When your digestive system feels out of sync, your first thought may not be yoga or triphala. However, both ancient practices could offer a gentle and effective solution for constipation. Yoga, through specific poses and breathing techniques, can massage your abdomen, stimulate digestion, and relieve discomfort. Similarly, triphala, an Ayurvedic herbal remedy, has long been trusted to promote bowel regularity and support gut health.

This combination can be a natural, holistic way to keep your digestive system running smoothly.

Physical activity is known to stimulate the muscles of the intestine, which is why regular movement can help ease constipation. Yoga takes this a step further, particularly through twisting poses and those that apply gentle pressure to the abdomen. These movements can engage your core muscles, encouraging the movement of waste through your digestive system.

A study conducted in 2015 found that yoga helped reduce symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which often includes constipation.

Beyond its physical benefits, yoga’s ability to activate the vagus nerve can restore balance to the gut-brain axis, as noted in a 2018 study. Simply by stimulating this nerve, yoga triggers anti-inflammatory effects that can improve gut health. Additionally, yoga’s stress-reducing qualities engage the parasympathetic nervous system, helping you "rest and digest" more effectively.

Common Causes of Constipation

A variety of factors can cause constipation. Stress, travel, lack of fiber, dehydration, and a sedentary lifestyle are common culprits. Additionally, conditions like Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and certain medications can slow digestion. A recent study also revealed that individuals who recovered from COVID-19 may experience digestive issues, including constipation, for up to a year post-infection.

Yoga Poses to Relieve Constipation

While yoga isn't a cure-all for chronic digestive issues, it can certainly help ease symptoms. Here are some effective poses:

Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana): This mild backbend applies pressure to the abdomen, stimulating digestive activity.

Bow Pose (Dhanurasana): A deeper backbend, Bow Pose stretches the abdomen, enhancing blood flow and stimulating the intestines.

Half Lord of the Fishes Pose (Ardha Matsyendrasana): This twisting pose massages the abdominal organs and promotes digestion.

Squat Pose (Malasana): Squatting is a natural position that promotes easy elimination by aligning the digestive tract efficiently.

Remember, as you practice these poses, focus on slow and steady breathing. Holding your breath during these stretches can increase muscle tension, reducing their effectiveness in aiding digestion.

Can Triphala Relieve Your Constipation?

Growing up, my grandmother couldn’t praise triphala enough for its digestive benefits. At first, I was skeptical, but my faith in my grandmother eventually led me to try this herbal remedy.

Triphala is made from three medicinal plants: bibhitaki, amalaki (amla), and haritaki. This blend has gained a reputation worldwide for its potent healing properties, particularly for digestion.

Triphala acts as a natural laxative, promoting regular bowel movements without causing dependency like other laxatives might. It's especially useful for treating chronic constipation.

One of the key benefits of triphala is its ability to detoxify the gut. It encourages natural internal cleansing, improving digestion and bowel movement. For those looking to manage their weight, triphala can be a helpful addition to your routine. It enhances digestion, reduces bloating, and even stimulates the hormone cholecystokinin, which signals to your brain that you're full, preventing overeating.

If you’re struggling with constipation, incorporating yoga and triphala into your routine may offer relief. The gentle stretching and twisting of yoga poses massage your abdominal organs, while triphala works internally to regulate bowel movements.

Together, these practices provide a natural, holistic approach to digestive health, helping you feel lighter, less bloated, and more at ease.

The balance our body gives us is something that most of us take for granted. Doing exercises that build core strength and help you gain better balance. However, once you start focusing on exercises and yoga poses that allow you to gain better control over your body, a lot of your clumsy attributes like tripping, being unable to catch yourself when you fall and dropping things constantly will improve.

One such yoga pose that can help you improve your balance and focus, is Vrikshasana. As you may know, there are different types of yoga, while some help you strengthen your body with rapid movements and endurance, others are more movement based, focused on the flow and connection between poses. These consist of many different asanas that focus on different aspects of your health and body.

How Does Virkshasana Benefit Our Health?

According to the International Journal of Yoga 2016 study, while most of us focus on backward and forward movement, sideways balance involves hip and ankle muscles too. It's been found that sideways changes are controlled by hip muscles, while forward and backward changes are controlled by ankle muscles. Virkshasana aims to strengthen our ankles and take pressure of your feet with the help of your hip muscles. Here is how it benefits our health.

Improves Balance

Tree Pose makes you stand on one leg, which really challenges your balance. Your brain and muscles work together to keep you steady, strengthening this important skill for everyday activities and preventing falls. It helps your body learn to control its center of gravity.

Strengthens Legs

To stay standing tall in Tree Pose, your standing leg muscles have to work hard to support your weight. Holding the pose builds strength in your thighs, calves, and ankles, making them more stable and resilient for walking, standing, and other movements.

Stretches Legs, Arms, and Back

When you reach your arms overhead in Tree Pose, it creates a nice stretch along your sides and back. The way you position your lifted leg can also create a stretch in your hips and inner thighs, improving flexibility in these key areas of your body.

Invigorates the Whole Body

By engaging different muscle groups and requiring focus, Tree Pose helps to wake up your entire system. The combination of stretch, strength, and balance work can leave you feeling more energized and connected to your body after practicing the pose.

Engages Core Muscles

Although not the main focus, staying balanced on one leg in Tree Pose requires your core muscles – those in your abdomen and back – to work to keep you upright and prevent wobbling. This helps to strengthen your core for better posture and stability.

Step-By-Step Guide Of Doing Vrikshasana

• Stand with your feet together and your arms relaxed by your sides. Look straight ahead at a steady point.
• Slowly move your weight onto your right leg, making sure it feels strong and balanced.
• Gently lift your left foot and place the sole of your foot on your inner right thigh. Avoid putting it directly on your knee.
• Press your left foot gently into your right thigh and your right thigh back into your foot. Engage your core muscles to help you stay steady.
• Bring your palms together in front of your chest in a prayer position (Anjali Mudra).
• If you feel stable, slowly raise your arms overhead, keeping your palms together or facing each other.
• Breathe smoothly and deeply, holding the pose for about 20-30 seconds, or as long as it feels comfortable. Keep your gaze steady.
• Slowly bring your hands back to your chest, then lower your left leg back to the ground.

Body Mass Index or BMI is a calculation that is used to understand the relationship between your height and weight. It is very commonly used in healthcare settings and also in gyms or weight training centers. It helps fitness coaches and healthcare professionals to categorize people as underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese. The goal of BMI is to get a rough estimate of body fat, which can then highlight potential risks for chronic health problems.

But while BMI is easy to calculate and useful as a general guideline, it doesn’t tell the full story of a person’s health.

How Is BMI Calculated?

The formula for BMI differs slightly depending on the measurement system you use.

Metric: BMI = weight (kg) ÷ height (m²)

Imperial: BMI = (weight in pounds ÷ height in inches²) × 703

For example, someone who weighs 180 pounds and is 5 feet 6 inches tall (66 inches) would have a BMI of:

(180 ÷ 66²) × 703 = 29.0

That would place them in the "overweight" category.

BMI is also divided into these categories that then determine where the person falls under the spectrum from underweight to obesity:

• Underweight: less than 18.5
• Normal: 18.5 – 24.9
• Overweight: 25.0 – 29.9
• Obesity Class 1 (mild): 30.0 – 34.9
• Obesity Class 2 (moderate): 35.0 – 39.9
• Obesity Class 3 (severe): 40.0 or higher

Generally, the higher your BMI, the greater your risk of health conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, fatty liver, and even certain cancers.

Is BMI Reliable?

While BMI is not a diagnostic test, it can be a helpful screening tool. It is used to track trends in population, raise awareness of weight-related risks, and to initiate conversations between patients and healthcare providers.

However, BMI often leaves out the muscle mass, bone structure, or fat distribution. One of the most common example is when an athlete with high muscle mass is classified as "overweight" despite having a low body fat.

This is why, there are other ways to measure too, including:

Waist Circumference

Excess belly fat is a stronger risk factor than fat stored elsewhere.

High risk:

Men: waist > 40 inches

Women: waist > 35 inches

Body Composition Analysis

Tools like InBody or SECA scales provide a breakdown of fat mass, muscle, and water weight—offering more detail than BMI.

DEXA Scan

This scan is the gold standard for measuring body fat, bone density, and fat distribution—but it’s expensive and not widely available.

Metabolic Health Markers

Lab tests like fasting glucose, cholesterol levels, and inflammation markers help assess overall health more accurately than BMI alone.

BMI could also vary depending on your ethnicity. More South Asians are risk for diabetes and heart disease at lower BMIs. For them, "overweight" may begin at 23 and "obese" at 25. African Americans may have higher muscle mass and lower visceral fat, which can cause BMI to overestimate health risks. Hispanic and Indigenous populations may carry more risk at lower BMIs due to genetic factors.

While it is important to care about your BMI, however, it should not be the only way to measure your health. You must also consider waist size, body composition, fitness level, blood test results, and ethnic background.

Kareena Kapoor Khan, and whatever she does, is always making headlines. Even at the age of 44, she is an epitome of fitness. Out of her duties, she ensures to devote time to fitness, through various workout forms, including yoga.

Her Yoga instructor, Anushka Parwani, revealed in a recent interview with ETimes that Kareena in fact was her first ever student. She had always focused on fitness over weight loss.

Anushka Parwani is a celebrity trainer, who has trained Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone. In the interview, she shared insights from Kareena's routine and how her dedication to yoga keeps her fit!

What has helped Kareena is how she has been able to understand her body and its need and thus she compliments those needs with yoga. Her instructor also revealed that Kareena never desired to lose weight, but to maintain her overall fitness, including adjusting her waist size.

"Kareena is the most aware of her body. I know this because I have been with her...she was my first-ever student, not just the first actor I worked with. There is so much to learn form her because she is so aware. She has always loved yoga, and she understands her body as well. So, we know when to push a little and alter the workout or when to do variations and just do breathwork. Right now, we are very balanced. It is also about pausing. With experience and age comes pausing; she knows when to pause," shared her instructor.

Her instructor also revealed that the actor does a lot of mixes of animal flows, and strength, as well as cardiovascular-based workouts.

However, reveals her instructor, her true best friend to fitness has been yoga. This is also because Yoga offers a sustainable and holistic solution. It also combines fat-burning, muscle toning, and core strengthening benefits. Furthermore, yoga also helps one calm there mind.

Here are 6 yoga asanas that can help you stay fit and keep your waistline in check like Kareena Kapoor khan.

Here's for you to try out:

Trikonasana (Triangle Pose)

Benefits: Strengthens legs, stretches the spine and waist, improves digestion.

Steps:

• Stand with your feet 3–4 feet apart.
• Turn your right foot out 90°, and left foot slightly in.
• Extend your arms out at shoulder height, palms facing down.
• Inhale, then exhale and bend to the right, placing your right hand on your shin, ankle, or floor.
• Stretch your left arm toward the ceiling, in line with your shoulders.
• Look up at your left hand. Hold, then repeat on the other side.

Naukasana (Boat Pose)

Benefits: Tones abs, improves balance, strengthens core and hip flexors.

Steps:

• Sit on the floor with legs extended and arms by your sides.
• Lean back slightly and lift your legs off the floor, keeping them straight.
• Raise your arms forward, parallel to the floor.
• Your body should form a "V" shape.
• Hold the pose, keeping your back straight and core engaged.
• Breathe steadily, then release gently.

Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Spinal Twist Pose)

Benefits: Improves spinal flexibility, aids digestion, massages internal organs.

Steps:

• Sit with legs stretched out.
• Bend your right knee and place your right foot outside your left thigh.
• Fold your left leg, placing the left foot beside the right hip.
• Inhale, raise your left arm; exhale and twist to the right, placing your left elbow on the outside of the right knee.
• Place your right hand behind your back for support.
• Look over your right shoulder. Hold, then repeat on the other side.

Parivrtta Utkatasana (Revolved Chair Pose)

Benefits: Strengthens thighs and glutes, improves balanceand detoxification.

Steps:

• Stand with feet together, arms by your side.
• Inhale, raise arms overhead; exhale and bend knees to sit into a chair pose.
• Bring palms together at your chest (Namaste).
• Twist your torso to the right, bringing your left elbow outside your right knee.
• Keep knees aligned and spine long.
• Hold, then return to center and repeat on the other side.

Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)

Benefits: Strengthens back muscles, opens chest, relieves stress.

Steps:

• Lie face down with legs extended, tops of feet flat on the mat.
• Place hands under your shoulders, elbows close to the body.
• Inhale, gently lift your chest off the floor using your back muscles.
• Keep elbows slightly bent and shoulders away from ears.
• Hold while breathing steadily, then slowly lower down.

Vasisthasana (Side Plank Pose)

Benefits: Strengthens arms, core, and legs; improves balance.

Steps:

• Start in a plank position.
• Shift your weight to your right hand and outer edge of the right foot.
• Stack your left foot on top of your right.
• Raise your left arm straight up toward the sky.
• Keep your body in a straight line, core engaged.
• Hold, then return to plank and switch sides.