Today’s blog post is a guest post by Ben and Rupali Brown, owners of Pali Yoga in Eureka, CA. I reached out to them to help you learn about the most useful and valuable yoga poses to support your digestive health, particularly symptoms of bloating and IBS. Ben and Rupali are a husband and wife yoga team, and offer a wide range of Vinyasa flow classes, restorative classes, barre yoga, and more. If you happen to live on the NorthCoast, check out their studio.

Whatever the cause of belly bloating, simple yoga poses can go along way towards helping to relieve the symptoms of belly bloating.

By practicing a range of asanas, we get our bodies moving, which increases blood flow and aids in the expulsion of gas and excessive fluid retention.

There are both physical and mental results of these poses that will positively effect belly bloating. Simple inversions calm the nervous system and give gas an easy pathway out of the body. Twisting stimulates your internal organs and helps you move internal stagnation, while forward folds can also put direct pressure on the abdomen to squeeze gas out.

Additionally, breathing in a way that encourages abdominal contraction on the exhales and dilation on the inhales will increase peristaltic (digestive) motion.

Lastly the benefits of calming the nervous system and reducing anxiety will have perhaps the greatest impact on the healthy functioning of our digestive system, discouraging the over-production of gases in the first place.

While practicing these poses for bloating, focus on contracting the abdominal muscles during exhales, and relaxing and dilating the belly during inhales. We recommend a range of asanas, or poses, from twists to inversions, that will help increase blood flow and stimulate the digestive tract to remove gases and fluids that have become trapped.

We recommend a sequence that begins reclining on the back, to allow the nervous system time to relax, which will create the correct conditions for the physical poses to help. Here are the poses we feel are most likely to reduce bloating and improve digestion.

Apanasana (knees to chest pose)

 

Draw knees tightly into chest, without creating tension in the shoulders and neck. If range of motion allows, interlace hands to elbows around the shins and hold for approximately thirty seconds. A simple modification is to practice holding only one knee at a time.

Supta Matsyendrasana (reclined twist)

 

Twisting sometimes offers nearly immediate relief for significant bouts of abdominal distress, and also offers the benefits of stretching tight spinal muscles and stimulating the internal organs.

Lying on your back, bend both knees and place your feet firmly on the ground. Move your hips a few inches to one side and drop your knees towards the other. Make micro-adjustments to your upper body so that both shoulders can rest easily and evenly on the ground.

If needed place a blanket under the raised shoulder to allow it to rest. Make sure to switch sides, and hold for 30 seconds at least.

Setubandhasna (Bridge Pose)

 

Inversions like Bridge Pose help calm the nervous system, stimulate the circulatory system, and encourage the expulsion of gas from the abdomen. Of course this can reduce bloating!

Lying on your back, bring your feet to the floor and knees to the sky, taking a moment to bring your heels in fairly close to your pelvis. Engage your thighs towards each other, press evenly through the feet and lift your hips off the floor.

Pause for a moment and bring your hands, elbows and shoulder blades closer towards each other, and then press your hips and abdomen up as high as you can while maintaining even, easy breathing.

Marjariasana Pose (Cat Pose)

 

Toning the front compartment of your abdomen will stimulate peristaltic motion, allowing your body to bring itself back to equilibrium, and relieve bloating.

Coming to your hands and knees, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips, press the ground away actively with your hands, broaden your shoulder blades, “tuck your tailbone”, and arch your back strongly to the sky. Focus on contracting our abdominal muscles especially with exhales and softly releasing them on the inhales.

This pose can be held, or it can be practiced in conjunction with “Cow” pose. Alternatively you can come back to neutral spine with the inhales and repeated 10-15 times with each exhale.

Malasana: (Yogic Squat)

 

This asana simulates the correct body position for elimination, and massages the end of the digestive tract including the colon. This can help eliminate gas and move the bowels, relieving bloating.

In a standing position, turn your toes out slightly, with heels approximately the width of your hips. Squat down between your heels. Lift the crown of your head upwards as you drop your pelvis downwards, using these two opposite forces to lengthen your spine. Use your elbows to press the thighs apart and make Anjali Mudra (prayer hands). Squeeze the thighs in against the elbows.

If it is uncomfortable or impossible to keep the heels down, prop them up. If there is too much strain in the knees place a block or a bolster under the sit bones.

Uttanasana (standing forward fold) with a pillow

 

Uttanasana offers the benefits of inversion, and is also a great tonic for an over-stressed nervous system. If your bloating is made worse by stress, this may help. The pressure from the pillow may also help expel gas.

Standing with your feet hip-width apart, place a firm pillow at the top of your thighs. Hinge forward from the hips and let your hands fall towards the ground. Bend your knees slightly especially if you tend towards discomfort in your lower back.

Find the ground, or yoga blocks, or your ankles, with your hands, and fold deeply, relaxing your head to gravity. Allow the pillow to exert light extra pressure to your abdomen.

Balasana (Childs Pose)

 

Begin on your hands and knees with toes stretched out. Shift your hips back to sit on the heels and rest your abdomen onto your thighs and your forehead onto the floor. Either extend your arms out ahead or behind you. If there is discomfort in knees place a folded blanket in between the feet and hips and/or place a bolster under the forehead. Hold for a minunte or longer.

We encourage practicing these poses and holding each for approximately thirty seconds, and repeating as needed.

 

Need help integrating relaxation practices AND nutrition and digestive support? Please grab your Free copy of Roadmap to Gut Recovery to learn more. You can also schedule a free 30-minute Assessment Session with me. Together, we’ll identify where your best, most efficient action towards healing can be directed. I look forward to meeting you!