Yoga, Walking, Tai Chi, & More

There are many benefits to regular exercise: Improved mood, lower risk of heart disease, and better management of chronic conditions are all scientifically proven perks of staying physically active. But does exercise help with digestion? The short answer is yes, it can. But some key factors are in play, including exercise type and intensity, as well as whether you currently have any gastrointestinal (GI) distress or an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that can cause digestive enzyme deficiency. Let’s take a closer look at the types of workouts that help digestion most — plus, how physical movement can play a large role in maintaining healthy digestion.

Wondering how to exercise for digestion? One thing that’s key is intensity; specifically, you’ll want to stick to moderate-intensity workouts to support a healthy gut microbiome and reduce inflammation, says microbiome scientist Mahmoud Ghannoum, Ph.D., the director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western University in Cleveland, OH, and co-founder of BIOHM Health, a microbiome research company. High-intensity exercise, on the other hand, poses a challenge for digestion since research shows it sends blood away from your core and toward your extremities in order to power your muscles through the workout.

A few moderate-intensity exercises to try for better digestion include:

Yoga

Yoga is a great stress reduction tool, helping to curb inflammation that can lead to a host of gut issues including constipation and stomach pain. Left untreated, chronic inflammation can cause symptoms of IBD to flare. Plus, “yoga puts mild pressure on your digestive organs in certain positions such as twists, which may also help move [digestion] along a bit better,” says Kristin McGee, a New York City-based fitness instructor with decades of yoga training and teaching experience. “Yoga also helps you to be more mindful, and when you slow down to eat you may digest your food better.”

Walking

You don’t need a fully-stocked home gym to get your digestion moving with exercise. Something as simple as walking 30 to 40 minutes three to four times a week can make a difference, says Ghannoum.

Walking stimulates blood flow to your intestinal muscles which may help kickstart the gut’s lymphatic system, says Inna Melamed, Pharm.D., a functional medicine practitioner with a focus on gut health in Marlboro, NJ. Your gut’s lymphatic system has many functions, including helping to absorb and transport lipids and other nutrients throughout the body as part of the digestion process, according to a review in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Activating the lymphatic system, whether through walking or a specific activity like manual lymphatic massage, has been shown to improve constipation.

Tai Chi

This low-impact type of martial art is a form of moderate intensity exercise, but Tai chi is also known as a meditative practice. Its emphasis on slow and controlled movements and deep breathing makes it a good choice for those looking to improve digestion, as well as anyone who may have a gastrointestinal condition such as inflammatory bowel disease, says Melamed. In fact, Tai chi has been shown to improve immune function and inflammation of the gut, reports a meta-analysis of 14 studies on the martial art and gut microbiota published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine. The researchers conclude that Tai chi is a helpful tool for maintaining homeostasis, or balance, in the gut.

Pilates

Anecdotally, says McGee, who also teaches Pilates, people who perform this type of exercise say they experience relief from bloating and gas. “Specific exercises like ‘rolling like a ball’ or ‘swan dive’ are great for ‘massaging’ the digestive organs,” she says. (There is no scientific research that confirms Pilates aids in digestion.)

If you’re new to Pilates classes, here’s what you need to know: The practice targets abdominal muscles and utilizes diaphragmatic breathing to help exercisers perform a series of movements aimed at strengthening and elongating the body’s muscles. The combination of this form of breathing and an emphasis on activating deep abdominal muscles may encourage gut motility, adds McGee.

Breathwork

Much like yoga, “breathwork may help gut health by reducing stress, increasing blood circulation, and promoting gut motility,” says Ghannoum. One of the most common deep breathing techniques, diaphragmatic breathing, aims to help those using it to better manage stress both in the moment and over time.

To try diaphragmatic breathing, you’ll breathe in slowly from your nose allowing your stomach to rise as it fills with air, and then breathe out deeply from the mouth, being mindful to release the air fully. Both yoga and Pilates utilize diaphragmatic breathing in addition to deep core engagement, says McGee. “Deep breathing directly affects your parasympathetic nervous system which is known as your ‘rest and digest’ system,” she says.

Core Exercises for Digestion

Stronger core muscles help you to take deeper, fuller breaths; in turn, this allows you to take in more oxygen when you breathe, says McGee. Oxygen is essential to healthy digestion function, helping to maintain intestinal homeostasis or balance; a disruption of that balance can contribute to intestinal diseases including inflammatory bowel disease or colorectal cancer.

Still, core exercises themselves may not be the key to gut motility. One small study in the Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness did not find that consistent core workouts improved constipation in young adult women. But twisting abdominal movements, such as a bicycle crunch, may do more than just strengthen your core muscles. These kinds of rotational movements could help to manually “massage the gut,” says Melamed, which in turn may improve motility and release gas.

Biking

Whether taking to the open road or clipping into a stationary bike, cycling workouts can aid digestion because they help to get your blood pumping. As mentioned, increased blood flow to your intestinal muscles trigger your lymphatic system. This system plays a vital role in the digestive process by acting as conduit for nutrients and as a drain for waste products.

When it comes to biking workouts for digestion, sticking to moderate-intensity exercise is the way to go. As workout intensity builds, more blood flow is moved away from the gut and to the working muscles — in this case, largely in the legs — which could slow gut motility.

Pelvic Floor Exercises for Digestion

Your pelvic floor (a group of muscles and connective tissue within the pelvis) help to support internal organs including parts of your reproductive system and your bowels. When these muscles are weak or tight, you can experience GI issues like fecal incontinence and constipation. This may be a sign of pelvic floor dysfunction, but these digestion concerns can exist on their own.

Pelvic floor exercises, typically prescribed by a pelvic floor therapist, are meant to stretch, strengthen, or relax your pelvic floor to ease constipation, make for easier bowel movements, and offer better pelvic floor control overall. This may include biofeedback therapy, which uses mind-body techniques to strengthen body awareness and control. In some cases of GI disorder, science suggests biofeedback may yield better results than pelvic floor training, such as Kegels.

If you’re curious why these workouts impact your digestive system, here’s a little more about what’s happening behind the scenes. When you exercise, cardiac output, or the volume of blood the heart pumps every minute, increases substantially as the demand rises for oxygenated blood throughout the body, particularly to your working muscles, per a review of recent literature in Physiological Reviews. This same increase in blood flow happens within the muscles of the digestive system during exercise, explains Ghannoum.

The blood flow to digestive organs stimulates peristalsis, which is involuntary constriction and relaxation of the muscles in the digestive tract, such as in the intestine, adds Ghannoum. “This process of constriction and relaxation helps move food efficiently through the gastrointestinal tract,” he says.

In addition, exercise supports the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut, which in turn helps maintain a good digestive system, says Ghannoum.

“Exercise is a great stress reliever as well,” notes McGee. Less stress means lower amounts of the hormone cortisol in your system. Elevated cortisol levels are associated with compromised digestive function, according to research in the Journal of Integrative Medicine which found chronically elevated cortisol could cause “increased intestinal permeability, impaired absorption of micronutrients, and abdominal pain or discomfort.”

Whether you’re new to exercise or are returning to it after taking a break, if one of your exercise goals is to improve your digestion, there’s a plan that can help you get there. If you are starting with little to no knowledge about what works best for your body and schedule, meeting with a certified fitness trainer is a great place to start. A certified trainer can help guide you toward a program that feels achievable for you and focuses on gut health.

Those who currently have a GI disorder, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, will want to first talk with their doctors before starting a new exercise plan, and pay close attention to exercise intensity, says Melamed. High intensity exercise may trigger an inflammatory response, which can then lead to abdominal pain or discomfort, diarrhea, and cramps, adds Ghannoum. That’s doesn’t mean you can’t do intense exercises like running, it just means you’ll want to work with your doctor to set up a program that doesn’t trigger a flare.

Otherwise, aim for roughly three hours of moderate intensity exercise a week to support a healthy digestive system, Ghannoum says. (Note: This is 180 minutes of weekly exercise, slightly more than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of 150 weekly minutes.)

For overall health aside from digestion, the latest Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests adults aim for:

• Doing at least two or more muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity every week

• Getting 75 minutes a week of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity, 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity, or an equivalent combination

• Sitting less and moving more

All in all, exercise is a beneficial tool to add to your overall wellness routine on multiple levels, from easing stress to minimizing disease risk to maintaining healthy digestion. While other factors like following an anti-inflammatory diet may aid digestion as well, if you’re struggling with constipation, bloating, or gas, before you head to the pharmacy try taking a walk around the block. It just might provide the relief you’re looking for.

This article was originally published June 12, 2023 and most recently updated May 20, 2024.

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