Establishing a “Bowel Routine”

Our bowels are trainable! Establishing a bowel routine is how you train your bowels to create a BM daily. For lasting results and to firmly establish your routine as a healthy habit, set a goal to do your routine daily for a month.

  1. Determine what time of day you’d like (in an ideal world) to have a bowel movement. This is the time of day you should perform your bowel routine. For most of us, early am/immediately upon waking is ideal because of circadian rhythms. Once you pick a time of day, start practicing your routine! Set aside 5-30 mins daily for your bowel routine.

  2. You get to determine the specific contents of your bowel routine. I recommend playing around with all these recommendations for a week or two. Once you figure out what works for you, stick to those practices and drop the rest!

  3. Some ideas:

    1. Enjoy a warm cup of coffee, tea, or water. This gets the gastrocolic/digestive reflex going.

    2. Take your constipation supplements & meds (e.g., Miralax, magnesium/Calm powder, etc.)

    3. Eat a fiber rich meal

    4. Move: 

      1. Walking or jogging is ideal because cardiovascular activity stimulates peristalsis (the colonic movement that propels feces through the digestive tract), and when we swing our arms we get rotation of the trunk which compresses and stimulates the digestive tract.

      2. Yoga is ideal because it compresses and twists the abdomen. Some ideal yoga poses for constipation include: child’s pose (narrow AND wide knees), double knees to chest, happy baby, supine and seated twists, cat cow, pelvic circles and barrel rolls, piriformis stretches and pigeon, side stretches

      3. Really any movement can work. If you don’t like walking, jogging, or yoga–what type of movement do you enjoy? The exercise that will happen because it’s appealing to you, is the ideal movement for YOUR bowel routine.

    5. Massage yourself:

      1. The “I love you” abdominal massage for constipation is ideal for initiating a BM

      2. If you have been trained in performing external or internal pelvic floor myofascial release (with a finger, or a pelvic floor release wand), doing pelvic floor massage can also help to relax the anorectal outlet.

Pelvic Care Physical Therapy

3770 W. Robinson St. - Ste. 112 - Norman, OK - 73072 

www.pelviccare.org - 405.240.9575 – info@pelviccare.org