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5 yoga postures to help relieve bloating – whether it’s digestive or menstrual
Youre gonna need a bigger bloat. Fortunately, yoga instructor Emily Mouu has a video guide for people who regularly suffer from bloating.
We at The Focus dont find ourselves writing about yoga very often, but I can tell you the routine I did this morning made me feel right as rain. Im not the only one here to benefit from it. For people working desk jobs, whether at home or in an office, yoga can provide some much-needed relief to muscles and do wonders for overall physical and mental health.
Yogi offers 5-step yoga routine to help with abdominal bloating
Emily Mouu is a yoga instructor content creator from London, England.
The 5 yoga positions she recommends for relieving the effects of abdominal bloating emphasize slow twists and gentle poses that usually bring the knees into the chest. �
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Theyre slow, simple, and low-impact, making them accessible to most people and appropriate for those experiencing some discomfort.
1-2. Twists, Emily says, help release blocked energies, keep your spine and digestive system healthy, and improve organ functions. She likens a good twist to wringing out the organs, which sounds OK as long as I bear in mind that shes using figurative language.
Examples include 1) Seated Twist and 2) Supine Belly Twist.�
3. Postures that bring the knees to the chest include Garland Pose, or malasana, which also helps with constipation, Emily says. You might know Garland Pose by the more colloquial name “yogi squat.”�
4. Happy Baby is in everyones top five. Right? Also called ananda balasana, Happy Baby helps reduce digestive distress, according to Emily, and is awesome for releasing gas and relieving a bloated belly.
Just make sure to aim away from anyone else in the room, please.
5. Childs Pose, or balasana, is a grounding pose that can help relieve discomfort from bloating by applying pressure to the lower abdomen.
Watch Emilys video below.�
Why women tend to experience bloating more than men
Between 10% and 25% of healthy people complain of�occasional abdominal bloating, according to Cleveland Clinic. Many of those call their symptoms moderate or severe.�
Causes include carbohydrate malabsorption, IBS, constipation, motility disorders, and weight gain. Meanwhile, 3 out of 4 women experience bloating before and/or during their period, and the hormone fluctuations of perimenopause are often associated with bloating. Why?
Estrogen causes water retention. This means that when estrogen spikes and progesterone drops, youll likely experience bloating from fluids.�
But estrogen and progesterone can also cause intestinal gas, while estrogen receptors in your gastrointestinal tract make you more sensitive to bloating, making you feel even more bloated.
In other words, womens hormones make them especially susceptible to abdominal bloating, and to being sensitive to bloating.
