Gas crisis.

June 12, 2008 7:46 PM

My own private gas crisis. Looking for a couple of simple stretches I can do.

I'm not farty, I'm just feeling gross and inflated.

I figure yoga must have postures that help with this. I know not of yoga postures. Can someone loan me a couple that will make me feel like less of a blimp? Even just easing the tender-belly sensation would be nice.

I already get lots of cardio because I bike everywhere, so exercise generally is not cutting the cheese. (har har har)

posted by loiseau to health & fitness (6 comments total)

These two might be helpful:

- The various tadasana poses (on this page) are simple but surprisingly good, because they stretch out the whole body, including the midsection. I find these very rejuvenating. You can also do a side stretch (leaning from one side to the other with your hands above your head).

- Back bends of different sorts (here) of various sorts may also provide some relief, though be careful if you don't regularly do yoga, as they can put stress on your spine.
posted by googly at 7:59 PM on June 12, 2008

Thanks, Googly. The "viparita dandasana" seems to help a bit. I also tried replicating it face-down and that also helped. Is it best to hold these poses for a really long time? I have a hard time remaining in one place for very long so I'm not sure how long I should be doing it.
posted by loiseau at 8:24 PM on June 12, 2008

Hi loiseau. The conventional wisdom on yoga is that you shouldn't hold positions any longer than feels comfortable. Don't prolong a pose (or do a pose at all) if it doesn't feel good, and don't stretch any farther than is comfortable.

If staying in one position doesn't feel good, you might want to try "sun salutations," which are a series of basic postures that you do at a relatively leisurely pace that follows your breathing. This site explains one pretty well.

I'm loathe to suggest more, because really the best thing is to get yourself to a yoga class so that someone can show you how best to do the poses (wish I could recommend a specific studio, but I'm new in town). Even if you're not interested in going whole-hog on yoga, taking a class or two to learn the poses makes a big difference.
posted by googly at 9:23 PM on June 12, 2008

This is not what you asked, so please don't hate on me, but... speaking as someone who has frequently suffered that tender-belly-short-of-breath-bloated feeling, I've found that Mylanta helps within like ten minutes.

Sorry I don't know any yoga poses, I just want to help eliminate that painful feeling from the world any way I can...
posted by GardenGal at 8:34 AM on June 13, 2008

As someone who also knows what you mean, I haven't found physical movement to help that much... I end up feeling like I'm "shifting" the bloat around, unscientifically speaking. I know that some of the poses which are part of the Bikram sequence are supposed to help with "colon compresson" (for instance, scroll down to "wind removing pose" on this page) but I never used poses to counteract that feeling, successfully. Additionally, YogaJournal's website has a nice feature of linking poses to therapeutic areas, and they suggest the hero pose and reclining hero, which might be worth a shot.

But, to address the larger issue at hand, I'd personally recommend drinking peppermint tea as a stomach calming, all-natural "deflation" helper. (You can also try tiger balm applied to the tailbone area, to help relieve the discomfort. I haven't done this in years but recall it making me feel better as a kid.) But drinking peppermint tea allows me to save use of the OTC remedies (simethicone being the main ingredient for mylanta, gas-x, etc) for on-the-go and/or severe cases. These do work really well, and fast, as GardenGal mentions.
posted by NikitaNikita at 8:56 PM on June 14, 2008

situps. and "overhead bicycles" where you lie on your back and make a pedalling motion with your legs.
posted by daveydave at 3:59 AM on June 29, 2008