Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Yoga for IBS

Hi Becca

Thanks for the quick reply.

The postures you describe make perfect sense, but at first I couldn't understand why you find a more vigorous practice to be more beneficial. Yoga looks on ailments in a very simplistic manner, whether they manifest themselves as being a matter of excess (rajas) or dullness (tamas).

IBS would be regarded as an imbalance of excess, so to counteract this a slower, "duller" practice would be prescribed i.e. relaxing, or langhana practice. Vigorous doesn't really tie in with that approach, but then I realised that the approach I follow, Viniyoga, doesn't have the same emphasis on positions that are held for a period of time (i.e. static postures). In Viniyoga we largely advocate moving into and out of postures repeatedly without holding (although this would differ depending on what you're trying to achieve with the practice).

This means that, while I would not describe the Viniyoga approach as vigorous, I would say it is dynamic, with the student being in almost constant motion, back and forth. Does that make sense? I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried such a practice and how it affected their IBS.

Cheers,

Scott

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