Your gut is the central command house of nerves, hormones, digestion and the
second brain, so it’s responsible for a lot of your body’s processes, feelings and health. Your gut is comprised of muscles, and just like the other muscles in your body, your gut benefits greatly from exercise. We know how to do abdominal toning and core workouts, but the gut inside the body still isn’t focused on during those routines. Proper gut exercises that get the blood circulating and flowing, along with keeping your core temperature ideal, are the ones you need to add into your exercise plans. Here are some of the best exercises to try out for improved gut health:
Intestine Exercise
For the first workout, we’re doing Intestine Exercise. It’s simple, can be done anywhere, and will yield near immediate results. Your intestines are muscles, and this exercise massages the gut to alleviate tightness caused by the food you eat and emotions you carry (i.e. stress, anxiety, depression etc.).
Now let’s walk through how to do it. Start with your feet shoulder-width apart and keep them parallel to each other. Place one hand over the other on top of your abdomen. Bend your knees slightly to ground your weight to the bottom of your feet. Now, imagine a rope that goes through your belly button. Using that “rope,” pull your abdominal muscles in toward your spine and then push out like you’re inflating a balloon in your stomach. Repeat this movement to create a massaging movement in and out with your gut muscles.
Think of this as Gut CPR.
You don't have to sync your breathing with your movement—just breathe naturally and gently. After about a minute or so, you'll start to feel warm in your abdomen which means blood is circulating around your gut and is warming up the muscles around that area. A gut that's sluggish and not digesting properly can be resolved with this exercise to make it active again. This movement induces peristalsis: the term for intestines contracting and expanding to pass food along through the body when digesting food. When stressed, tired, or eating poorly, peristalsis slows down and grows weaker. Intestine Exercise massages and returns the process to a normal healthy condition. Did you know that 1/3 of your body's blood supply is in the gut, as well as 75% of your immunity? So, when we have really tense gut muscles, blood doesn't circulate well, which means less oxygen in your cells and brain, making you tired. Just as CPR resuscitates the process for breathing and the heart and lungs, Intestine Exercise does the same for the gut.
Intestine Tapping
Start with the same stance as the Intestine Exercise: feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, with your weight at the bottom of your feet. You always want to feel grounded when doing these. Now, with open palms, tap firmly on your lower abdomen with your shoulders completely relaxed, using the full momentum of your arms. Continue this motion in repetition. Think of this exercise as dusting a dusty house, but for your gut. As you do this, everything within your gut awakens, releasing toxic energy to get rid of it through your exhale. Let out deep breaths through Intestine Tapping to aid in the release. You should feel heat in your gut as you continue, which is vital to your
Water Up, Fire Down process and your overall health and immunity.
Belly Button Healing
Belly Button Healing is essentially the same as intestine exercise, but for those who have an extremely stiff gut and cannot move their lower abdomen in and out very far from the belly button. The routine is designed to loosen you up in the region and promote better flow once again. To start, take hold of the
Belly Button Healing wand with both hands, and relax your shoulders and abdomen. With the wand on your belly button, press in and out, firmly but not too hard. The wand makes it much easier for people to massage their gut when they can't do the motion on their own without it.
Belly Button Healing circulates blood and oxygen through the body, raises core temperature, and increases your immunity. You get the same benefits from this exercise as you would from Intestine Exercise.
There are many ways to stimulate your gut and plenty of things you can do to be proactive about keeping it healthy. As long as you can feel the temperature in your body rising and feel more awake and alert, you know the exercises are affecting your body just like they’re meant to. Connect and feel your body after each one and take note of the difference before and after performing the exercises. Let us know how you felt in the comments below!