If you are someone who deals with diarrhea, constipation, gas, or other tummy troubles, you are likely looking for fast and effective relief. When you’re doing cardio, you may have noticed that as you go faster, it speeds certain other things up, too. Would adding more exercise into your routine help move food through your system? If so, what exercises for digestion work best?
4 benefits of exercise for digestion
The good news is that adding exercise into your daily routine can make you more regular, less gassy, improve your metabolism, and balance your gut microbiome. Certain exercises may be better than others, though, and it’s important to talk to your healthcare provider before starting any new exercise routines, especially if you live with a serious digestive condition.
Conversely, a lack of exercise can exacerbate certain digestive issues, including constipation, heartburn, and reflux. Here are four ways exercise and digestion connect.
1. Constipation
For some people, exercise can be helpful in relieving constipation. “I’ve found in my decade of first-hand clinical practice that exercise does often help to reduce symptoms of constipation in my clients and patients,” says Jenna Volpe, RDN, a digestive health dietitian. Exercise can increase activity in your gut, which can help excrete fecal matter. Additionally, exercise can reduce total colon transit time, ensuring that defecation is more frequent.
2. Gas
If you’ve ever had the embarrassing experience of letting loose some gas during a yoga class, you are not alone. In fact, exercise is a great way to reduce gas and bloating. For example, a 2021 study published in Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Bed to Bench found that taking a 10-15 minute walk after a meal was effective at reducing gas, bloating, belching, and abdominal pain from gas.
3. Metabolism
It is well known that regular exercise can help balance your metabolism so that you remain at a healthy weight, but did you also know that a well-regulated metabolism means healthier digestion? “Exercise improves metabolism, which can reduce the risk of reflux, gallbladder disease, fatty liver disease, and various cancers involved with digestion,” explains Taylor Stolt, RDN, a registered dietitian who specializes in gut health.
4. Gut microbiome
Our brains and guts are well connected; for example, you’ve probably noticed that stress gives you stomach cramps, gas, or loose stools. Exercise is known to reduce overall stress, which can help with digestion. There are indications, too, that exercise can have positive effects on the bacterial makeup of your gut, or your gut microbiome. “High stress levels have been shown to negatively impact the gut microbiome over time, so it makes sense that exercise indirectly benefits the gut microbiome via stress reduction,” says Volpe.
Does exercise “speed up” digestion?
Exercise can reduce the amount of time it takes for your stool to move through your digestive system. This not only helps with digestive upsets like constipation, but can have long-term positive effects on your overall digestive health, explains Vanessa Méndez, MD a triple board-certified gastroenterologist, internist, and lifestyle medicine physician.
“Exercise can help reduce contact time between your stool (and the environmental toxins and pathogens that come with it) and the gastrointestinal mucus layer, thus, reducing the risk of colon cancer, diverticulosis, and inflammatory bowel disease,” Dr. Méndez explains.
Types of exercise that help digestion
When it comes to exercises to improve digestion, experts agree that light to moderate exercises are the way to go. The best exercises to help digestion include:
- Walking
- Yoga
- Biking
- Body weight exercises
Walking and gentle yoga can be most helpful for digestion, especially when you are in a flare, says Dr. Méndez. For gas relief and reducing bloating after eating, her favorite yoga poses include seated forward bends, twists, child’s pose, knees-to-chest, standing forward fold, and bridge pose.
However, there may be certain exercises it’s best to avoid, especially if your gut is acting up. “Running and high intensity exercise can shunt blood away from the gut, which can lead to gut inflammation and ‘leaky gut’ and make digestion worse,” Stolt suggests. Some people may do fine with these higher intensity exercises, however, and if you have always done them and do not have gut issues, feel free to continue.
When is the best time to use exercise to help with digestion?
You may have heard it’s important to wait a certain amount of time after eating to exercise. But it really depends on the type of exercise you plan on doing. Some light exercise after a meal is usually fine—and actually beneficial to digestion. But if you are planning to exercise intensely or perform abdominal exercises, you should wait about 30-90 minutes after eating, says Volpe. Exercising too soon can trigger digestive upsets.
Other ways to improve digestion
Exercise is a wonderful way to improve your digestion. But addressing digestive issues most effectively usually means a combination of strategies, including:
Diet
Changing your eating plan can have positive impacts on your gut. Adding fibrous foods to your diet—such as whole grains, fruits, and veggies—can help with constipation, gas, and diarrhea. Adopting a low FODMAP diet (which stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides And Polyols) has been shown to reduce symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome by up to 86%.
Reducing stress
Stress can have a strong effect on the digestive system, and can be a factor in many digestive conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, reflux, inflammatory bowel disease, and peptic ulcer disease. Reducing the stress in your life—through meditation, therapy, relaxation techniques, and of course, exercise—can also improve your digestion.
Taking medication
People whose digestion issues are having noticeable impacts on their lives, or who have been diagnosed with a serious digestive condition, may need medication to help manage their symptoms. These may include over-the-counter medications like:
- Pepcid
- Prilosec OTC
- Emetrol
- Pepto-Bismol
- Miralax
- Dulcolax
- Imodium
They could also include prescription medications:
- Ciprofloxacin
- Carafate
- Lialda
- Tetracycline
- Sulfasalazine
- Protonix
- Linzess
This is not a complete list. Speak to your healthcare provider about the best medication for you.
