Changes in body awareness in yoga interventions: A systematic review

Research increasingly highlights associations between body awareness and health. Yoga has been described as enhancing body awareness. The goal of this systematic review is to examine changes in body awareness subsequent to yoga interventions.

A systematic search of PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and CINAHL was conducted from database inception to September 2024. English language intervention studies evaluating the effect of yoga interventions on body awareness were included.

Thirty-three studies met inclusion criteria. Eighteen (72 %) of the 25 studies that reported the results of within-group tests found significant increases in body awareness at some point following the yoga intervention. Three-quarters (76 %) of the 21 studies that examined differences in body awareness between a yoga group and a control group reported significant differences in favor of yoga. Studies that reported changes in body awareness did not systematically differ from those that did not in terms of the sample size or population , the type of control or comparison group used, or the duration and design of the yoga intervention. Studies that assessed body awareness as a multi-dimensional construct more consistently reported changes in body awareness.

Results from this review are mixed, but there is evidence trending towards suggesting that yoga improves body awareness. Recommendations for future research include developing greater consensus on the conceptualization/measurement of body awareness in yoga interventions and conducting more rigorous trials with larger sample sizes and active comparison groups.