Swami Kuvalayananda was a yoga guru, researcher, and educator primarily known for his pioneering research into the scientific foundations of yoga. He started research on yoga in 1920, and published the first journal specifically devoted to studying yoga, Yoga Mimamsa, in 1924. Most of his research took place at the Kaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center at Lonavla which he founded in 1924. He has had a profound influence on the development of yoga as exercise.

The Kaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center, founded by Swami Kuvalayananda in 1924, is a spiritual, therapeutic, and research center with a specific aim to coordinate ancient yogic arts and tradition with modern science; he founded the journal Yoga Mimamsa at the same time. Kaivalyadhama is located in Lonavla, Maharashtra, India, with smaller branches elsewhere in India, France, and the United States.