Pilates is more than moves that burn, it's a lifestyle that encourages you to nourish your body with moves that can get your digestion going, help to de-bloat, relieve tension and stress you may be holding.
Katie (@Thepilatesset) will guide you through a wholesome 15 minute Pilates class, getting everything moving with exercises that help align your body and stimulate your digestion. This class encourages you to listen to what your mind and body holistically needs. Enjoy!
I’m always reminding myself to not hunch over looking down at a screen as it can really slow digestion by compressing your stomach and intestines. What I love about Pilates is that we start by connecting to our body with simple set ups to stack your bones to allow for optimal alignment, reducing pressure on the insides and teaching us how to hold ourselves day to day to create the space our stomach, muscles and organs need like with ‘shoulders back, stack shoulders over hips’.
Pilates efficiently moves the body through different directions to help your digestion get moving along too. These are some of my favourite moves to help aid digestion:
Quadruped - Pilates focuses on the core connection throughout class, this adds pressure by contracting muscles and stimulating your stomach and intestines area. Quadruped exercise in the class stretches and contracts your abdominals helping aid digestion, as well as helping with back pain.
Twists - These stimulate digestion and ring out air that might be trapped in the rib cage and abdominal area. Mobilising through your thoracic spine in a supine spinal twist can help with circulation and constipation.
Mermaid/seated side stretch - Lifting your arm over your head creates a lateral flexion by letting your body bend to the side working your obliques and helping increase flexibility in the spine to aid digestion.
Rolling like a ball - This playful exercise always makes me smile, rolling massages your spine and internal organs as you create gentle pressure to release air.
We’re so used to doing everything really quickly, so taking time for a quick stretch can help to release tension in our muscles, in particular relaxing your Psoas (hip flexors), can help to take pressure off your abdominals and stretching your muscles creates space in the body. Start with 5 minutes and enjoy the nourishing feeling of taking time for you.
Breath work is one of the Pilates principles helping us to engage muscles of the core and calm the mind and body. Our vagus nerve in the parasympathetic nervous system connects the brain all the way into the intestine, we can stimulate the vagus nerve to increase blood flow and help with muscle contractions by focusing on deep breathing to help with digestion.
The combination of good posture, alignment, slow movement, stretch and breath work help to calm your mind and body, releasing where we might be holding any tension. I often focus on reminding clients to think about what your body really needs to reduce cortisol levels by focusing on these elements and helping to improve gut health.
Don't worry if you can’t do this class right now, add it to your diary to take 15 minutes for your Pilates set each week and your digestion will thank you. In the meantime, why not try this super speedy 4 minute movement class to stimulate your digestive system.
*At Biomel, your well-being is our top priority. While we take great pride in our expertise in gut health and overall wellness, we understand that every gut is unique. The content we provide is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any illness, or replace the advice of your GP. We strongly encourage you to consult with a healthcare professional if you have any health concerns. Rest assured, we are here to support you throughout your journey, so you are never alone. Our in-house nutritionists will always be here to support you on your journey to optimal gut health.
