Although yoga is prominently known as a physical discipline, there is lot more to yoga than its physical benefits. It helps you experience a sense of ease and well-being and thereby helps you create a life that is filled with harmony and vitality. While yoga has many benefits, here are the top three health benefits it has to offer in reference to your digestive system.
Digestion is a complex process in which our food is broken down into nutrients that our body uses for various functions. The main job of a digestive system is to break down this food, turn it into nutrients, and eliminate waste that is not needed by your body.
Our digestive system is supported by parasympathetic nervous system. Yoga poses aid help in effective functioning of parasympathetic nervous system and thereby helping our body with efficient food digestion and assimilation.
Posterior Stretch Pose, a pose in which internal organs are compressed and massaged, results in enhanced functioning of our digestive system because of increased blood circulation within and through these organs. This particular pose results in contraction of pelvic cavity muscles. Although the body does not move at all in this pose, the internal contraction of pelvic floor muscles impacts the organs located in that region and thereby results in effective functioning of digestive system.
Here’s how posterior stretch pose is performed:
- Stretch out your legs so that your knees are straight
- Position the palms of your hands on the respective knees and start bending forward with your head and trunk while you move your waist downwards. Continue with this movement until you reach your big toes without bending your knees
- Rest your forehead on your knees while keeping your knees straight, breathe deep and continue with slow exhalation. Stay in this position as long as you are comfortable. Return back to normal position and breathe normal.
Amy enjoys helping people improve their life quality by offering them valuable information on health and spirituality. In her spare time, Amy enjoys designing artistic tabletop fountains. Amy invites you to browse through her aesthetic tabletop fountain collection.
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Great article. Yoga is really superb for the digestive system. I used both yoga and vegetable juice recipes to get rid of IBS. Juicing can be extremely soothing for the digestion. But we do need some kind of exercise as well, and nothing beats yoga in this respect.
In addition to circulation and digestive benefits, yoga is great for overall mental health.
I never tried Yoga but I’m curious about it. It seems to be a very calm exercise practice. Do you know if people with back problems (one Discal herni, a not a straight column) can practice Yoga?
Yoga is fantastic. If you have digestive problems colloidal silver is a wonderful aid to get rid of candida and parasites, with zero side effects and contra indications from other medicines. It’s cheap too. To your great health.
I recently got into yoga and some of the poses can be quite challenging, although it is a great way to loosen up and relax. Never knew yoga was good for your digestion though. Reminds me about something i read about massaging the liver to detox it.
Thats great to know. I use relaxation in general, but yoga might well be very specific in helping digestion this way. People with anxiety and panic, my interest, are helped by this too. Often, nervous or anxiety affect digestion too…thanks.
There are many natural remedies for stomach ailments and digestive system problems. But, Yoga is considered the BEST. I started taking Yoga lessons last month and i am amazed how it can take away the stress of my mind and body.
This is a great post. I recently got into yoga, and I knew it benefiting my health just because it was exercising but thats great to hear it helps my digestive system. Thanks also for showing a certain pose!
Nice post. I am planning to take up a yoga class. I have heard so much about its health benefits.
I tried Yoga but found it didn’t agree with me. I found Tai Chi to be a more relaxing benefical hobby.
I started a somewhat unstructured yoga routine (I kind make it up as I go) and the cramps I’ve been plagues with fro years have finally relaxed, as long as I’m sure to do my stretched I know the next few days will be pain and bloat free! Yay yoga!
Thanks for posting this! Yoga is great for improving digestion, but I’ve had even better results with the Maple Syrup Detox. It’s important to remove stored toxins and undigested food from the body, and this is a great way to do it. Keep up the good work!