The intestine, as a large part of the digestive system, plays a key role in health and proper digestion. Good bowel function depends on the quality of the diet, physical activity, daily stress and hereditary factors.

Constipation, i.e. having fewer than 3 bowel movements per week, appears to occur with increasing age and a subsequent decrease in physical activity. But how can exercise affect the intestinal mechanism?;

The exercise seems to:

Improves the mobility of the colon
Increases the metabolism
Reduces the transit time of food in the gastrointestinal tract
It reduces stress by stimulating the production of hormones responsible for our happiness. An overdose of stress, daily, forces our digestive system to work at an intense pace, with some simultaneous dysfunctions.

More specifically:

Effects of exercise on gastrointestinal functions

Exercise changes the dynamics of blood flow within the body. As a consequence, different modes, intensity and duration of exercise have a significant impact on gastrointestinal functions. Also, intense exercise changes chronic gastrointestinal function.

After a meal, food moves from the stomach to the small intestine to complete digestion and then absorption and entry into circulation. In the stomach, the food is mixed in solution with different gastric secretions, digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid and then emptied from the stomach into the small intestine. This process of the rate at which food is emptied from the stomach into the small intestine is influenced by a number of factors:

The volume of the solution
The caloric content
The osmolality of the meal
The temperature
The pH
The caffeine
The menstrual period
The level of fitness

Exercise intensity

Gastric emptying of carbohydrate-containing beverages or water increases during low to moderate intensity exercise (30-60 % of HRM) compared to the resting state, whereas it basically decreases during very high intensity exercise, which exceeds 80% of HRM. It has occasionally been found that even at high intensity, gastric emptying can increase, which seems to be due to the increase in intragastric pressure caused by the contractile activity of the abdominal muscles, especially during weight training.

Still, the degree of gastric emptying varies from person to person, especially in exercises of less than maximal intensity. These variations are related to the level of training, the type of exercise and the digestion time of the food.

Duration of exercise

There is not enough data on the effect of exercise duration on gastric emptying rate. One study found shows that no differences in gastric emptying were found after cycling at an intensity rate of less than 80% of Maximum Heart Rate at different time intervals.

Sedentary life

People who are sedentary have the following 5 most serious gastrointestinal problems:

Crohn's disease (inflammation of the ileum)
Ulcerative colitis (a disease affecting the large intestine)
Appendicitis (inflammation of the appendix)
Mesenteric adenitis (inflammation in the mesenteric lymph nodes)
Diarrhoea

In any case, more research in the literature on the long-term effects of type, frequency and intensity of exercise on bowel function needs to be done.

For those who have a specific issue with their bowel and digestive system in general, we recommend discussion and guidance from the appropriate physician. However, in general, the guidelines we can give for exercise, without negatively affecting but just as much as improving the condition, are summarized here:

Select by basis medium intensity exercise
Leave a comment the pre-workout meal should be 2 to 4 hours away from the workout (depending on quality and volume)
Exercises Yoga & Pilates are very good options
Reduce stress with low-intensity activities and diaphragmatic breaths before you eat and sleep.
Hydrate right

Regular physical activity through exercise is clearly a desirable goal, as it improves the overall health of the gastrointestinal system, contributing to the prevention and treatment of other gastrointestinal conditions and diseases, and has been shown to improve the quality of life of constipation sufferers.