Are you suffering a lot because of constipation? Many things can lead to constipation, such as poor diet, travelling and stress. Some medications and certain digestive conditions prohibit the absorption of the required amount of water from your food in the colon. Drinking enough water and eating food rich in fibre can help ease constipation. Physical activity also stimulates your intestine muscles to move all waste easily.
One more thing can greatly help in getting relief from constipation, and that is Yoga. Some Yoga poses, especially those twists and poses that put pressure on your abdomen, slowly massage the digestive tract, thereby supporting it to move the stool. Yoga poses that help relieves constipation are taught in all the best yoga schools in Rishikesh.
How do Yoga poses help in relieving constipation?
Yoga can be one of the best alternatives to medications for treating constipation. Various twisting poses and forward bend poses help massage your digestive organs and enhance blood flow and oxygen circulation, thereby stimulating the stool to pass through the whole system. If an individual practices yoga regularly, they can surely experience healthy bowel movements.
Yoga also helps in handling stress which is related to your digestive system. Individuals suffering from stress might put pressure on their muscles, making constipation worse. As your brain becomes very alert when you are stressed, it upsets your belly. Thus practicing Yoga can help you in managing stress and, thus, constipation.
In addition, Yoga can help to handle stress which is highly related to one’s digestive system. Individuals suffering from stress may tense their muscles, ultimately worsening constipation. Since the brain becomes highly alert during stress, it can upset the belly even more. Here, practicing Yoga can relieve stress thus, constipation. This is why a 500 hour yoga teacher training in Rishikesh includes most of these poses.
Here are a few yoga poses that can help you in getting relief from constipation:
- Mayurasana or Peacock pose: This yoga pose helps resolve your digestive problems, constipation and other intestinal blockages. It enhances not only digestion but also intra-abdominal pressure, reduces enlargements of the liver and spleen and cuts down the impacts of harmful foods. But this pose is best for trained practitioners and not beginners.
- Paschimottasana or Forward bending pose: One of the basic Yoga poses that help relieves constipation. The pressure created inside the abdominal cavity will rub the abdominal viscera when you practice this pose. Then it eases all symptoms that are associated with constipation and poor digestion. This pose also strengthens your back muscles and your abdominal regions and does detoxification.
- Vajrasana or Adamant pose: It is one of the easy poses that help relieve constipation and treat indigestion. This pose helps in enhancing blood circulation in your abdominal area. Moreover, it also treats several conditions, such as digestive problems, stomach disorders and chronic constipation. It also increases flexibility in your lower limbs and toughens your digestive organs and tracts.
- Halasana or plough pose: It is a classic yoga pose that cures constipation and helps strengthen your back muscles, stimulates the abdominal viscera, and enhances digestion. In addition, it also helps prohibit and alleviate back tightness and enhances flexibility and joint mobility.
- Pavanamuktasana or Wind relieving pose: This yoga pose helps in easing your gas discomfort as it helps in relieving your gas from your digestive system. It relieves those suffering from bad liver health and chronic constipation.
- Bhujangasana, or cobra pose, is the seventh number pose of Surya Namaskar, where the practitioners lay down in their stomachs. It is one of the best yoga poses that helps with constipation, treating digestive problems, toughening abdominal muscles, and cleaning your digestive tract.
- Shalabhasana or Locust pose: This pose adopts the pose of a locust or a grasshopper and helps build a body with the strong moving quality of a locust. This pose helps in the treatment of constipation. Practicing this pose slowly massages your abdominal organs and increases the digestive system, thus helping treat constipation efficiently.
- Balasana or child pose: This is considered one of the best poses effective in treating constipation. It has a contracting effect on your organs, enhances blood flow and assists in bowel movement.
Other than these eight important poses, other yoga poses, like Dhanurasana, and Baddha Konasana, also helps in treating constipation. Even if everybody can do yoga, some medical conditions prevent individuals from practicing Yoga.
Individuals who should not practice yoga poses for constipation are
- Pregnant women
- People suffering from ulcers
- Someone with heart problems and abdominal problems should not practice Bhujangasana.
- Women at the time of menstruation
- Anyone suffering from spinal disease
- A person suffering from asthma or slipped disc must not do some poses like Paschimottasana.
It is often recommended to perform the above Yoga poses under the guidance of some trained yoga practitioner.
So, these are some of the best Yoga poses you can practice to relieve constipation. Individuals can either pick up any of these poses or do a combination of those poses to get relief from constipation.
