7 Awesome Yoga Poses For Bloating Relief

This aim of this article is to introduce you to a number of poses that you are going to be able to use to counter against bloating. Whether it’s your classic food baby bloat, or the more severe nine month pregnant distension, bloating is uncomfortable and it can leave you feeling heavy, lethargic and self conscious.

If this is something you are dealing with on a regular occasion, it is a red flag indicating that there is something more serious going on inside the belly and I recommend taking a look at your overall diet and lifestyle. It is likely that your colon is in need of a deep cleansing, and yoga can help with this process by moving obstruction along. Become familiar with these poses, add them into your regular practice and this will also help to strengthen the abdomen and the digestive system which can help to prevent bloating in the long term. 

Walk your knees to the outside edges of the mat, bring the big toes to touch, and come down into a Wide Legged Child’s Pose. Walk your hands forward, continuing to lengthen the spine as you lower down towards the mat, melt the hips down towards your heels. You can connect your forehead to the ground and actively press into the palms, and this will help sink your hips closer towards your heels.

Having the knees wide here allows us to create space so the belly can breathe in and out with restriction. This can help with any uncomfortability caused by bloating by giving the belly some extra room.

Move into a table top position, stacking the shoulders over the wrists and hips over the knees. Starting in Cow Pose, drop the belly down and send the tailbone up towards the sky. Lift the chest forward, sending the heart out, allowing the gaze to go slightly up, but still lengthening the back of the neck. 

Inhale, and starting from the base of the spine, begin to tuck the tailbone under, rounding the spine vertebrae by vertebrae. Really push the spine up towards the sky and draw the chin down towards the chest, exhale out your air. Inhale for Cow Pose, heart goes up and out. And then exhale, rounding the spine for Cat Pose.

As you breathe through your Cat-Cow Postures, find expansion in the belly and visualise the bloating stretching its way out of the body. These alternating movements of lengthening and contracting the core is going to help pump the stomach and encourage movement and more space.

Start to lift the hips high to come into a Downward Facing Dog. Spread all ten fingers wide on the mat and press down into the heels of the palms and this will naturally send your tailbone up towards the sky. Drop the heels down towards the mat and find a nice inverted V shape with the body.

Make sure to take big breaths in and full exhalations out. Enjoy this unrestricted breath here as the belly expands and works to remove all that bloated discomfort.

Make sure the feet are about hip distance apart and place a soft bend in the knees. Place the hands down to the mat. Release your head and your neck and allow yourself to hang heavy. Send the weight into your toes but continue to root down through the heels. Start to straighten the legs and send your tailbone up towards the sky to lengthen the spine. Let each exhale bring you deeper. There is the option to grab opposite elbows and allow the natural weight of the body to carry you down.

This posture creates compression in the stomach which is going to help massage the organs and remove bloating. Send your awareness into the belly and visualise waking up the organs, by taking big breaths in and full exhales out. 

Come down into a crouching position and up onto the tips of the toes. Lift the heels up off the earth and the have the fingertips down for balance. This posture creates a nice compression inside the belly. There is the option to challenge the balance further, by wrapping one arm, maybe both, around your knees. Pick one point to focus on to help with balance and try to come up higher on the toes.

This posture is a great way to compress the stomach by curling up into the smallest ball that you can and dropping the head down towards the knees. Simultaneously you are stretching into the feet and challenging balance.

Take a seat and extend the legs straight along the mat. Bend your right knee and step your right foot over the left leg. Scoop the hands up towards the sky as you inhale and then drop the right hand down towards the back of your mat, and wrap the left arm around the right knee, exhaling as you twist. Press into your right palm to lengthen the spine and as you exhale finding a little bit more depth in the twist. Take this twist to the other side.

Another great posture for compressing and twisting the belly, by cutting off circulation so that when you release the pose there is a fresh rush of blood into the problem area, which can assist in pumping obstruction out. Twists are great because they help to move the organs which aids in removing indigestion and bloating.

Sit up tall with a straight spine and remove any extra flesh from underneath the sitting bones. Sweep the hands up towards the sky, inhale to lengthen the spine and then start to reach the hands towards the feet. Keep the head in line with the spine and then slowly exhale coming into a Seated Forward Fold.

With every breath there is the opportunity to continue to lengthen through the spine, and with every exhale try to fold a little bit deeper. As this posture compresses the belly and helps to remove boating, it also lengthens the entire back side of the body from the heels through to the crown of the head.

Bloating is not a normal part of eating, even though so many have chalked it up as being a standard consequence of enjoying food. Of course if we over eat or ignore some of the rules of proper food combining, we are going to suffer in this way, but regular bloating is a sign that the digestive system is in need of a clean and yoga will help to aid this process!

This article has set you up with the means to twist, compress and detoxify the belly which is going to help with any bloating issues you are working with! Use these poses daily to help keep the body in a state of fluidity and keep excess gas at bay. If you work with postures regularly that work into the core, you are going to build up strength and resilience in the digestive tract which can help with the severity of bloating, but it also recommended that you take other measures such as cleaning up your diet, your colon and reducing stress, as all of these factors play a role in digestive health and wellbeing.