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What Digestion Exercises Improve Digestive Health?

Digestion is an area of concern for many. If this is also the case for you, performing certain exercises may help you to digest food better and alleviate symptoms that occur due to poor digestion. Here are some simple digestion exercises that will help you digest your food faster and better to improve your overall health.

digestive exercises

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Poor digestion can seriously upset your everyday living. Many health problems interfere with or cause digestive issues. It is becoming increasingly common.

My whole family has dealt with this in some way. We do all we can to create optimal digestion. However, keep in mind that creating healthy digestion is a process and usually will not be instantaneous. 

However, once you feel the progress, you most likely will be motivated to do even more. Regular exercise is great for overall health including digestion.

However, there are certain exercises and physical techniques that specifically increase blood flow and alert the gut to perform better digestion and can even speed up the digestion process. These are some of the best exercises to improve digestion.

What to Keep In Mind

  • It is important to keep hydrated, and maintain electrolytes and other nutrients. This is the electrolyte brand and flavor that I use and love. I love the ingredient list, the purity of the ingredients, and the flavor is not too sweet!
  • The body can become depleted of electrolytes, nutrients, and glycogen. You do not want this to happen because the body pulls glucose from glycogen and uses it as energy during a workout.
  • Exercising increases good bacteria in the gut improving digestive functioning. 
  • According to this science journal among others, Exercising increases good bacteria in the gut improving digestive functioning. Balancing and creating the microflora in the gut results in the prevention of sicknesses, and diseases, and improves overall immunity.
    • When you exercise and improve gut health, the gut-brain axis works better creating better brain function and improved mood.
  • Exercises For Better Digestion

    #1  Low, Moderate, or High-Intensity Aerobic Exercise

    The type of exercise that contributed to gut health varied among scientific journals, but low to moderate exercise had consistent positive findings.

    Many journal articles and studies that I have come across, such as this one, show moderate exercise having a positive effect on digestive functioning. 

    You should build up an exercise routine in accordance with what your body can handle. Your body should be pushed, however, pushing it too hard can be strenuous and cause inflammation.

    You want to avoid this. It may be the reason why low and moderate aerobic exercise was more often recommended than that of a higher intensity aerobic workout.

    Articles such as this show the makeup of top athlete's gut microbiota as being well-diversified. Athletes are used to a high-intesity workout in comparison to many average citizens.

    Therefore, take this into consideration since studies have shown that high-intensity workouts can cause inflammation and cause issues for the digestive tract of a person's body who may need a lighter workout.

    Conclusions that may be drawn from this:

    The conclusion to draw from these consistent findings is that high-intensity workouts cause problems when a person's body is not used to a high-intensity workout. Although exercise is good, it is a positive type of stress response. 

    Therefore, a body will produce inflammation when it experiences too much stress. But when a body is conditioned for exercise, it can have a positive impact on digestive problems.

    Additionally, there are increased chances of injuries or mishaps with longer workout sessions. Injury to the body will also increase a cytokine cascade (inflammatory contributors). 

    In conclusion, begin with low-intensity workouts and gradually work up to the point where your body experiences positive and healthy results.

    Several Aerobic Workouts that can easily modified to be low, moderate, or High Intensity
    • Swimming
    • Cycling
    • Running or Treadmill
    • Pilates
    • Rowing
    • Elliptical

    Another exercise that shows great potential for aiding digestion is rebounding. Your stomach muscles are engaged in rebounding. Therefore, food is pushed through the digestive system.

    Food is moved more easily through the digestive tract with the contracting of the abdominal muscles.

    Also, vitamins and minerals are better absorbed with the elimination of toxins while performing this activity.

    Additionally, the cross-lateral motions actions performed while rebounding allow the organs to be squeezed pushing food and materials better through the stomach. 

    Lastly, rebounding increases blood flow. This makes food move nicely throughout the gastrointestinal tract.

    Therefore, the simple act of bouncing up and down on your rebounder can have profound positive effects on your digestive organs.

    #3  Diaphragmatic Breathing

    Diaphragmatic breathing is another activity that can provide relief to people with digestive disorders. This breathing technique calms the body by lowering cortisol levels and decreasing heart rate.

    diaphragmatic breathing for digestion

    This breathing exercise consists of using deep breaths to push the stomach outward on the inhale and bring the stomach inward on the exhale. See the diagram above for reference.

    Performing this exercise for 10-30 minutes is recommended for it to have an optimal effect on physical health.

    However, being able to calm the body down with this breathing method before eating will still positively benefit the digestive system.

    #4  Yoga

    The practice of Yoga offers many health benefits. If you want to create a healthy digestive system, yoga is a gentle exercise approach to do just that. 

    Yoga promotes healthy circulation, destresses the body, and aids food movement throughout the body, all of which help with digestion.

    A couple of yoga poses that are known to help are child's pose and downward dog. Refer to the post below to see specific yoga poses to perform for digestion.

    #5  Stretching

    Another great way to get food moving smoothly is by actively stretching. Certain stretching poses stimulate digestion and can help with irritable bowel syndrome and constipation.

    Some of these twisting poses include a seated twist, a forward bend (where you hinge forward from the hips), a forward fold (where you fold forward with a slight rounding of the back), the side stretch, and the cat-cow pose.

    #6  Walking

    Lastly, you can simply try walking after a meal. Walking strengthens muscle contractions in the stomach making food move effectively through the digestive process. It also speeds up the movement of food and helps the stomach and intestines.

    In Conclusion:

    Including a variety of best practices for digestion will allow you to best benefit from improved digestion. Using these exercises is one facet to improve your digestive health. Another positive aspect is it is an easy and inexpensive one to implement.


    This post Gave you the best digestion exercises that improve digestion and circulation of food for overall better health.


    References

    1. https://www.cghjournal.org/article/S1542-3565(03)00178-2/fulltext
    2. Monda, V., Villano, I., Messina, A., Valenzano, A., Esposito, T., Moscatelli, F., Viggiano, A., Cibelli, G., Chieffi, S., Monda, M., & Messina, G. (2017). Exercise Modifies the Gut Microbiota with Positive Health Effects. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity2017, 3831972. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3831972
     

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