A Typical Yoga Class Works Like a Slow Walk: Sun Salutations at Tempo Do Not

In 2007 three researchers measured the oxygen consumption and heart rates of twenty experienced yoga practitioners as they moved through fifty-six minutes of beginner-level hatha yoga. Averaged across the whole session, the group worked at 2.5 METs, held heart rates near 93 beats per minute and burned about 3.2 calories a minute. The authors compared that cost to walking on a treadmill at 3.2 kilometers per hour.

The study, by Marshall Hagins, Wendy Moore and Andrew Rundle and published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, concluded that the session "does not meet recommendations for levels of physical activity for improving or maintaining health or cardiovascular fitness." About 54 percent of the practice time had been spent in Sun Salutation postures, and those segments averaged 3.0 METs, right at the line that separates light activity from moderate.

Does yoga count as cardio? A typical class does not, but a session built around continuous Sun Salutations can, and moved quickly enough by an experienced practitioner, those same flows reach vigorous intensity.

What a MET Is, and Where the Guidelines Draw the Line

A MET, or metabolic equivalent, expresses energy use as a multiple of what the body burns at rest, so an activity rated 3 METs costs three times the resting rate. The U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans define moderate intensity as 3.0 to less than 6.0 METs and vigorous intensity as 6.0 METs or more. They recommend that adults get 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, along with muscle strengthening on two or more days.

Without a lab, the guidelines offer a simpler test. At moderate intensity a person "can talk, but not sing," and at vigorous intensity a person "can't say more than a few words without pausing for a breath," according to the federal guidance on intensity. The guidelines themselves never mention yoga, which leaves practitioners to match their practice against those thresholds.

What Two Decades of Measurement Found

The most complete answer comes from a 2016 systematic review by D. Enette Larson-Meyer in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, which pooled seventeen studies of the energy cost of yoga. Full yoga sessions averaged 3.3 METs across a range of 1.83 to 7.4, individual poses averaged 2.2 METs, and breathing practice averaged 1.3.

"This review suggests that yoga is typically classified as a light-intensity physical activity," Larson-Meyer wrote. "However, a few sequences/poses, including Surya Namaskar, meet the criteria for moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity."

The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, the reference researchers use to assign MET values, reflects the same spread in its conditioning exercise listings. General yoga and hatha yoga each carry 2.3 METs, vinyasa 2.7, hot yoga 3.0, Surya Namaskar 3.5 and power yoga 4.0, while high-intensity hatha is listed at 8.0 and alternate-nostril breathing, or Nadisodhana, at 2.0.

When Sun Salutations Speed Up

In a 2011 study in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Bhavesh Surendra Mody measured six young adults who had trained in Surya Namaskar for more than two years. Each round demanded about 26 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram per minute, "representing an 8 METs workload," and heart rates averaged 80 percent of predicted maximum, with an estimated 230 calories burned in thirty minutes by a 60-kilogram practitioner.

A 2021 study in Frontiers in Physiology pushed the pace further. Twenty female yoga instructors with at least five years of teaching performed ten minutes of Surya Namaskar B at 1.5 seconds per movement, averaging 8.67 METs and 88.7 percent of estimated maximum heart rate. Aerobic metabolism supplied about 82 percent of the energy.

The same research group then tested whether that pace builds fitness. In a 2023 randomized study in Frontiers in Physiology, twenty active adults practiced for four weeks and twelve sessions, half at the fast 1.5-second tempo and half at a traditional 3-second tempo. The authors reported that "VO₂max after HIICY was significantly higher than in pre-testing and following TIHY," referring to their fast interval protocol and the traditional one, while the slower group showed no comparable gain.

The Caveat for Beginners and Older Practitioners

The high numbers come from trained practitioners, and they do not transfer automatically. A 2025 study in Scientific Reports followed 26 adults with an average age of 70 through hatha classes and found heart rates averaging 60 percent of maximum during the main phase. Participants spent about sixteen minutes in the moderate zone, and only four sustained moderate intensity for thirty minutes or more, even though the sessions felt moderately hard to them.

That gap between perceived effort and measured intensity is the trap for many students, since a demanding balance sequence can feel strenuous while the heart rate stays low. It is also why our survey of ten yoga styles that deliver results reads differently once each style is matched to its measured MET value.

How to Build a Yoga Session That Counts as Cardio

A yoga cardio workout starts with continuity, because the studies that reached moderate or vigorous intensity kept students moving through linked postures rather than holding them. Begin with five minutes of easy movement, such as cat and cow, low lunges and a few slow half Sun Salutations, to raise the heart rate gradually and warm the wrists and hamstrings.

The main block is where the minutes accumulate. Move through Sun Salutation A continuously for eight to ten minutes at a pace that links one breath to each movement, then use the talk test. If you can still sing a line, shorten your holds or add the jump back to plank, which brings the sequence closer to the tempo used in the Frontiers studies.

Experienced practitioners can then add a second block of Sun Salutation B, whose chair pose and warrior lunge raise the demand on the legs. Intervals of three quick minutes and one easy minute, repeated three or four times, borrow the structure of the 2023 protocol without asking a newer student to hold a 1.5-second tempo for ten straight minutes.

Finish with five minutes of standing and seated postures that slow the breath, followed by a short rest. A session like this can deliver twenty to twenty-five minutes of moderate work, so three sessions a week would cover nearly half of the 150-minute guideline. Walking, cycling or the slower recovery days we describe in our guide to walking and yoga for recovery can fill the remainder.

Who Should Keep the Pace Gentle

Newer students should build tempo over several weeks, since fast flows load the wrists, shoulders and lower back with repeated weight bearing that slower classes spread out. Anyone with heart disease, uncontrolled blood pressure, a recent injury or pregnancy should talk with a clinician before adding high-tempo Sun Salutations. Older adults can meet the moderate threshold at lower speed by extending the continuous block rather than accelerating it.

Where Yoga Fits in a Weekly Plan

The research supports a division of labor. A slower hatha, yin or restorative class delivers the mobility, balance and nervous system benefits that draw most people to the mat. A flow-based session built on continuous Sun Salutations can double as cardio on the days it replaces a run or a ride.

Larson-Meyer's review measured full sessions as high as 7.4 METs, and the Compendium lists high-intensity hatha at 8.0. The 2007 hatha class that averaged 2.5 METs spent more than half its time in the same postures.