Exercise helps us feel good and healthy inside and out.
Our digestive system works with great effort to keep our whole body nourished. And for it to perform its function well, we must learn to take care of our gut, and one important thing we can do for our digestive tract is to exercise regularly.
Exercise Heals Holistically
Exercise helps in digestion a great deal as it activates the digestive enzymes and the bowel movement. The digestive enzymes play a significant role in digestion and nutrient absorption. Regular exercising improves your circulatory system and keeps the nervous, endocrine, and muscular systems going. It makes your body healthy holistically. “Physical wellness is affected by physical activity, healthy nutrition, and adequate sleep.” Marjie L. Roddick, MA, NCC, LMHC eplains.
Workouts That Can Benefit A Healthy Digestive System
Yoga poses and deep breathing calm down the gut. It’s like massaging your abdominal tract. Stretches and contractions through yoga improve gut function and digestion flow. “Many practitioners and teachers of yoga claim it offers benefits for one’s mental health. It seems like an obvious conclusion, given that most yoga focuses on exploring one’s inner world of consciousness.” John M. Grohol, Psy.D. said.
Most of the belly dance moves involve the torso and the stomach which feels like massaging your internal organs. Belly dancing movements, like the swaying of hips in a circle, helps in the digestion process.
“Exercise, even if all you do is to take a walk.” Yocheved Golani, a life coach suggests. A study done in 2008 revealed that after a meal walking increases the rate at which food moves through the stomach.
Brisk walking helps promote and raise metabolism and is a good kick start for our digestive system, thus, regulating our bowel movement.
No matter what style you do – breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke, or even freestyle – swimming is proven effective in calming down irritable bowel syndrome. It reduces cramping and bloating.
Doing aerobics accelerates breathing and heart rate, stimulating the natural contraction of the intestinal muscles. Comfortable abdominal muscle contraction helps in the passage of the stool to move out swiftly.
Exercise Is Not Just For Losing Weight
Many are encouraged to exercise because of the promise of weight loss. What they are not aware of is that there is more to just merely losing weight when you work out. It keeps you healthy and stress-free.
Always remind yourself that inactivity causes you to feel constipated, bloated, and gassy. This feeling can make you feel stressed and depressed. Exercise helps prevent this from happening and even helps prevent diseases of the digestive system like colon cancer.
Many exercises target the abdominal muscles, boosting digestion efficiency, helping toxin removal, nourishing the intestines, and promoting balance and quintessential metabolic state.
Never Start Abruptly After Your Meal
When it says after-meal exercise, it does not mean that you should start your activity immediately right after eating. Wait at least an hour after your big meal before starting your regimen. Exercising all of a sudden after eating may lead to the weakening of intestinal muscle contraction and inadequate production of the digestive enzyme, which causes the intestines to move sluggishly, making you feel bloated and gassy. It can cause you to become constipated. So it’s important to give your body the time to digest what you’ve taken in before doing the exercise regimen you prefer.
Tips For Starters
For inactive individuals who want to start exercising, walking is the best way to start it. You can do a 5 to 10-minute walk first, and gradually increasing it as the day goes by until you feel you’re ready to do low impact exercise. Make it your goal to do it daily, rather than aiming to increase your activity abruptly.
If you want to do a brisker type of exercise, consult your doctor first, especially if you have some health issues and if you’re taking some kind of medication.
Stay healthy and keep that gut moving!