GUT FRIENDLY YOGA GUIDE
This step-by-step guide is beginner friendly and designed to help you understand how each movement beneficially impacts gut health. Try these poses in a sequence or on their own to target specific gut health concerns. Always consult with your health care practitioner before trying a new type of exercise.Â
Happy Baby Pose
(Ananda Balasana)
How to: Start lying on your back. Bring both knees into your chest and then take one knee into each hand, pulling your knees apart and opening the hips. This is called Lazy Baby, and if you would like to increase the hip stretch further, come into Happy Baby by extending your feet upwards, holding on to either your big toes or the outsides of your feet. Pull your bent knees in towards your armpits.
Benefits: Lazy and Happy Baby are wonderful hip openers that can help to release the stored emotion that lives in the hips. This pose is also known to encourage gas release and feels great when you may have eaten a little too much.
Helpful hints: Try rocking side to side, or extending one leg and then the other to make this pose more dynamic.
Bridge Pose
(Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
How to: Start lying on your back, arms by your sides, palms facing down. Engage your core and bend your knees to plant the feet hip width apart, about a hand-length from the glutes. Press into your feet to raise your hips off the ground. Squeeze the glutes and engage your core muscles to press the hips as high as is challenging but still comfortable. Hold for 5-20 breaths, then gently lower your back to the mat, one vertebrae at a time, finishing with the hips. Repeat 3-5 times.
Benefits: The gentle backbend helps to deliver fresh blood to the heart that can help relieve fatigue caused by digestion issues. It also compresses the digestive organs which can stimulate digestion.
Helpful hints: To incorporate core strengthening, try lifting one knee at a time, hovering the leg in either a bent or straightened position for a few seconds before repeating on the other side.
Cat-Cow
(Marjaryasana-Bitilasana)
How to: Start on your hands and knees, hands under shoulders and knees under hips. Lengthen your spine by gazing between your hands and melting your shoulder blades away from your ears. Inhale deeply and relax your belly, letting your stomach drop towards the floor while turning your gaze and sit bones upwards. At the top of your inhale, begin to exhale while reversing the motion: engage your abdomen, press into your hands to round your spine upwards, squeeze your glutes, and gaze at your belly button. Inhale to repeat the first movement. Repeat for 10-20 breaths.
Benefits:Â This movement will massage your organs, stimulating digestion while also compressing and lengthening the intestines. The compression and decompression pushes stagnant blood out of the intestines and then delivers fresh blood to the epithelial cells which are responsible for healthy gut function.
Helpful hints:Â Imagine your spine moving like a wave, vertebrae by vertebrae, focusing on each tiny aspect of the movements.
Downward-Facing Dog
(Adho Mukha Svanasana)
How to: Start on your hands and knees, then inhale to tuck your toes before exhaling and extending your hips up behind you, making an “A” shape with your upper body being one side, legs being the other, and sit bones (under the glutes) being the apex. Bend your knees and work on pressing your chest towards your thighs. Spread your fingers wide to grip the mat, placing hands slightly wider than shoulder width. Heels can stay raised, and over time you can work on getting them to the ground without compromising your spine (want the spine to be long from the crown of your head up through the tailbone). Hold for 5-10 breaths before returning to hands and knees, or incorporate into a flow.
Benefits: This pose helps to relieve gas using gravity; by reversing the normal position of the abdomen, you can stimulate gas release.
Helpful hints: Try bending your knees deeply one at a time, rocking your hips back and forth to get the ultimate hip release and even more gut stimulation.
Extended Puppy Pose
(Uttana Shishosana)
How to:Â Start on your hands and knees, then drop to your forearms (palms facing down) and slowly slide your arms forward until your chest meets the mat. If this is already enough of a stretch, stay here and breathe while relaxing the shoulders and letting the belly expand on your inhales. For a deeper stretch, tuck your toes and extend your hips up and back like in downward dog.
Benefits: This pose stretches the belly and is helpful for relieving stomach cramps.
Helpful hints: Your shoulders will most likely want to creep towards your ears; try to avoid this by relaxing your shoulders and melting them down your back.
Child's Pose
(Balasana)
How to: Start on your hands and knees, hands placed under shoulders and knees placed mat width. Inhale, then exhale to lower your hips towards your heels (toes can be tucked or untucked, your choice!). With hands reaching in front of you, palms down on the mat, take some deep breaths to melt your hips down towards the mat. Adjust the width of your knees to modify this stretch. Stay here for 10-20 breaths, or as long as feels comfortable.
Benefits: Child’s pose is phenomenal for releasing built up tension in the hips. It also creates space for the belly to drop between the thighs and let gravity help your abdomen to relax. Traditionally a “resting asana”, this pose is generally performed at the beginning and/or end of yoga practices as it is an opportunity to relax and focus on breathing steadily. In addition to calming the nervous system, this asana can also stimulate gas release by opening up the hips.
Helpful hints: Try placing your arms alongside your body, palms facing up and resting on your thighs or the mat to take the strain off of your shoulders. Turn your head to the side to rest the side of your face on the mat, or rest facedown on your forehead.
Half Wind Release Pose
(Ardha Pawanmuktasana)
How to: Start lying on your back, taking a few deep breaths to become present and comfortable. Bend one knee and pull it into your chest, holding the leg either on the back of the thigh or over the shin. Gently pull it towards you, taking 5-10 breaths before releasing and repeating on the other side.
Benefits: The name of this pose literally means gas release: Pawan = air/gas, Mukta = release. By compressing the ascending colon with the right leg and the descending colon with the left leg, we are able to stimulate the nerves that aid in elimination. This position also opens the colon to allow for gas release.
Helpful hints: Try gently moving the bent leg side to side across your belly to increase the area of compression.
Supine Spinal Twist
(Supta Matsyendrasana)
How to: Start lying on your back with your arms out like a “T”, palms facing up. Take a few deep breaths to relax the body and calm the mind. Inhale to bring the right knee to hover at 90 degrees above the hip, then exhale and drop the right knee over to the left side, resting it on the mat/ground. Option to place a block or bolster under the right knee for added support. Stay in this position for 10-20 breaths, focusing on relaxing the belly with each exhale. Inhale to untwist, bringing the right knee back to the center and then extend the right leg to rest on the mat. Repeat on the left side.
Benefits: Spinal twists are great for detoxification as they compress the abdominal area, forcing stagnant blood out of the organs, and then allowing fresh blood to enter once the twist is undone. Any toxins that have accumulated in the organs are then flushed out through the circulatory and lymphatic systems. The abdominal compression in this pose also helps to stimulate digestion and elimination.
Helpful hints: Make sure to drink plenty of water after doing any type of spinal twists to help flush out toxins that have been released.
Final Resting Pose
(Savasana)
How to: Start lying flat on your back, feet flopped out to the side, arms alongside you with palms facing up. Tuck your shoulder blades down and towards the spine to open your heart. Rock your head side to side to relax the neck. Take three deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth, letting your body melt into the mat with each exhalation. Rest here for as long as feels comfortable, trying to relax for at least 5 minutes.
Benefits: Savasana is performed at the end of every yoga class, and for good reason. This pose relaxes your nervous system and allows your body to integrate the benefits of the previously performed postures. From a digestive standpoint, relaxing your nervous system is helpful in reducing inflammation and allowing your body to digest food fully.
Helpful hints: Try placing a cool cloth scented with essential oils over your eyes for the duration of this pose to integrate the benefits of aromatherapy into this relaxation-focused asana.
