Knee-Pain Relief Made Easier: Yoga Just As Effective As Strength Training For Arthritis

TASMANIA, Australia — If you’ve got creaky, painful knees from osteoarthritis, you’ve probably heard the standard advice: strengthen those leg muscles. But according to new research, downward dog might work just as well as leg lifts.

A clinical trial published in JAMA Network Open found that yoga was just as effective as traditional strengthening exercises for reducing knee pain from osteoarthritis over a 12-week period. Even more notably, by 24 weeks, participants in the yoga group reported greater improvements in pain, physical function, and mood.

Two Approaches, Similar Short-Term Results

Researchers in Tasmania randomly assigned 117 adults with moderate knee pain to two groups—one practicing yoga and the other doing strengthening exercises. Both groups followed the same schedule: two supervised group sessions and one home session per week for 12 weeks, followed by three home sessions per week for another 12 weeks.

“We hypothesized that yoga would demonstrate superior efficacy compared with strengthening exercise in alleviating joint pain and improving functional limitations and quality of life among patients with knee osteoarthritis,” the authors write.

Over the initial 12-week period, both approaches significantly reduced pain, with no statistically significant difference between them. This confirmed the researchers’ goal of showing that yoga was not inferior to strengthening exercise.

An interesting trend appeared during the home-practice phase. Participants in the yoga group stuck with their routine slightly more often—reporting 70.2% adherence compared to 60.0% in the strengthening group. This suggests yoga may be easier to sustain at home, a crucial factor for managing arthritis long-term.

Yoga Pulls Ahead in Long-Term Benefits

While short-term pain reduction was similar between groups, by week 24 the yoga group showed more substantial gains. They performed better on the WOMAC index—a standard tool for measuring arthritis symptoms—and also reported higher quality of life, fewer depression symptoms, and faster walking speeds.

The study participants reflected a typical osteoarthritis population: mostly women (72.6%) with an average age of 62.5 years. All had been diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis and reported moderate pain levels at the outset.

Adverse events were minimal across both groups. The yoga group did report a slightly higher rate of minor issues (15.5% versus 6.8%), but these were generally mild and included temporary knee pain flare-ups, which occurred in both groups.

While the study didn’t identify a single reason why yoga helped, the authors note that its effects may be due to a combination of physical movement, mindfulness, breathing techniques, and improved body awareness. These factors have been linked to stress reduction, which may influence how people experience pain.

Beyond Pills and Procedures for Knee Arthritis

As healthcare systems increasingly look for drug-free ways to manage chronic pain, these findings offer timely insights. With concerns about opioid use and the long-term risks of anti-inflammatory medications, low-risk, accessible therapies like yoga may play a growing role in arthritis care.

For people with knee osteoarthritis, the takeaway is clear: strengthening exercises aren’t the only path to relief. When designed with care, yoga can offer a comparable—and in some ways, more sustainable—alternative, with added benefits for mental wellbeing and day-to-day function.

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