When an activity is more than just exercise: a scoping review of facilitators and barriers for yoga participation

ABSTRACT

Barriers and facilitators for participating in sports and exercise may vary across different types of activities. Yoga, a comprehensive discipline originating in India, has increasingly gained a place among the physical activities on offer in modern-day society, where it is usually practiced in the form of physical postures, breath regulation and relaxation. Despite its increasing popularity and many potential health benefits, the uptake of yoga is quite low and appears mostly restricted to certain population subgroups. To elucidate factors affecting uptake, this scoping review aims to identify the range of facilitators and barriers for yoga participation in the general adult population. Eighty-eight studies mentioning factors facilitating or hindering yoga participation were identified from 10 electronic databases. Findings corresponding to study and participant characteristics were summarised quantitatively, while findings referring to facilitators and barriers were organised qualitatively using thematic analysis. Results identified facilitators and barriers in addition to those reported for conventional forms of physical activity (e.g. perceived mind–body-spiritual benefits, negative impressions of yoga). These may reflect additional features of yoga beyond exercise and will need further exploration. Understanding the different facilitators and barriers for yoga participation may be useful to enhance the promotion of yoga and consequently increase its uptake.

KEYWORDS:

• Yoga
• barriers
• facilitators
• motives
• perceived benefits

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Tricia Kelly, USQ research librarian, for her guidance in creating the search strategy used in this review. We also thank Oscar Castro and Hanna-Leena Ylönen for their help with translations.

Disclosure statement

The lead author declares that he is a yoga practitioner and teacher, affiliated with some yoga studios in the Philippines and Australia. The other authors declare no potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of the lead author’s PhD research project supported primarily by the University of Southern Queensland’s Physical Activity and Health PhD Scholarship, and partially by the University of the Philippines PhD Fellowship Grant for Faculty, REPS and Staff. The other authors are the lead author’s PhD supervisors.