. Results revealed that the hot yoga group (n = 137) improved their well-being from pre- to post-treatment, comparing to the wait-list control group (n = 153). These improvements included life satisfaction, general health, mindfulness, peace of mind, and eudaimonic well-being (ΔR² ranging from .01 to .08)-but not flourishing, which describes major aspects of social-psychological functioning. Multilevel analyses demonstrated that momentary positive emotional experiences increased significantly throughout the trial in the yoga group only (conditional R² = .68), particularly when attending a yoga class (conditional R² = .50). Interestingly, this increase in momentary positive emotion explained the improvement in post-intervention mindfulness, peace of mind, and general health by 21%, 31%, and 11%, respectively. Finally, the benefits of hot yoga were more notable in individuals with lower levels of baseline eudaimonic well-being (conditional R² = .45), flourishing (conditional R² = .61), and mental well-being (conditional R² = .65), even after ruling out any possible ceiling effects. To sum up, this study demonstrated multiple psychological benefits of hot yoga and its potential to be an effective positive psychology intervention. Future research-especially considering an active control group-is warranted.

Effect of a 16-week Bikram yoga program on perceived stress, self-efficacy and health-related quality of life in stressed and sedentary adults: A randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 16 weeks of Bikram yoga on perceived stress, self-efficacy and health related quality of life (HRQoL) in sedentary, stressed adults.

DESIGN

16 week, parallel-arm, randomised controlled trial with flexible dosing.

METHODS

Physically inactive, stressed adults (37.2±10.8 years) were randomised to Bikram yoga (three to five classes per week) or control (no treatment) group for 16 weeks. Outcome measures, collected via self-report, included perceived stress, general self-efficacy, and HRQoL. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, midpoint and completion.

RESULTS

Individuals were randomised to the experimental (n=29) or control group (n=34). Average attendance in the experimental group was 27±18 classes. Repeated measure analyses of variance (intention-to-treat) demonstrated significantly improved perceived stress (p=0.003, partial η²=0.109), general self-efficacy (p=0.034, partial η²=0.056), and the general health (p=0.034, partial η²=0.058) and energy/fatigue (p=0.019, partial η²=0.066) domains of HRQoL in the experimental group versus the control group. Attendance was significantly associated with reductions in perceived stress, and an increase in several domains of HRQoL.

CONCLUSIONS

16 weeks of Bikram yoga significantly improved perceived stress, general self-efficacy and HRQoL in sedentary, stressed adults. Future research should consider ways to optimise adherence, and should investigate effects of Bikram yoga intervention in other populations at risk for stress-related illness.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12616000867493. Registered 04 July 2016. URL: http://www.anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12616000867493.aspx.