Yoga guide
Yoga can lower blood sugar a little in type 2 diabetes, alongside your usual treatment. Across 28 trials, HbA1c (a blood test of your average blood sugar over the past 2 to 3 months) was about 0.6 percentage points lower with yoga than with usual care. The evidence is weak, though: most trials were small, 20 of the 28 were from India, and a check for missing small studies shrank the effect to about 0.3, which could be no effect at all.
In a large comparison of exercise trials, yoga did about as well as steady aerobic exercise, aerobic plus strength training, and interval training, so the best choice is the one you'll keep doing. Strong standing poses count as strength work, but gentle yoga is light activity, so pair it with walking. Yoga is never a substitute for your diabetes medicines or the rest of your care.
This guide covers what the trials show in type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes and prediabetes, how yoga compares with other exercise, hypos if you take insulin or a sulfonylurea, numb feet, head-down poses with diabetic retinopathy and hot yoga. It ends with the myths, such as poses that massage the pancreas, and a free 35-minute routine that keeps your head up.
In 28 trials of 2,241 adults with type 2 diabetes, yoga added to usual care lowered HbA1c by about 0.6 percentage points (about 7 mmol/mol), and earlier reviews found about 0.5. The trials were small and mostly from India, and a check for missing small studies shrank the effect to about 0.3, which could be zero.
In a comparison of 85 exercise trials, yoga lowered HbA1c about as much as steady aerobic exercise, aerobic plus strength training, and interval training, with no clear winner. Walking and strength work stay the core, and yoga can be part of either.
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The NHS counts yoga as muscle strengthening when it's hard enough that you need a short rest. Gentle hatha yoga uses about 2.3 times the energy of resting, the same as mild stretching, so it doesn't count towards your 150 minutes of moderate activity.
Check your blood sugar before and after, keep hypo treatment by your mat, and don't start if it's 4 mmol/L or lower. Never change a diabetes medicine yourself because you've started yoga: your team can help you adjust it.
Yoga is usually done barefoot. With numb feet, the international foot guideline advises against walking barefoot, so our suggestion is shoes for standing poses, or chair yoga. With advanced diabetic retinopathy, leave out head-down poses, hard holds and breath holds.
The pancreas claim traces to a 2018 review that cites no study for it, and the one study of poses and insulin was in 20 healthy young volunteers. Diabetes UK says there's no evidence that exercise alone can lower blood sugar enough to put type 2 diabetes into remission.
In the trials, yoga meant a mix of poses, breathing practices and meditation or relaxation, mostly in hatha-style classes. A typical programme was an hour, 3 times a week, for 12 weeks (sessions ranged from 10 to 90 minutes, and programmes from 4 to 24 weeks), added to usual diabetes care and compared with usual care or a waiting list. The largest prevention trial used a 40-minute routine of poses and pranayama (yoga breathing).
HbA1c shows your average blood sugar over the past 2 to 3 months, which is why the trials measured it after 8 to 12 weeks or more. It's given as a percentage or in mmol/mol: a fall of 0.6 percentage points is about 7 mmol/mol (our conversion: 1 point is about 11 mmol/mol).
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Working muscles take up sugar from the blood without needing insulin, and the body's response to insulin improves for 2 to 72 hours after any activity, the American College of Sports Medicine explains. Holding standing poses is muscle work, which is why the NHS counts yoga as strength activity when it's hard enough. Gentle yoga uses little energy, so it isn't a substitute for brisk walking.
Stress hormones raise blood sugar, and yoga's breathing and relaxation might help through that route, but the trials taught everything together, so they can't tell which part of yoga helped (our reading).
The NHS treats type 2 diabetes with healthy eating, at least 2.5 hours a week of activity that leaves you out of breath and, for most people, medicines. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) lists yoga among everyday ways to move more; the American College of Sports Medicine says yoga "may improve A1C, blood lipids, and body composition" in type 2 diabetes but that more studies are needed; and Diabetes UK suggests short yoga exercises "to build strength, flexibility, balance and coordination".
Several reviews agree that yoga lowers HbA1c, but not on how much. In the newest (28 trials, 2,241 adults, 22 trials measuring HbA1c), yoga lowered it by 0.64 percentage points against usual care or a waiting list. Earlier reviews found 0.47 points in 12 trials and a small to moderate effect in 23 studies.
No trial was at low risk of bias, 20 of the 28 were from India, and the reviewers rated the certainty low. A check for missing small studies shrank the effect to 0.32 points, with a range that included no effect, so the true benefit may be smaller than the headline figure.
Fasting blood sugar was 1.36 mmol/L lower with yoga in 24 trials, again at low certainty, with signs that small studies with positive results were more likely to be published.
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Across trials, the fall was bigger where HbA1c started higher: the predicted effect went from no benefit at an HbA1c of 7% to a fall of about half a point at 10%. This compares trials rather than people, so it's a pointer, not proof.
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In 22 Asian trials, programmes of 12 weeks or more lowered HbA1c and shorter ones didn't reach significance. In the newest review, how often people practised, for how long, and whether the classes were supervised made no clear difference, but there were too few trials to tell.
In a comparison of 85 trials (5,535 people), HbA1c fell by 0.78 points with interval training, 0.54 with aerobic plus strength training, 0.45 with yoga and 0.42 with steady aerobic exercise, with no significant difference between them, on low-quality evidence. Smaller reviews favoured yoga a little over other exercise (by 0.39 points in 8 trials) and over walking (by 0.20 points in 16 trials), and a small network found yoga and interval training alike.
Pooled trials found lower total and LDL ("bad") cholesterol, higher HDL ("good") cholesterol, and better blood pressure, BMI (body mass index) and waist-to-hip ratio with yoga, but the changes were small and the trials varied a lot. In Asian trials, weight change was inconsistent. Our yoga for weight loss and yoga for high blood pressure guides cover these.
In a small network of trials in type 2 diabetes, yoga improved muscle strength, at very low certainty. The ADA says activities including yoga, tai chi and resistance training can improve flexibility, muscle strength, balance and walking in older adults with diabetes.
In 7 small studies (227 people, 4 of them randomised trials), 8 to 12 weeks of yoga went with less pain and better balance, leg strength, walking speed and quality of life, with no serious side effects. The studies were at high risk of bias.
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Of 92 teenagers randomised, 46 finished; in them, 3 months of added yoga lowered HbA1c and fear of hypos. In 15 adults, a 50-minute yoga session and cycling both lowered blood sugar, with 1 hypo after yoga against 7 after cycling over the next 12 hours. In 62 teenage girls, 8 weekly online sessions eased depression scores.
A 2026 review called these approaches promising and asked for bigger trials. Breakthrough T1D says flexibility exercise such as yoga, tai chi and Pilates "will have a minimal effect on your blood glucose levels".
In 974 Indian adults with prediabetes, adding a structured 40-minute routine of poses and yoga breathing to standard lifestyle advice lowered the number who developed diabetes over 3 years: 11.5% in the yoga group against 18.9% with advice alone. Most kept it up (77% did the yoga more than three-quarters of the time).
It's one open-label trial (everyone knew which group they were in) in one country, and we read its abstract only, which doesn't say how many times a week the routine was meant to be done.
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A trial that randomised 80 groups of people in India reported far fewer new cases of diabetes at 3 months, but a quarter of the people weren't followed up. Smaller trials found lower blood sugar after meals, LDL cholesterol and waist size (184 people), or more weight loss than walking but no difference in blood sugar (41 people), and a feasibility trial (65 people) found yoga acceptable and safe. A 2019 review concluded that yoga helped, but most of its pooled results could have been chance.
Exercise in pregnancy roughly halved the odds of gestational diabetes in a 2025 analysis, and yoga was among the types that helped, though from very few trials. One small Thai trial combined mindful eating and yoga in women who already had gestational diabetes. Our exercise with gestational diabetes and yoga in pregnancy guides cover what to do.
Medicines, eating well and regular activity carry the strongest evidence. The NHS asks for at least 2.5 hours a week of activity that leaves you out of breath, the ADA recommends at least 150 minutes of aerobic activity a week plus strength training 2 to 3 times a week, and Diabetes UK says exercise alone can't lower blood sugar enough for remission. Yoga is one way to be active within that plan.
Yoga can cover your strength and balance work, and brisk walking, cycling or swimming the rest. Our exercise for type 2 diabetes guide has the full plan, and our 10-minute walk after meals follows its blood sugar trials.
Trials typically used about an hour of yoga, 3 times a week, for 12 weeks. In the exercise comparison, benefits appeared from about 840 MET-minutes a week, a measure of total activity (a MET is a multiple of the energy you use at rest). At 2.3 METs, that would take about 6 hours a week of gentle yoga on its own (our arithmetic), which is why yoga works best as part of a mix.
The NHS counts yoga as muscle strengthening when you work "to the point where you need a short rest before repeating the activity", on at least 2 days a week. In standing poses, that means holding until your legs need a short rest.
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Two or 3 yoga sessions a week of 30 to 60 minutes, with strong standing poses so they count as strength days; brisk walking towards 150 minutes a week; and a short walk after meals. These are starting points, not prescriptions, and your next HbA1c test shows how it's going.
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Hypos (blood sugar below 4 mmol/L) with exercise are mainly a risk if you take insulin, a sulfonylurea such as gliclazide, or a meglitinide. Without these medicines they're uncommon.
From Diabetes UK and the NHS:
If you've had a severe hypo in the last 24 hours, don't do any physical activity. After any hypo in the last 24 hours, take extra care and try not to exercise on your own, Diabetes UK advises.
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Being more active can mean your dose needs to change, but don't change a diabetes medicine yourself because you've started yoga. Diabetes UK says your healthcare team can look at your activity and help you make the right changes.
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Above 13 mmol/L, Diabetes UK says to speak to your healthcare team before getting active, as activity could push it higher. If you test for ketones, the NHS says a blood level of 1.6 to 3 mmol/L means you're at risk of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and should speak to your diabetes care team, and over 3 mmol/L means calling 999 or going to A&E (accident and emergency).
Plan insulin and food as you would for any exercise; Breakthrough T1D expects flexibility exercise such as yoga to have a minimal effect on blood glucose. Our exercise for type 1 diabetes guide has the routine.
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Yoga is usually done barefoot, and numb feet can't feel a blister or a scrape. The international foot guideline asks people at risk of foot ulcers not to walk barefoot, in socks without shoes, or in thin-soled slippers, indoors or outdoors, and Diabetes UK says to wear well-fitting shoes.
We found no study of yoga and foot ulcers, so our suggestion borrows that advice for walking: do standing poses in well-fitting shoes, or choose chair or seated yoga, and ask your foot team what suits you.
Diabetes UK says to check your feet every day, and to be especially careful if you've lost any feeling, because you won't know if you've hurt yourself. Look before and after each session, and stop if a pose rubs or presses on a sore spot.
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The ADA says anyone with a foot injury or open sore should keep to "non-weight-bearing activities", so do seated or lying poses only until your foot team says otherwise.
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Keep a hand on a wall or a sturdy chair in every one-leg pose. Small studies suggest yoga can improve balance in diabetic neuropathy, but they were at high risk of bias.
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With severe non-proliferative or proliferative retinopathy, the ADA says vigorous exercise "may be contraindicated because of the risk of triggering vitreous hemorrhage or retinal detachment". Our diabetic retinopathy guide, following expert advice, also leaves out head-down positions, breath holds and hard holds: downward dog, forward folds such as touching your toes, sun salutations, and inversions such as headstands and shoulder stands.
Choose slow, even breathing rather than box breathing or 4-7-8 breathing, which use holds. With no retinopathy or only mild changes, all activities are fine, our retinopathy guide says. Get eyesight that suddenly gets worse, or blurred vision, checked urgently, as the NHS advises.
We found no controlled trial of hot yoga in people with diabetes. In one small study with no comparison group, 8 weeks of Bikram yoga improved glucose tolerance in 15 older adults with obesity.
Type 2 diabetes appears to raise the risk of heat stress during activity, through less sweating and less blood flow to the skin, the American College of Sports Medicine notes. The UK medicines regulator warns that insulin and metformin can make dehydration more likely or its early signs harder to spot, that heat can damage insulin, and that glucose meters may give less reliable readings when used or stored in hot conditions.
Ask your diabetes team first, drink water, keep your insulin and meter out of the heat, and leave the room if you feel dizzy, sick or unwell (our suggestions). Our hot yoga guide has more.
Easy pose: 1 minute, on a blanket or a chair (our yoga for high blood pressure class). Slow breathing: 3 minutes, in for about 4 and out for about 6, with no holds (our restorative yoga sequence; the move's page gives at least 5 minutes a day as a practice of its own). Cat-cow: 8 waves, slower than feels natural; breath reach: 5 breaths, breathing out for longer than in (the moves' pages). Standing march: 60 seconds (our yoga for balance class), holding a chair if your feet are numb.
Mountain pose: 5 to 10 slow breaths, 2 or 3 times (the move's page). Chair pose: 3 holds of 5 breaths; warrior II and high lunge: 5 breaths each side; sit to stand: 8 to 10 slow stands (our yoga for balance class). Goddess pose: 3 holds of 3 breaths (our prenatal yoga workout). Wall push-up: 10 (our 10-minute walk after meals). Keep breathing and never hold your breath; a hand on a chair is fine.
3D demoMountain pose (Tadasana)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoChair pose (Utkatasana)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoWarrior II (Virabhadrasana II)Intermediate · No equipment
3D demoHigh lunge (crescent lunge, Ashta Chandrasana)Intermediate · No equipment
3D demoGoddess pose (Utkata Konasana)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoSit to stand from a chairBeginner · A bench or box
3D demoWall push-upBeginner · A wallTree pose: 3 to 5 breaths each side, twice, with your fingertips on a wall and your foot at your ankle or calf, never pressed into your knee (our yoga for balance class). With numb feet, keep a hand on the wall throughout.
Glute bridge: 2 sets of 8, with your head on the floor (our yoga for high blood pressure class); get up slowly afterwards. Reclining bound angle: 2 to 5 minutes with a support under each thigh; alternate nostril breathing: 3 to 5 minutes of slow rounds, with no holds; corpse pose: at least 5 minutes, up to 10 (the moves' pages). On insulin or a sulfonylurea, check for hypo signs as you come up.
Seated march: 1 to 2 minutes as a warm-up; seated upper-back lift: 3 to 5 repetitions, each held 3 to 5 seconds, at least twice a week (the moves' pages). Our chair yoga classes below put a whole session in a chair.
Start with our 35-minute routine 2 or 3 times a week: every pose keeps your head up and there are no breath holds, so it suits every stage of retinopathy at a steady effort. The yoga for high blood pressure class is head-up too. The balance class adds stepping and reaching, with the one-leg poses at a wall. The two chair classes suit numb feet or an open sore, and the seated one has no standing at all. The gentle class and the hatha class include head-down poses (child's pose and forward folds, and downward dog in the hatha class): with severe or proliferative retinopathy, swap them for a seated rest. Pair any of them with walking, such as our 10-minute walk after meals.
A 35-minute yoga practice for diabetes that keeps your head up: slow breathing, standing strength, balance at a wall and a calm finish, with no breath holds.
35 minBeginner17 movesA bench or box, A wallForty minutes of short-hold poses, slow breathing and a 10-minute relaxation, with no head-down poses or breath holds.
40 minBeginner14 movesA step, Firm cushionThirty minutes of standing yoga for balance: strong standing poses, one-leg poses at the wall, and side steps, backward steps, reaches and sit-to-stands.
30 minBeginner16 movesA wall, A bench or boxA free 20-minute chair yoga class for older adults: slow breathing, gentle seated stretches and twists, standing poses holding the chair, and a calm finish.
20 minBeginner18 movesA bench or box, Something with weightA 15-minute chair yoga routine done entirely sitting: slow breathing, neck, shoulder and wrist stretches, seated twists and side bends, and a calm finish.
15 minBeginner16 movesA bench or boxA 25-minute gentle yoga class for complete beginners and over-50s: slow breathing, a warm-up, supported standing poses, floor poses and a closing rest.
25 minBeginner14 movesNo equipmentA 45-minute beginners' hatha yoga class in the order trial teachers used: relaxation, breathing, floor and standing poses held for a few breaths, then rest.
45 minBeginner20 movesA step, Firm cushionA 10-minute routine for straight after a meal: an easy walk, a few simple standing moves from blood sugar trials, then a short walk to finish.
10 minBeginner6 movesCardio machine, A bench or boxCheck before and after, keep hypo treatment by your mat, and don't practise on your own after a hypo in the last 24 hours. After a severe hypo, no exercise for 24 hours.
Well-fitting shoes for standing poses, or chair yoga (our suggestion, borrowing the foot guideline's advice for walking), a hand on a wall in balance poses, and a foot check before and after.
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Seated or lying poses only, until your foot team says otherwise.
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Leave out head-down poses, breath holds and hard holds, and keep your effort steady. Legs up the wall keeps your head level with your heart, so our retinopathy guide doesn't list it.
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Skip headstands, shoulder stands and long head-down holds, as our glaucoma and high blood pressure guides advise, and keep downward dog to a few breaths.
No hot yoga, and from the end of the first trimester keep time on your back short. Our yoga in pregnancy guide has the swaps.
These follow the warning signs in our exercise for type 2 diabetes guide. A&E means accident and emergency. In the US, call 911 for 999, and contact your doctor or urgent care for NHS 111.
Stop and call 999 for:
Get help quickly for:
Make an appointment if:
Low blood sugar can make you feel hungry, dizzy, anxious or irritable, sweaty, shaky, tired or weak, or confused, with tingling lips, a pounding heart (palpitations) or blurred vision. Diabetes UK adds going pale, feeling tearful, headaches and poor concentration. A severe hypo can cause a seizure (fit) or unconsciousness.
Stop and check your blood sugar if you feel any of these signs. Shakiness, sweating and wobbly legs in a long hold, or drowsiness and confusion in the final relaxation, can be a hypo rather than the effort or the calm (our suggestion). Come up slowly from lying and seated poses.
We found no study showing it. The claim appears in a 2018 review that cites no study for it. The one study of poses and insulin was in 20 healthy young volunteers with no comparison group, and their insulin was lower, not higher, just after the poses. The benefit in the diabetes trials came from whole programmes, about as much as other exercise.
Diabetes UK says there's no evidence that exercise alone can lower blood sugar enough to put type 2 diabetes into remission, and we found no trial of yoga doing it. Remission comes mainly from substantial weight loss, usually led by diet, as our exercise for type 2 diabetes guide explains.
In the trials, yoga was added to usual treatment, not used instead of it, and lowered HbA1c by a fraction of a percentage point. If your readings fall as you get more active, your team may adjust your medicines; don't change them yourself.
In a comparison of 85 trials, yoga did about as well as steady aerobic exercise, combined training and interval training, on low-quality evidence. The best exercise is the one you'll keep doing, alongside walking and strength work.
Gentle hatha yoga is light activity, about 2.3 METs, so it doesn't count towards the 150 minutes of moderate activity a week. Strong standing poses can count as strength work; add walking or other activity.
We found no study testing fast, forceful breathing such as kapalbhati on its own for blood sugar; one small 2005 study with no comparison group included bhastrika among 13 practices. Fast breathing caused more side effects than slow breathing in trials of pranayama, and one case report links kapalabhati with a collapsed lung. Slow breathing is the safer choice.
We found no controlled trial of hot yoga in diabetes, only one small study with no comparison group. Heat and some diabetes medicines don't mix: insulin and metformin can make dehydration more likely or harder to spot.
With severe or proliferative retinopathy, the ADA warns that vigorous exercise may be unsafe, and our diabetic retinopathy guide, following expert advice, leaves out head-down poses, breath holds and hard holds too. Choose head-up poses at a steady effort, like our 35-minute routine.
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There's little research: one small trial in teenagers lost half its participants, and Breakthrough T1D expects a minimal effect on blood glucose. Yoga can still be part of your activity; plan insulin and food as for any exercise.
For type 2 diabetes, yes, as part of your activity: in 28 trials, yoga added to usual care lowered HbA1c by about 0.6 percentage points, though the evidence is weak and the true effect may be smaller. It lowered blood sugar about as much as other exercise. It doesn't replace your medicines or the rest of your care.
No pose has been shown to work better than others: the trials taught whole programmes of poses, breathing and relaxation. Choose strong standing poses for strength, balance poses at a wall, and slow breathing with a long rest, as in our 35-minute routine. Poses that massage the pancreas are a myth.
The trials typically used about an hour, 3 times a week, for 12 weeks or more. Two or 3 sessions a week, plus brisk walking towards 150 minutes a week and a short walk after meals, is a sensible start. Your next HbA1c test shows how it's going.
Not on its own. Remission comes mainly from substantial weight loss, usually led by diet, and Diabetes UK says there's no evidence that exercise alone can lower blood sugar enough for remission. Yoga can sit alongside a weight loss programme.
About the same: in a comparison of 85 trials, yoga, steady aerobic exercise, combined training and interval training all lowered HbA1c, with no clear winner. Doing both works well: walking counts towards your 150 minutes a week, and strong yoga towards your strength days.
If you take insulin or a sulfonylurea such as gliclazide, any exercise can, yoga included, sometimes hours later. Check before and after, don't start at 4 mmol/L or lower, and keep hypo treatment by your mat. Other diabetes medicines on their own rarely cause hypos.
Yes, with care: in small studies of people with neuropathy, yoga improved balance and pain without serious problems. Check your feet before and after, keep a hand on a wall in balance poses, and consider shoes for standing poses, as the international foot guideline advises against going barefoot. With an open sore, do seated poses only.
With no or mild retinopathy, yes. With severe or proliferative retinopathy, or after recent laser treatment or eye surgery, leave out head-down poses such as downward dog and forward folds, breath holds and hard holds; head-up poses at a steady effort are fine. Get any sudden change in your sight checked urgently.
There's little research: small trials suggest it's safe and may ease fear of hypos and low mood, but Breakthrough T1D expects a minimal effect on blood glucose. In one small study, a yoga session led to fewer lows than cycling. Plan insulin and food as for any exercise.
In one large Indian trial of 974 adults with prediabetes, adding a 40-minute yoga routine to lifestyle advice lowered new diabetes over 3 years from 18.9% to 11.5%. It was one open-label trial in one country, so it needs repeating. More activity with modest weight loss is the proven route, and yoga can be part of it.
There are no controlled trials of hot yoga in diabetes. Insulin and metformin can make dehydration more likely or harder to spot, and heat can damage insulin and make meters less reliable. Ask your diabetes team first, and leave the room if you feel unwell.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. If you are pregnant, have a health condition such as glaucoma, high blood pressure or osteoporosis, or have had recent surgery, check with a doctor, midwife or physiotherapist before starting, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
