A systematic literature review on yoga and asanas

Yoga has gathered widespread attention globally for its potential health and wellness benefits. Central to yoga philosophy is the concept of union, emphasizing the integration of body, mind, and spirit to achieve balance and inner peace. A systematic literature review was conducted on publications for yoga and asana research. For this research, major electronic databases were searched for articles in the English language published between 2000 and March 2024. The researcher searched keywords that included yoga and asana. All styles of yoga and asana were included. The authors extracted the data from the Web of Science. 101 articles met the inclusion criteria and were published in 66 peer-reviewed journals from different countries. The primary result observed is the three-fold increase in some publications in the last 12 years, including all study designs. Most publications were originated from India (n = 40), followed by the United States (n = 29) and Canada (n = 06). By synthesizing the literature review findings, existing research reported the highest number of publications in 2015, 2021, and 2023 years. Also, it concluded that the highest number of studies was observed in India, USA, and Canada.