Fitness

Health for the Holidays

As New Orleanians, we are genetically encoded to over-indulge on food and drink, particularly during the holiday season. Fortunately for us, there are many techniques in the yoga tradition that can combat this tendency and promote healthy digestion. You might be surprised to learn that an entire section of a famous 14th-century yoga manual was allocated to gut health. After reading the author’s description of various purification techniques, one could even argue that theold-time yogis were obsessed with proper elimination and assimilation. But how might that be relevant to us folks living in the modern era who just want to feel better without doing anything too weird? Allow me to explain.

What do you do when you want to wring out the dirty dishwater from a rag? Obviously, you fold its opposite ends together to make the rag more compact and then you twist those ends away from each other to expel the dirty water. Supposing you then want to saturate the dish rag with fresh, clean water, what do you do to make it more absorbent? You simply untwist the rag and spread it back open. In a similar sort of way, when you want to expel the toxicity from your gut, you fold and twist the abdominal organs. In order to make your gut more receptive and absorbent again, you untwist and re-spread the abdominal organs. The pulsation between folding/twisting and spreading/opening is what moves waste products out of our body in order for fresh nutrients to be ushered in.

This is such a simple concept, but it was quite insightful for the people who discovered it 800 years ago because it helped keep them clean and healthy. Here’s the easiest way for you to try it for yourself: 1. Lie on your back with legs outstretched and then squeeze the inseams of your legs together. Be sure that your head is supported by a blanket or thickly-folded towel so that you feel no tension in your neck. On an exhalation, draw your right knee toward your chest. Clasp the knee with both hands, fold it even more deeply toward the chest for five more exhalations. Release the knee on an inhalation, and then repeat the same process with your left leg.

2. Once more, draw the right knee toward your chest on an exhalation. This time you’ll leave your left hand on that knee and open your right arm out wide to the right. On your next exhalation, drop the knee over to the left so that you feel a twisting sensation along your whole torso. Leave the right knee where it is and rotate the abdomen in the opposite direction. You should feel a “wringing out” quality to the belly, similar to the dirty dish rag. Repeat this same process with your left leg.

3. Finally, bend both knees toward your chest and put the soles of your feet flat on the ground. From there, bring the soles of your feet together and drop the knees out away from each other. If this is stressful for your hips, knees, or lower back in any way, then support your outer legs with blankets or thickly-folded towels. Notice the lengthening and widening of your abdomen. Direct your inhalations into that wide, open space, and savor the feeling of lightness in your belly.

I hope that this simple practice helps you find solace and ease in the midst of holiday hedonism.

Geoffrey Roniger is the owner of Yoga Unbound on Freret Street. He has been teaching full time for nearly two decades and is considered an expert in the field of adaptive yoga. Check out his latest creation, a comprehensive instructional video program made specifically for older adults: vimeo.com/ondemand/geoffreyyogaolderadults. Enter the promo code “NOLABoomers” and you’ll be able to download the entire thing for free.