Breathing and exercise: a five-week comparison
A small trial found changes in both groups, without a clear overall winner across its physiological measures.
A 2026 randomised trial compared five weeks of supervised yogic breathing with structured physical activity in 170 healthy young adults at NIMS University in Jaipur. Both groups showed lower resting heart rates after the programme. The size of that reduction did not differ meaningfully between groups.
Several measures, a limited conclusion
Other tests of autonomic responses favoured different groups: breathing on some measures, physical activity on others. The researchers made several statistical comparisons without adjusting for multiple testing. There was also no non-intervention group. This short, single-centre study measured physiological responses, not long-term disease or recovery. It offers a reason to examine the details of a comparison, rather than declaring breathing or exercise universally superior.
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