7 Yoga Practices For Detoxing

When I think of detox, I think of the body taking out the trash! I think of quitting alcohol, coffee, sugar, wheat, meat, dairy, processed/preservative-filled foods; I think of cleansing foods: raw dandelion root, wild burdock root, alkalizing green juices, fresh organic fruit – you get my drift.

But first, let's respect the human body’s innate drive to cleanse and remove toxins!

Our bodies are hard-wired to detox 

What a great boost to know that there are wonderful systems in place inside your body: the liver, kidneys, lungs and lymphatic system, which are already hard at work filtering and processing toxins. This is not to say a detox is as simple as having your green juice, before devouring a kilo of hot chips and leaving your body to clean up! It’s all about balance, and if we feel we’ve been out of balance for a while, we might want to take a month to detox, eat clean and build healthy habits back into our lifestyle.

In Ayurveda, the ancient Indian medical practice and yoga’s sister science, the lymphatic system is known as the body’s greatest intelligence. It is able to identify what is us, and what is not us. It then goes about sweeping up what doesn't belong: i.e the toxins from the outside world which come in via our skin, respiration and digestive system; the viruses and bacteria that periodically cause us to get sick.

The lymphatic system does not have a pump in the way that the circulatory system has the heart or the respiratory system has the diaphragm; it requires us to move to circulate lymph fluid. By practising yoga poses, which encourage the lymphatic fluid to move through stagnant areas and by stimulating the regions of the body with large collections of lymph glands, we can help it to clear toxins and fight bugs.

So here is a wonderfully revitalising five-minute sequence to support your lymphatic system and turbo boost your detoxing efforts!

1. Kapalabati/ breath of fire

Before I get stuck into asana (the physical postures), I like to start with cleansing pranayama, kapalabati/breath of fire, which is perfect for a cool winter morning when you want to warm up and wake up. And if your detox involves quitting caffeine, this is the perfect substitute to energise your body, mind and spirit - better than a double espresso!

Sit in a comfortable position. Place a hand over your belly button. Inhale deeply, expanding your belly into your hand, and exhale by pumping your diaphragm (quickly press your belly button to your spine to force air out of your lungs). Air will rush out of your nose in a kind of snuff sound. In response, with an explosive exhale, the belly will then soften and draw air back in for the inhalation. So let the inhalation look after itself and just concentrate on pumping the diaphragm for an explosive exhale. Take 10 rounds to begin and get a feel for it. Try and keep the body relatively still and isolate the pumping action to the belly. Then return to a few rounds of regular breathing. Begin again for 10 rounds, return to regular breathing for a few breaths. Once you feel you have a handle on it, take 20-30 rounds to finish. If you experience dizziness, immediately return to normal breathing.

Contraindications: Heart problems, severe headache, severe cold or nasal congestion, high blood pressure, or if you have just eaten a big meal. 

2. Shoulder stretch

From your comfortable seated position, reach your arms around behind you, interlace the fingers and draw the heels of the hands towards each other so the hands make a fist. Squeezing your shoulders together, lift your hands up away from your back. Inhale, lengthening the spine so the crown of the head reaches up, exhale, turn your torso to the left, keeping the face in line with the chest (i.e. don’t overturn your neck). Inhale, turning back to the centre and exhale, turn to the right. Repeat four more times, syncing your movement with the breath.

3. Downward-facing dog

Start on all fours with hands pressed flat on the mat, fingers spread wide, wrists stacked directly under the shoulders and knees positioned directly under the hips. Tuck the toes and press the hips up and back, lengthening the spine. Keep pressing down with the hands and try to get the weight even between the hands and the feet. You can bend the knees if your hamstrings (backs of legs) are tight, and just work on getting your spine to lengthen so the hips move up and back. Feel the length down the sides of the torso, the sides of the waist and the space between each rib.

NOTE: Downward dog awakens the flow of lymphatic fluid down the backs of the legs.

4. Low lunge

From downward-facing dog position, step the right foot between the hands (help it if you need to) and make sure the knee is bent at a right angle so it’s directly above the ankle. You can have the back left toes tucked under for stability; otherwise, untuck the toes and place the top of the foot flat on the mat. Inhale to reach the arms up so the biceps are on either side of the ears. Exhale, ground into your points of contact with the earth and draw the right heel towards the left knee. Take five full deep breaths, continuing to lengthen the sides of the torso, lifting up through the fingertips and making sure your shoulders draw down away from your ears.

If this is uncomfortable for your back knee, you can double your mat over or place a blanket underneath it.

Step back to downward-facing dog – take one full breath here, then switch to take a low lunge on the left side.

5. Forward fold with shoulder stretch

From your low lunge, step your right foot forward to meet the left so you are in a forward fold at the front of your mat. Let your head be heavy and the neck soft so the crown of your head descends down toward the earth. You can have your knees bent as much as you need to, spread your sit bones towards the back wall and let your spine lengthen. Breath space in between each vertebrae and take five deep breaths here. Then, interlace your fingers behind your back, draw the heels of the hands towards each other and let your hands drop away from your back. Take five deep breaths here.

Gently release the hands and slowly roll up to a standing position with about three full breaths.

6. Standing side stretch

Stand with your big toes touching and heels slightly apart so the sides of your feet are parallel. (If you have lower back tension, you can stand with feet hip-width apart.) Feel your weight evenly distributed through the soles of both feet. Inhale, reach your arms up, interlace fingers above your head and make a fist with your hands. Exhale, draw your shoulders away from your ears. Inhale, reach up with your fist, exhale, side bend to the left, pressing your right hip away. Inhale centre, exhale side bend to the right, pressing your left hip away. Repeat four times.

7. Trikonasana

• 7a. Prepare for trikonasana on the left side by taking a long step with the left foot to the back of the mat - have the foot flat on the mat with toes pointing between 45/90 degrees. Reach the arms out long and square the hips to the left side. Inhale, spine reaches long, lift chest and crown of the head up and exhale. Reach the front fingers towards the front of the room, tilting the torso over.
• 7b. The right hand can rest on the shin, the top of the right foot or perhaps the floor (or a block). Left arm reaches up to the ceiling.  Turn your head to gaze at the top fingers (if this hurts your neck, gaze down at the floor). Try and stack the left hip on top of the right, so rotate the left up and over and tuck the right hip underneath you. Both legs are straight.

Now moving into an arm rotation here. Inhale, top arm reaches up, exhale, rotate the arm around and down, inhale, and start to sweep the arm back up to the top. Continue to rotate the arm in that direction two more times. Then change directions (inhaling as the arm moves up and exhaling as the arm rotates down) for three rotations.

To come up, press through the feet to bring the torso up to centre, place hands on hips and step the left foot up to the top of the mat.

Take trikonasana on the right side. NOTE: Trikonasana stimulates the lymph glands in the groin and pelvic area, and by rotating the arm, you also get the circulation flowing in the lymph glands under the armpit.

Option - to finish with shavasana (final resting pose). Lie down flat on your back for one minute. Just feel the body and notice the breath. To come up, roll over to your right side, pause for a moment and slowly press yourself up to sit before coming to stand.