BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1655405
Demographics, Facilitators, and Barriers Among Predominantly Heated Yoga Users: A Survey of the Largest U.S. Yoga Studio Brand
Provisionally accepted
Maren Nyer1,2*
Sofia Montinola3
Samantha Pegg2,3Yousif Alsaadi3Zainab O Soetan4Simmie Foster1,2Dustin J Rabideau4,5Juliana Peacock1Yian Wu1Anna Kinnas1
David Mischoulon1,2Louisa Sylvia2,3- 1Massachusetts General Hospital, Depression Clinical and Research Program, Boston, United States
- 2Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, Boston, United States
- 3Massachusetts General Hospital, Dauten Family Center for Bipolar Treatment Innovation, Boston, United States
- 4Massachusetts General Hospital, Biostatistics, Boston, United States
- 5Harvard Medical School Department of Medicine, Boston, United States
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The present study surveyed predominantly heated yoga users (N = 2,514) from CorePower Yoga, the largest U.S. yoga studio brand, to explore: 1) demographic characteristics and 2) facilitators and barriers to class participation. The sample was predominantly white (78%), at least 4-year college educated (90%), and female (87%). Twenty-three percent of participants (n = 587) self-reported being diagnosed with clinical depression. Most participants practiced yoga several days a week, and for at least two years, predominantly heated yoga classes. Out of a list of options, participants selected facilitators to heated yoga practice and barriers to yoga practice. Physical and mental health benefits of heated yoga facilitated their practice, whereas being around others, improved sleep, and reduction of physical pain were ranked as the lowest facilitators. Scheduling and expense related concerns were the highest ranked barriers to yoga classes, while not liking class participants, administrative issues, and discomfort with exercising around others were the lowest ranked barriers. Overall, these barriers and facilitators were generally consistent across subgroups (e.g., age, gender, race, ethnicity). Participants with self-reported diagnosed clinical depression reported improvement in mood as a more important facilitator than improvement in physical health, and barriers were consistent with the general survey population. Further research is needed to characterize facilitators and barriers to practice and strategies for improved usage. Keywords: yoga; heated yoga; survey; depression; facilitators, barriers; mental health
Keywords: Yoga, heated yoga, Survey, Depression, Facilitators, barriers, Mental Health
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nyer, Montinola, Pegg, Alsaadi, Soetan, Foster, Rabideau, Peacock, Wu, Kinnas, Mischoulon and Sylvia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Maren Nyer, mnyer@mgh.harvard.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.