10 Yoga Poses for Thyroid that Work Wonders

Thyroid disorders are mainly caused due to malfunctioning of the thyroid gland as thyroxine is not secreted properly. There is an ancient natural remedy for this, any guesses?  Hint- it is not something you can consume but you can practice. Absolutely right its Yoga for thyroid.

This article is medically reviewed by Dr. Medhavi Jogi, MD Endocrinologist, and fact-checked by Nimish Deshpande Certified Yoga Teacher.

Thyroid issues not only cause serious disorders like goiter, but it also affects your self-confidence and outlook towards life.

However, by using yoga as a weapon that has numerous health benefits, you can fight such disorders easily.

In this post, we have shared some amazing and simple yoga asanas which will help in balancing your thyroid hormone. Let us learn yoga for thyroid in this post (1).

Further Reading:

Power Yoga a Complete Guide (Yoga Poses, Benefits & History)

Effective Yoga Exercises for Eyes

Thyroid Related Issues

There are several thyroid-related health problems as discussed below.

• Hyperthyroidism: The cause of hyperthyroidism is excessive secretion of thyroxine. The common symptoms are excessive weight loss ( due to increased metabolism), irregular heartbeat, etc.
• Hypothyroidism: Lower than normal levels of thyroxine result in hypothyroidism. The symptoms are not visible quickly but over time you would experience fatigue, obesity, infertility, joint pain, etc.
• Goiters: In goiter, the thyroid gland enlarges than its normal size. Iodine deficiency generally leads to this health condition.
• Thyroid cancer: Around 5 percent of the total population of the world have carcinogenic cells in their thyroid nodules. The causes of thyroid cancer could be genetic or environmental factors, but there is no conclusive evidence.
• Thyroiditis: It is inflammation of the thyroid gland and if not treated in time can lead to hyperthyroidism and later to hypothyroidism.
• Grave’s disease: It is an autoimmune disorder, the attack of your immune system on thyroid causes hyperthyroidism i.e. Grave’s disease (3).

Improper secretion of thyroxine or triiodothyronine can lead to most of these health issues.

A healthy lifestyle and practicing yoga every day can potentially reduce the chances of such thyroid issues.

A study that focused on yoga and its effect on TSH found some supporting results. A group of women practiced yoga for 6 months and it was concluded that yoga may help in improving serum TSH levels.  It may also help in reducing the thyroxine requirement in female patients suffering from hypothyroidism (2).

Yoga Poses for Thyroid

Yoga is good for your health and keeps you fit. There are several kinds of asanas that you can try out to deal with thyroid problems.

Even though it might seem a bit difficult at first, it is quite easy.

1. Matsyasana (Fish Pose)

Mastyasana is also known as the yoga fish pose.

It provides stretch to the throat region and stimulates the thyroid gland. This yoga asana helps in maintaining the health of the thyroid gland and in turn, ensures a normal level of thyroxin.

Matsyasana is a good yoga pose for building strength.

How to do Matsyasana

There are a few steps that you need to follow before you do the Matsyasana.

1. Lie flat on the ground. Keep your legs together and hands by your side.
2. Place your palm underneath your hips facing the ground and place your elbows closer.
3. Cross your legs as shown in the image above.
4. Keep your knees and thighs in a position to touch the ground. Your feet are crossed in the middle. Relax and breathe normally.
5. As you inhale, raise your head, as well as your chest to form an arc. For reference see the above image.
6. Maintain this position as long as you are comfortable.
7. Exhale while bringing down the shoulders to starting position. At first, drop your head, chest, and untangle your legs.

Precautions

In order to do this asana properly,  put your body weight on your elbows. Never try to put your body weight on your head.

After you have lifted your chest, pressurize your shoulder lightly.

Benefits

• Matsyasana helps you to fight thyroid problems by helping you to stretch your neck region.
• It helps to stimulate the gland that produces thyroxine i.e thyroid gland.

2. Halasana (Plow Pose)

Plow pose or Halasana is beneficial in hypothyroidism.

It stimulates the thyroid gland by providing the required stretch. With regular practice, the thyroid gland helps in secreting the required amount of thyroxine.

Avoid doing this asana more than 3-4 times if you are suffering from hyperthyroidism because more stimulus can work against you.

This asana is part of various yoga sequences because of numerous health benefits.

How to do Halasana

1. Lie down on the floor. Keep your hands by your side and your palm facing the ground.
2. Breathe in and slowly lift your legs from the ground. Be careful as you have to use only your abdominal muscles to lift your legs. Always keep your legs at a ninety-degree angle while performing this asana.
3. Use your hands to lift your hips. Your hands will provide the required support to lift your hips from the floor.
4. In the next step, keep your feet at a one-eighty degree angle so that you can place the toes over your head.
5. Keep your back straight perpendicular to the ground. Maintain this posture for some time. Meanwhile, you have to focus on your breathing.
6. After 10-15 sec, bring your legs down slowly. Breathe out while you are getting back to your normal position.

Benefits

Halasana exerts pressure on your neck region. It helps to stimulate the thyroid gland to maintain the required production of thyroxine.

Further Reading:

Facial Yoga Exercises to Get Wrinkle-free, Young and Slim Face

Yoga for Piles: Yoga Poses for Relief in Fissures, Hemorrhoids

3. Bhujangasana  (Cobra Pose)

This asana got its name from King Cobra.  The cobra pose is 8th  among the 12 asanas sequence of Surya Namaskar.

In cobra pose, you feel the stretch on various muscles of the thorax region. It improves the functioning of the endocrine system.

With the proper functioning of the pituitary gland, the normal amount of TSH is released. TSH or Thyroid Stimulating Hormone stimulates the thyroid gland to produce T4 (Thyroxine) and T3 (Triiodothyronine).

How to do Bhujangasana

1. Lie down on your stomach, rest your hands by your side.
2. Keep your feet together so that they are in contact with each other.
3. Next, move your hands in the front, at the shoulder level. Your palms need to touch the floor.
4. Place all of your body weight on your palms.
5. Breathe in and raise your trunk and head slowly like that of Cobra.
6. At this point, bend your arms at your elbow region. Replicate the position of a cobra with a raised hood.
7. For that, keep your shoulders firm and away from your ears.
8. Press your body against the floor and stay in this position for around 30 – 15 seconds. Breathe easily in order to feel stretch in the throat and stomach region.
9. In order to relax from this position, start breathing out slowly and bring your hands to your side. Rest your forehead on the floor.
10. With practice, you can hold this position for more than 2 minutes.

Benefits

• This asana is good at dealing with stress and fatigue.
• Bhujangasana helps to regulate the activity of your thyroid gland. This involves several sorts of stretching and compressing activities near the neck region, resulting in good health of the thyroid gland.

4. Setubandhasana (Bridge Pose)

This asana helps you to relax your body and is part of various yoga sessions. ‘Setu’ means bridge and ‘Bandh’ means the lock. You have to pose like a bridge in this asana.

In Setubandhasana, the neck region is compressed. This compression provides the required stimulus to the thyroid gland.

How to do Setubandhasana

1. Lie on the ground, relax your body, and breathe normally.
2. Bend your legs so that your feet touch the ground and keep half a foot distance between them.
3. Rest your arms beside your body with your palm facing downward.
4. Inhale and lift the lower part of your body to form an arch. Sequence for raising the body is waist-back-shoulders.
5. Roll your shoulders in and touch your chin to your chest.
6. Let your arms and shoulders take your whole body weight.
7. Make your butt muscles firm while keeping your legs parallel to each other.
8. Interlace your fingers so that you can lift your torso region higher.
9. Breathe slowly during the whole process and after a few seconds, relax your body.

Benefits

This asana will help you to tone as well as stretch your neck region where the thyroid gland is located. It will help you to open your lungs up and reduce all of your thyroid problems.

Further Reading:

Yoga for Depression

Yoga poses for high blood pressure

5. Shirsasana (Headstand)

“Shirsh” means head and asana means pose. The headstand is difficult asana but with practice, you can master it.

How to do Shirsasana

1. Sit on your knees. Interlock your hand fingers and place your hands in the front.
2. Place your head in your palms and push your legs up in the air to perform a headstand. Maintain your body in a straight line.
3. If you are a beginner you might feel difficulty in maintaining the balance. You can do this asana with the support of the wall.
4. Stay in this position for 15 to 20 seconds.
5. Breathe normally and later bring your legs down.

Benefits

This asana helps in the stimulation of various organs and glands in your body. It helps in the proper blood circulation.

Hre is an informative video from YogaTX

6. Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)

It is also known as Urdava Chakrasana. Dhanura means bow so you have to take the shape of a bow while performing this asana.

Dhanurasana provides a good stretch to the thorax region. It improves the health of the thyroid gland and keeps you away from various thyroid issues.

Dhanurasana also acts as a good yoga asana to improve digestion.

How to do Dhanurasana

1. Lie flat on your stomach and keep your hands by your side. Keep your feet wide apart.
2. Fold your knees and with your hands hold your ankles.
3. Inhale slowly and pull your body upwards in order to resemble a bow.
4. Keep your head straight while performing this asana.
5. Maintain your position for 15-20 seconds.
6. Breathe out and come back to the original position.

Benefits

• This asana will help you to improve your blood circulation and stretch your neck muscles.
• The thyroid gland will stay healthy. It provides stretch to the stomach, hands, etc, and helps in improving flexibility.

7. Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations)

Surya Namaskar means ‘salutation to the sun’. It is a 12 step sequence and preferred to be done early in the morning.

As sun salutations consist of so many poses, it has many health benefits. It can help to improve the entire endocrine system function.

How to do Surya Namaskar

1. The first step is Pranamasana. Stand up and keep your feet together. Balance your bodyweight equally on both your legs.
2. Inhale and expand your chest. Lift your arms and while exhaling, keep your hands in front in the prayer pose. In Hasta uttanasana, you have to breathe in while keeping you’re your arms up and placing your biceps close to your ears. Stretch your body from top to bottom while you are performing this asana.
3. In the Hasta Padasana, breathe out and bend forward to touch your feet. Make sure that your spine is erect during the whole process.
4. The next asana is Ashwa Sanchalanasana. Bring your right knee forward and push the left leg back.
5. In Dandasana or  The Stick pose, take the right knee backward and keep your body in a line. Inhale while doing so.
6. The next step is Ashtanga Namaskara asana. Bring your knees together and press it against the ground. Maintain the contact between your chest and ground. Raise your hip as well as your posterior position and exhale.
7. The next step is Bhujangasana, raise your head to form the hooded cobra position. Maintain a distance between your shoulders and your ears.
8. In Adho Mukha asana, maintain an inverted ‘V’ position where your tailbone should be placed high above the ground.
9. As part of Ashwasanchalana Asana, keep your right knee forward and stretch your left leg backward.
10. In Hastapadasana, bend down and touch your feet.
11. The next step is Hastauttasana, bend backward, and join your hands in prayer position.
12. The final asana is Tadasana, where you relax your body and place your hands by your side.

Benefits

Surya Namaskar helps you to deal with obesity. It deals with the improper production of thyroxine by stimulating the thyroid gland.

8. Shishuasana (Child Pose)

It is also called ‘The Child Pose’, because of its resemblance to the sitting posture of a child.

This is a beginner yoga asana and can be performed by anyone. The forward bend provides a good stretch to the back, back of the neck, etc.

How to do Shishuasana

1. Sit on your heels and rest your hips. Bend your head forward so that your forehead touches the ground.
2. Keep your arms by your side.
3. Slowly press your chest and maintain this position for 15 – 20 seconds.

Benefits

• This asana can be highly beneficial as it helps you to relax your back muscles.
• It helps in the proper functioning of your nervous system. Your thyroid gland will work effectively.

Further Reading:

Prenatal Yoga Poses

Yoga for Back Pain

9. Marjariasana (Cat-Cow Pose)

This asana is also famous for its other name, the cat-cow pose. It acts as an excellent stretch out exercise for the stomach, back, and throat.

How to do Marjariasana

1. Come on your fours so that your back resembles a table.
2. Keep your knees apart and place arms in such a way that it is perpendicular to the floor.
3. Look forward while you are performing this asana and inhale.
4. Raise your tailbone up and stay in this position for a few seconds.
5. After some time, relax and return back to your table position.
6. In the next step, push your stomach down to form an arch. Come back to the original position.

Benefits

• Apart from making your spine more flexible, it also improves your blood circulation and massages your neck region.
• It helps in the stimulation of your thyroid gland so that it functions properly. It is also helpful in regulating the menstrual cycle.

10. Viparitkarni Asana

Viparit means ‘inverted’ whereas Karni means ‘doing’. It is a restorative asana and helps you to be healthy.

Even if this asana looks simple, it has many health benefits.

How to do Viparrit Karni

1. Find an open space and see that you sit near a wall.
2. Let the left side of your body by touching the wall and spread your feet properly.
3. Exhale as you lie on your back, with the soles of your feet pressed against the wall.
4. Your leg should be placed in an upright position.
5. Press your butt to the wall or place it a few inches away from it.
6. Your body has to form a proper ninety-degree angle.
7. Hands should support hips and you have to hold this position for 5 minutes. Breathe properly during the whole asana.

Benefits

It gives the back of your neck a good massage and helps in the proper functioning of the thyroid glands. The secretion of thyroxine is facilitated if you perform this asana.

Foods for Thyroid

The thyroid problem can be cured by proper exercise and food. You can try the above-given exercises daily. Along with that take proper diet and sleep.

If you are suffering from thyroid issues, follow the thyroid diet. You can read the articles on the best thyroid diet foods and foods to avoid with the thyroid.

Yoga has a lot of health benefits. Along with medicines, practicing yoga will help you fight with problems such as Thyroid and other hormonal disorders.