Yoga For Digestion | Bloating, IBS, Gas

Join me in this 20-minute gentle yoga flow full of breathwork, twists, and stretches to get your digestive system moving! I've personally experienced issues with trapped gas, constipation, and indigestion, and this flow is full of my top go-to postures for relief. If you suffer from bloating, IBS, IBD, gas, indigestion, or any other digestive issues, this class is full of yoga postures to give you relief.

Remember to focus on the breath throughout the class—pulling your belly in on the exhale will contract your abdominal muscles and help get things moving. The more you do this, the closer you feel relief. Stay calm, be present, and allow the energy to move and release.

For any practicing yogis.

Transcript

Hey everyone, It's Nina. Today's class is all about digestion. So, If you're experiencing any type of bloating or issues with your digestion, This class is going to be perfect for you. So, We're going to go through a series of movements and stretches and twists to help bring fresh oxygenated blood to different organs in the body and just be able to contract the muscles so that we can start to open up the body and then at the end we'll do some gentle stretches in order to just relax and allow things to kind of really start to flow and move that energy. So, To get started, We're just going to come into a seated position. You can grab a block if you need a little bit more height here, If it's a little bit difficult to sit here with your hips. And just bring your hands to your knees. The first thing that we're going to focus on today is our breath. So, This is the number one thing that you want to think about throughout class today because we're really going to work on expanding the belly and then contracting and really bringing that belly button as close to the spine as we can. So, We're really focusing on bringing a lot more space into the lower region in order to contract and then create more space in order to start to move some of that energy. So, We're going to go through a couple rounds of breathing just to get yourself familiar with this and then I'll remind you as we go through class today. So, Place one of your hands on your lower belly. So, On an inhale, You want to think about pushing the belly out and expanding it out as far as you can. And then on an exhale, Pull that belly button close into the spine. Inhale, Push the belly out. And exhale, Pull it in. Really contract those abdominal muscles. Just two more times. Inhale in. Exhale. Inhale. And exhale. Bring your hands back to your knees. So, Just go through a couple more rounds of that by yourself. Just to get more comfortable with that breath. We'll start to warm up the body. And start to bring more energy throughout the entire body. Now, Drop your left hand down by your left side. Lift your right arm up and over. Begin to stretch up and over to your left. Turning your gaze up towards the sky. Just working on opening up the side body here. Sometimes we can get really tight in the entire area between our ribs and our pelvis. We really want to start to open it up in class today. Drop the right hand down, Switch sides. Lift the left arm up and over. Turning the gaze up towards the sky. And back to center. Next, We're going to go into some gentle twists. So, No need to force anything here. Very gentle. So, Really think about lengthening through the spine. So, Sit up as straight as you can. Take your right hand to your left knee. Left arm behind you. And just gently twist to your left. Coming back to that breath. Pushing your belly out. And on an exhale, When you pull that belly in, Think about twisting just a little bit deeper. And come back to center. Switch sides. Right hand comes behind you. Left hand comes to the right knee. Lift in length of the spine up. On an exhale, Really pull that belly button into the spine. Twist a little deeper. And come back to center. Bring your hands to your knees. We're going to do some Cat-Cow in this position. So, On an inhale, Push the belly out. Start to bring the chest forward. Slightly arch that lower back and the upper back. On an exhale, Pull the belly to the spine. Round through the upper and the lower back. And we'll just do a couple rounds of this. And come back to a neutral spine. You can take that block if you had one. Set it off to the side. And we're just going to come into just a few Sun Salutations just to warm up the entire body and just really get the blood flowing through the entire body. So, Come into Downward Facing Dog. Take two deep breaths here. Start to walk your feet all the way up to the top of the mat. And inhale, Halfway lift. And exhale, Fold. Inhale, Lift the arms all the way up towards the sky. And exhale, Hands to heart center. Inhale, Lift your arms up to the sky. Take a little back bend here. And exhale, Fold forward. Inhale, Halfway lift. And exhale, Hands down. Step back into a Plank. You can always bring your knees down for a modification. And lower down Chaturanga halfway. Or if you want to go all the way, You can go down to the ground. And inhale, Up Low Cobra or Upward Facing Dog. And exhale, Downward Facing Dog. Coming back to your breath here. Just take a slight bend in your knees. Push your hips up and back. Try to bring your belly as close to the tops of your thighs as you can. Find that big inhale in. Pushing the belly out. And exhale, Sucking that belly button to your spine. One more time. Inhale. And exhale. Walk your feet all the way up to the top of your mat. This time take your feet about the width of your mat with your toes slightly turned out. And just start to bring the hips down, Coming into Malasana Squat. If this is too intense, You can always grab a block or two and sit on the block. We're just going to start to open up the area surrounding our hips and our hip joints. So bring your hands to your heart center. Bring your elbows to the insides of your knees. You can hang out here. If you have a little bit more mobility and flexibility, Feel free to push the knees out a little bit more. Maybe you kind of rock from side to side. Wherever you are at is fine as long as you are feeling that nice, Deep stretch and opening of the hips. If you have a block, Set it to the side. Fold forward into a forward fold. And inhale, Lift the arms all the way up towards the sky. And exhale, Hands to heart center. Bring your feet about hip distance apart. We're just going to kind of stir the pot a little bit here, Open up the spine, Open up the lower belly. So you're going to lift the arms up to the sky and start to bring the hands over to the left and then just kind of take really big circles here. So drop the left hands down. Swing them up and over to the right. We'll do that one more time. You can move your hips here. And then once you get back up to the top, We're going to switch directions. So coming over to the left one more time. Lower down and back up to center. And then exhale, Release your hands, Fold forward. And inhale, Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down, Step back into your plank or your modified plank. Exhale, Lower down, Chaturanga. Inhale to low cobra or upward facing dog. And exhale, Downward facing dog. Coming back to your breath here. There's no rush in this class, So if this is a little too fast for you, Just go at your own pace, Go with your own breath. Pushing the belly out on an inhale and sucking in on an exhale. Walk your feet all the way up to the top of your mat, Coming into a forward fold. Step your right foot back and drop your right knee down to the ground. Untuck your toes. Inhale, Lift your arms up to the sky. Squeeze your right glute and really reach the arms up and back. Just getting to the front of that right psoas. Really opening up the front of the body a little bit more here. And then tuck your toes under. Lift your right knee off of the mat. So we're coming into this low lunge. Bring your hands to your heart center. You're gonna inhale and reach the chest forward, Really lengthening through the spine. On an exhale, Take the outside of your right arm, Bring to the outside of your left knee and come into your revolved low lunge. Keeping those thumbs close to your chest. Remember to breathe here. This is where we're really twisting out all of that old stagnation, All that old blood, All that old energy in our body, In our organs. And when we untwist, We're gonna bring a lot of fresh oxygenated blood to those organs, Bringing new life and new energy. And next thing that we're gonna do is drop the right hand to the inside of that left foot and extend the left arm up to the sky. So still hanging out in this twist. We're almost there. And release the left hand down. Step the right foot up to meet the left foot and come into your forward fold. Relax your head and your neck here. And take two deep breaths. This time, Step your left foot back. Drop your left knee down. Untuck your toes. Inhale, Lift your arms up to the sky. Squeeze your left glute and feel that nice, Deep stretch in that left psoas. Reach your arms up and back. Remembering to come back to your breath. Push that belly out and pull in on the exhale. Bring your hands to your heart center. Tuck your toes under and bring that left knee up off the ground into your low lunge. We're gonna come into that twist, So really lengthen the spine forward. Bring that chest forward and then twist to your right, Bringing the outside of your left arm to the outside of your right leg. Bringing your thumbs to your chest. Continuing to lengthen through the crown of the head towards the wall in front of you and push that left heel back. So finding length in your entire body. Coming back to your breath. Every inhale, Just lengthen through the spine and exhale, Twist a little bit deeper. Release the left hand to the inside of the right foot. Extend your right arm up to the sky and release your right hand down. You're gonna step your right foot back into plank and then we're just gonna lower all the way down to the ground. Take your forearms onto the ground and come into sphinx pose. So if you have a very overgrown plant in front of you like me, Maybe scooch back a little bit more to give yourself some space. This is Galactica. She has grown quite a bit since I started filming all of these YouTube videos so you can see her progression in all my videos. Alright, So coming into sphinx pose. Your elbows are in line with each other. Shoulders are in line with your elbows and you wanna think about pulling the chest forward and finding space and length in the entire front of the chest and just gently pull forward. So you should feel a gentle stretch in the front of the belly. And lower the belly down. Extend your hands forward. So we're gonna come into a little bit more of a cat stretch. This is a bit too intense. You can hang out in sphinx pose but you're just gonna walk the hands back. Really think about pulling the ribs up and away from the ground and feel that stretch in the front of your stomach. And lower it back down to the ground and just roll all the way onto your back. And coming in, Starting with your right leg, You're gonna bring your right knee into your chest and as you bring it into your chest, Start to roll it out to the side a little bit closer to your armpit. So just hang out here for a couple of deep breaths. And we're just creating this compression in the lower body so that when we release, We'll really start to get things moving. We'll start to release some of that stagnant old energy within that area and start to get things moving to the other side. So this is called wind-releasing pose. So maybe you're experiencing some of that right now. It's completely normal. This is a really, Really amazing yoga posture for digestion. Slowly release the right leg and bring the left leg into the chest and then slowly bring it out to the left. Finding your breath here. This is the part of practice where we really start to slow down to really start to move some energy and it's in the stillness where things have the space to begin to move and to begin to process. So it's always important to find that stillness and that slowness at the end of your practice. And then from here, Bring your right knee back into your chest and just hug both of your knees into your chest and start to drop your arms out to the sides. Drop your knees over to your right, Coming into a twist. Finding your breath again if you lost or forgot. Maybe a little bit more softer. Come back to center and drop your knees over to the left. Bring your knees back to center. Hug them really tightly into your chest and then release your legs down. We're going to come into a mini shavasana. This is really, Really important. I highly, Highly recommend hanging out here for the next 30 to 60 seconds. Like I said, The stillness is where the magic happens. So we moved all this energy and so if we give it a little bit of space and a little bit of time, That energy will continue to move and begin to process. And this is where we can really experience a reduction in that bloating and just feel all of that magical movement that we did begin to integrate within our bodies. So stay as still as you can. Maybe if you imagine a swirling light in the lower area of your body, Maybe that will be helpful for you. Just bring your hands to your lower belly. We're going to end here on the floor together. We'll take a big inhale in, Push the belly out. And exhale. Bring that belly button to the spine. Two more times. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Thank you guys so much for joining me in this Yoga for Digestion class. I hope that this was helpful to move some energy, To get things moving for you, To reduce some of that bloating or indigestion that you might be experiencing. So come back to this class whenever you need a little bit of a reset, Maybe you overate or your stomach's just feeling a little bit off. This is the perfect class that you can come back to time and time again. So thank you guys so much for watching this class and flowing with me. I hope to see you on the mat in the next video. Bye everyone.