25 Ways to Get Rid of Gas and Bloating

Home Remedies for Gas and Bloating: Foods, Intolerances, Posture and Teas That Get to the Root

Written by Montoya Sigafoose, founder of Home Remedy Shop · Medically reviewed by Veronique Claes d’Erckenteel, D.C., chiropractor since 1991 · Last reviewed: 23 October 2026

The fastest way to relieve gas and bloating is to move it out: get into child’s pose or hug your knees to your chest, try to burp on purpose, walk for 10 to 15 minutes, put a hot water bottle on your belly and massage it clockwise, and sip a warm peppermint tea. Stay upright rather than lying flat, and on the toilet put a small stool under your feet so you’re in a squat. Most trapped gas eases within 15 to 30 minutes. If it keeps coming back, the cause is usually your food, an intolerance or your posture (see our home remedies for gas). Get help straight away for severe or sudden belly pain, chest pain, vomiting, blood in your stool or fever.

Gas is normal: we all pass it 10 to 20 times a day. But when it gets trapped, it can feel like a balloon inflating in your belly, or like sharp, stabbing pains under your ribs, in your back or even your shoulder. This guide is all about gas relief at home in the moment: the best positions for gas relief, yoga poses, how to release trapped gas, how to make yourself burp, and how to relieve gas pain depending on where it hurts. When the worst is over, read our home remedies for gas and bloating to stop it at the source. For the bigger picture, see our guide to healing your gut naturally, or browse all our natural home remedies.

Table of Contents

• How to Relieve Gas and Bloating Fast
• Trapped Gas Relief
• Positions for Gas Relief: 7 Yoga Positions That Work
• How to Make Yourself Burp to Relieve Gas
• Use a Toilet Stool: Squat, Don’t Sit
• Exercise for Gas Relief
• How to Relieve Gas Pain: Where It Hurts
• Peppermint Tea and Other Teas for Fast Gas Relief
• Gas Relief in Pregnancy
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Relieve Gas and Bloating Fast

Do these in order, and stop when you feel relief:

1. Stand up and walk for 10 to 15 minutes. Movement pushes gas through the gut: in people with bloating, gentle exercise helped clear trapped gas faster (Villoria et al., 2006).
2. Stay upright: gas moves through the intestines more easily when you’re upright than when you’re lying flat on your back (Dainese et al., 2003).
3. Get into child’s pose for 1 to 3 minutes, then hug your knees to your chest.
4. Burp on purpose if the pressure is high up, under your breastbone.
5. Apply heat: a hot water bottle or warm towel on your belly for 15 minutes relaxes cramping muscles.
6. Massage clockwise around your belly button for 5 to 10 minutes.
7. Sip a warm tea: peppermint, ginger or fennel.

Avoid fizzy drinks, chewing gum and drinking through a straw while you’re bloated: they all add air.

Trapped Gas Relief

Trapped gas happens when gas collects in a bend of the intestines and can’t move on. It’s often worse after a big meal, after sitting for a long time, when you’re constipated, or when you’re stressed and your belly is tense. It feels like sharp, stabbing or cramping pain, a tight, swollen belly, and pressure that shifts around.

For trapped gas relief, combine three things: movement (walking, the positions below), heat and massage, and relaxing your belly. Many of us hold our belly in all day; let it go soft, breathe slowly into it, and the gas often starts to move. Swallowing air makes it worse: chewing gum, for example, increases the amount of air you swallow (Silva et al., 2015).

If you get trapped gas often, the cause is usually something you eat or drink (coffee with milk is a big one), an intolerance, or your posture. We cover all of these in our home remedies for gas.

Positions for Gas Relief: 7 Yoga Positions That Work

The best positions for gas relief gently compress the belly, twist it, or let gravity help gas along the large intestine. Hold each for 30 seconds to 3 minutes, breathing slowly.

1. Child’s pose (baby pose)

The quickest way I know to release trapped gas, and the best position for gas relief to start with. It gently compresses the belly while your back stretches.

• Kneel, sit back on your heels and spread your knees a little.
• Fold forward until your forehead rests on the floor or a cushion; arms long in front or along your sides.
• Breathe slowly into your belly and back for 1 to 3 minutes.

2. Knees to chest (wind-relieving pose)

Its yoga name, pavanamuktasana, literally means wind-relieving pose.

• Lie on your back and hug both knees to your chest (or one at a time).
• Hold for 30 seconds while breathing deeply, then rock gently side to side.
• Repeat 3 to 5 times.

3. Happy baby

Opens the hips and relaxes the pelvic floor so gas can pass.

• Lie on your back, bend your knees towards your armpits and hold the outsides of your feet.
• Let your knees drop wide and rock slowly for 1 minute.

4. Cat-cow

Moves the whole belly with the breath, like an internal massage.

• On hands and knees, breathe in and let your belly drop as you look up (cow).
• Breathe out and round your back towards the ceiling (cat).
• Repeat slowly 10 times.

For trapped gas

My clockwise tummy massage oil

When gas is stuck and my belly is tight, I lie down with my knees bent and massage slowly clockwise with this light coconut oil and a drop of peppermint or fennel oil. Ten minutes, and things start moving.

• 1 tablespoon of oil with 1 to 2 drops of peppermint or fennel oil (adults)
• Clockwise circles around the belly button, 5 to 10 minutes
• Follow the line of the large intestine: up the right, across, down the left
• Pure coconut oil only for children; no peppermint oil under 2

Get the coconut oil I use

Affiliate link: we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

5. Supine twist

Twists squeeze and release the intestines.

• Lie on your back, pull your right knee to your chest and let it fall across to the left.
• Stretch your right arm out and look right; hold 30 to 60 seconds.
• Repeat on the other side.

6. Deep squat (garland pose)

The squat opens the pelvis, the same reason a toilet stool works.

• Stand with feet a little wider than your hips, toes slightly out.
• Lower into a deep squat, heels down (on a rolled towel if needed), palms together at the chest.
• Hold 30 to 60 seconds, breathing into the belly.

7. Lying on your left side

Your large intestine runs up the right side of your belly, across, and down the left. Lying on your left side lets gas follow that path.

• Lie on your left side with your knees slightly bent.
• Stay for 5 to 10 minutes, ideally with a warm compress on your belly.

Yoga is more than a quick fix: a 2025 meta-analysis found that regular yoga improved symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome (Saab et al., 2025).

How to Make Yourself Burp to Relieve Gas

If the gas sits high in your stomach, with fullness and pressure under your breastbone, burping on purpose is the quickest way to relieve it.

• Sit or stand up straight to open the path from the stomach.
• Take a sip of water, swallow a small amount of air, then gently push it back up.
• Lean forward slightly and tighten your belly, or gently press just below your breastbone.
• Walk around: movement often brings a burp up by itself.

Don’t swallow lots of air to force it, and don’t make it a habit: repeatedly swallowing air to burp can create more gas in the long run.

Use a Toilet Stool: Squat, Don’t Sit

Ideally, put a little stool under your feet when you go to the bathroom, so your knees come up higher than your hips and you’re more in a squat than sitting normally on the toilet. That’s the most natural way for us to actually go to the bathroom: it straightens the last bend of the bowel, so stool and gas pass more easily. In a study of people who started using a toilet stool, bowel movements became quicker, with less straining and a more complete feeling of emptying (Modi et al., 2019). Any stool of 15 to 20 cm works; lean forward slightly with your elbows on your knees.

Exercise for Gas Relief

A short walk after meals is one of the simplest ways to prevent gas from getting trapped in the first place. Cycling, gentle jogging, swimming and dancing all keep the gut moving. In the Villoria study, people with bloating cleared gas much better when they pedalled gently on an exercise bike than when they sat still (Villoria et al., 2006).

When you exercise, pay attention to your breathing too. Your ribs and lungs need to expand fully to give your intestines enough space: flare your ribs open as if you’re taking a big breath in, then gently tighten your core. Slouching and shallow chest breathing push the belly out and squeeze the gut, a pattern found in many people with chronic bloating (Villoria et al., 2011). Read more about posture and bloating in our home remedies for gas.

How to Relieve Gas Pain: Where It Hurts

Intestinal gas pain can show up in surprising places, because gas collects in the bends of the intestines and presses on nerves and organs around them. Painful gas relief depends a little on where you feel it.

How to relieve gas from the stomach

Fullness, cramping and pressure in the upper belly: sit up straight, burp on purpose, walk, and sip peppermint or ginger tea. Avoid lying down straight after a meal.

Gas pain under the ribs

Gas trapped in the upper bends of the large intestine, just under the ribs on the left or right. Lie on your left side, massage clockwise, do a supine twist and open your ribs with slow breaths.

Gas pain in the back

Trapped gas can press backwards and feel like back pain. Cat-cow, child’s pose, knees to chest and a hot water bottle on the lower back help.

Gas pain in the chest

Gas high in the stomach can cause a tight, pressing feeling in the chest that eases when you burp. Sit upright, burp and walk. Never assume chest pain is gas if it’s severe, spreads to the arm, jaw or back, or comes with shortness of breath, sweating or nausea: call emergency services.

Gas pain in the shoulder

Gas under the diaphragm can be felt as pain in the shoulder tip, because they share nerves. Walking, knees to chest and lying on your side usually help within hours. Shoulder-tip pain with severe belly pain, or after surgery, needs medical attention.

Peppermint Tea and Other Teas for Fast Gas Relief

A warm drink relaxes the gut, and some herbs help release gas.

• Peppermint tea for gas relief: peppermint relaxes the smooth muscle of the gut; peppermint oil eased pain and symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome in a meta-analysis (Ingrosso et al., 2022). Skip it if you have heartburn.
• Ginger tea: helps the stomach empty faster (Hu et al., 2011). Fresh slices, steeped 7 to 10 minutes.
• Fennel or caraway tea: traditional carminatives; 1 teaspoon of crushed seeds per cup, 10 minutes.
• Chamomile: calming in the evening when gas keeps you awake.

More herbs, spices and fermented foods are in our 8 home remedies for gas and bloating.

Gas Relief in Pregnancy

Pregnancy hormones slow digestion and the growing baby takes up space, so gas and bloating are very common. Safe ways to get relief: walk daily, eat smaller meals and sit upright after eating, lie on your left side, use a toilet stool, drink plenty of water, and sip ginger or chamomile tea. Child’s pose (with knees wide) and cat-cow are usually comfortable; skip deep twists and lying flat on your back later in pregnancy. Avoid essential oils on the belly without checking with your midwife.

Related Digestive Guides

• Home remedies for gas and bloating: foods, intolerances, posture and teas
• Healing your gut: a comprehensive guide
• Home remedies for severe indigestion
• Stomach ache remedies
• Home remedies for acid reflux

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you relieve gas and bloating fast?

Walk for 10 to 15 minutes, get into child’s pose or hug your knees to your chest, burp on purpose, use heat and a clockwise belly massage, and sip peppermint tea. Most gas eases within 15 to 30 minutes.

What is the best position for gas relief?

Child’s pose and lying on your back with your knees hugged to your chest. Lying on your left side and a deep squat also help gas move along.

How do you get rid of trapped gas?

Move (walk, positions, twists), apply heat, massage your belly clockwise, relax your belly and breathe into it, and avoid fizzy drinks and gum while it’s trapped.

How do you make yourself burp to relieve gas?

Sit up straight, take a sip of water or swallow a little air and gently push it up, or lean forward and tighten your belly. Walking often brings a burp up by itself.

How do you relieve gas pain?

Combine movement, heat and massage with the right position for where it hurts: left side lying for pain under the ribs, cat-cow for back pain, sitting upright and burping for stomach and chest pressure.

Can gas cause pain in the chest or shoulder?

Yes. Gas in the stomach can cause chest pressure and gas under the diaphragm can be felt in the shoulder. But never assume chest pain is gas if it’s severe or comes with shortness of breath, sweating or arm or jaw pain.

Does a toilet stool help with gas?

Yes. Raising your knees puts you in a squat, which straightens the bowel so stool and gas pass more easily.

Does walking help with gas?

Yes. Walking and gentle exercise help move gas through the gut, and a 10-minute walk after meals helps prevent it from getting trapped.

Is peppermint tea good for gas?

Yes, peppermint relaxes the gut muscles and is a classic tea for gas relief. Avoid it if you have heartburn or reflux.

Recommended

• Home Remedies for Gas and Bloating
• Healing Your Gut: A Comprehensive Guide
• How to Heal Leaky Gut
• More natural home remedies

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Veronique Cleas D'erckenteel

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