You’ve tried everything to alleviate the discomfort of poor digestion. Everything, that is, except for these ten yoga poses. Yoga is a wellness practice that helps you focus on breathing techniques, meditation, and bodily postures to support all aspects of your health. It’s a natural remedy used by millions of people and an ancient practice that can even help with digestion.
If you don’t feel like the yoga type, don’t worry. These gentle poses are designed for all levels of yogis, including newbies. So grab a mat, put on some gentle music, and get ready to practice these poses to promote better digestive health.
What Yoga Poses Are Best for Digestion?
Poor digestion is usually characterized by bloating, gas, indigestion, heartburn, and constipation. You may experience these feelings occasionally or frequently. As we age, digestive issues seem to multiply.
Yoga is thought to help alleviate digestive discomfort in one of two ways:
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It helps with bloating and gas. By moving and sitting in certain positions, your body is better able to alleviate trapped air and give you relief from cramping.
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It may help strengthen the vagus nerve, which is essential to keeping the communication between the brain and the digestive system functioning properly. This line of communication is often referred to as the gut-brain axis.
When you need fast relief and want a natural remedy, these poses can help move and stimulate your digestive organs and encourage better digestion.
1. Frog Pose
Frog pose may help you alleviate feelings of trapped gas by shifting your hips upward and allowing your body to rest in a position that is more conducive to releasing trapped air.
To get into frog pose, start on your hands and knees. Spread your knees about hip-width apart, and slowly walk your hands out in front of you, shifting your weight onto your hands and sliding your knees as far apart as possible. Next, slide your feet out to the side so they rest behind your knees.
Hold this pose for 30 seconds to a minute to get its wind-relieving effects.
2. Spinal Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)
If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, you’ve probably done a spinal twist. You’ve probably also heard the yoga instructor say that this pose “wrings out” your abdominal organs. This simply means the organs are stimulated, which can help awaken a slow digestive system.
To begin, lie on your back with your knees bent and feet on the floor. Gently twist your torso so that your knees are stacked one on top of the other toward your left side.
Next, turn your head to your right side and extend your right arm. Hold the position as long as is comfortable before switching sides.
3. Cat-Cow Pose
A popular position for practicing deep breaths and alleviating back pain, cat-cow pose combines two poses: cat pose and cow pose.
These two poses may offer relief for upper digestive problems like heartburn and stomach upset.
To perform, start on your hands and knees with a neutral spine. Inhale while you drop your stomach toward the ground and lift your head skyward. Exhale while you round or arch your back and drop your chin to your chest.
Cycle through these positions several times as you are able and comfortable.
4. Child’s Pose (Balasana)
Aside from savasana, it might just be the favorite pose you hear your yoga teacher call during class.
Child’s pose is a gentle posture that helps relax the body and the digestive tract. This pose is generally easy for everyone to hold for minutes at a time. If you feel like your stomach is particularly rumbly, this could help relax it and alleviate cramping.
Start by sitting on your knees. Gently lower your forehead to the ground while pushing your hips back into a relaxed position. You can extend your arms over your head on the ground or place them alongside your thighs with your palms facing skyward.
5. Apanasana (Knees to Chest)
This pose has frequently been used specifically to target irregularity, gas, cramping, and even upset stomach. Begin by lying on your back. Slowly raise your knees to your chest and hold them in place by hugging your arms around your shins. If it is comfortable, you can even rock back and forth or side to side to help stimulate your internal organs.
6. Triangle Pose
Triangle pose is another position that causes stimulation to internal organs and helps engage the organs involved with digestion. The easiest way to get into triangle pose is to start in Warrior II pose.
To get in position, start by standing with your feet about three to four feet apart. Your right foot will be pointed forward, while your left foot is pointed outward at a 90-degree angle. Your right leg should bend into a gentle lunge while the left leg remains extended. Extend your right arm forward, pointing in the same direction as your right foot. Your left arm will extend back behind your body.
Next, you’ll move into triangle pose. To do this, straighten your right leg and kick your left hip backward while strengthening your torso over your straight right leg. When you can stretch no further, your right hand will rest either on the inside of your right foot, outside of your right foot, or your ankle. Your left arm will extend skyward.
Look upward toward your extended hand.
7. Corpse Pose (Savasana)
Your favorite part of your yoga practice is good for more than just helping you rest after a class. The benefits of yoga and corpse pose extend to your digestive system. Corpse pose is a relaxing pose that helps relax your body and your digestive system.
If you’re feeling particularly stressed, lying in corpse pose can help ease your feelings of stress, which can relax your entire body and help you experience more regulation with digestion.
8. Goddess Pose
Goddess pose is great for helping increase blood flow and warm the body. Increased blood flow can help support better digestion, especially if digestion seems slow.
To get into this posture, start with feet about three to four feet apart in a wide stance. Bend your left knee and right knee at a 90-degree angle while pointing your feet outward to each side. Next, bring your arms to shoulder level and bend them at the elbows so your palms are facing upward.
Hold the pose as long as you feel comfortable.
9. Bridge Pose
Bridge pose is a gentle backbend that can help stimulate digestive organs, specifically the intestines, and help increase digestive flow.
To enter this pose, start on your back with your feet on the floor, as close to your sit bones as possible. Keep your arms by your sides. As you exhale, lift your hips off the ground while pressing your weight into your arms and feet.
10. Happy Baby Pose
This pose is a favorite for people who want low back pain relief and need immediate relief from gas and bloating. To start, begin on your back. Slowly draw your legs up with your knees bent so that you can hold your feet in your hands.
Your legs should be spread to either side of your torso. While in this pose, rock gently from side to side to massage your spine, stimulate your organs, and help release trapped wind.
How Can Yoga Help With Digestion?
If you’re a skeptic, that’s okay. Once you try it, you’ll understand that practicing yoga has numerous benefits, including supporting digestion.
Supports Blood Flow
Your digestive tract needs adequate oxygen and blood flow to function properly. Practicing yoga increases blood flow to your entire body while helping you focus on breathing, which can help increase oxygen to your cells.
Relaxes the Body
When your body is strained, or if you have a knot or sore spot, it can interfere with digestion. Simple yoga poses can help gently relax the muscles and help reduce these areas of tightness, helping relax muscles inside the digestive tract, too.
Eases Stress
Many yoga poses are made to challenge your body with healthy stress, but the poses mentioned above are relaxation poses designed to help alleviate stress and soothe the body. When you are stressed, it can become harder for digestion to run properly.
In fact, when your stress response is activated, digestion is automatically suppressed.
Creates Space in the Body
When you practice yoga poses, also known as asanas, lengthen muscles and strengthen bones while plying apart connective tissue and fascia, making space in the body to allow room for more function, like digestion.
How Else Can You Support a Healthy Gut?
You can support digestive health in other ways, too. By taking care of your gut health, you can take steps to encourage more regular digestion with less uncomfortable side effects.
Get Your Greens
Green vegetables are nutrient-dense and full of fiber, which is essential for our digestive systems and bodies as a whole. It can be hard to get your greens on the go, but with L’Evate You Vitality Daily Greens, anyone can do it.
One scoop of L’Evate You greens powder gives you access to nine greens and 30 superfoods and doesn’t require washing, prepping, chopping, or cooking.
In addition, L’Evate You Vitality Daily Greens come with other health-supporting ingredients like:
- Antioxidants. Antioxidants help support your cell health during exposure to free radicals. Free radicals can damage your cells and age them faster than they would normally age.
- M-Charge Complex. Our proprietary blend of ingredients is designed to help support your energy where it is created: in the mitochondria of your cells.
- Mushroom blend. We add a blend of organic mushrooms to support healthy cholesterol and sodium levels and support brain function and healthy cognition.
That’s a lot of power from a little scoop of greens powder, and it’s an easy way to take care of your digestion and health.
Incorporate Pre and Probiotics
Your gut flora refers to the healthy microorganisms in your digestive tract. These organisms help balance and regulate your digestion and even play a role in skin health and immunity.
Probiotics help replenish the healthy bacteria in your gut, keeping the levels balanced. Prebiotics help feed the bacteria to ensure they can thrive. In every scoop of L’Evate You Vitality Daily Greens, you’ll get over 1,000 milligrams of probiotics and prebiotics to help optimize your gut health and regulate your digestion.
Limit Processed Foods
The standard American diet is filled with processed convenience foods. These foods are usually filled with trans fats, added sugars, and zero health benefits. When a whole food is processed, the usable parts like vitamins, nutrients, and fibers are often filtered out, leaving behind a shell of what the food originally was.
Not only are these foods not healthful, they’re also hard for the body to digest. Instead, make sure your diet is filled with whole, nourishing foods.
The Bottom Line
When you feel like your digestive system is in a bind, try some simple yoga poses to help alleviate the discomfort. Holding these poses can help stimulate your digestive organs and help you get relief when naturally.
You can also make some lifestyle and dietary changes that will support digestion. Get plenty of rest, exercise, and eat a healthy diet. And add L’Evate You Vitality Daily Greens to your health stack. Your body (and your bowels) will thank you.
Sources:
The Vagus Nerve at the Interface of the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis | PMC
Stress and the Digestive System | Brigham Young University.edu
If you want to boost immunity, look to the gut | UCLA Health