Pilates Principle: Breath

Breath

Out of the six generally agreed upon Pilates Principles, I would say that Breath is the potentially the most important (the others are: Flow, Concentration, Precision, Centring, & Control).

Maybe Joseph Pilates would agree?

One of his more well known quotes taken from his 1945 book, Return To Life is

“Above all learn how to breathe correctly”

But… what exactly is breathing correctly?

Good question.

First up, the Pilates Breathing is its own thing!

It’s not the breath you would use if you were singing. It’s not the breath you would use if you were meditating, doing yoga, or swimming. And it’s certainly not the breath you want to be using as you’re pushing your grocery cart up and down the aisles during your weekly shop. 

So, what exactly is it and why do we use it?  

Pilates breathing is described as posterior lateral breathing.

On the inhale this means that the practitioner tries to breathe deeply into the back and sides of the rib cage creating a feeling of loft & lift.

On the exhale the deep low abdominals (think bikini line just above the pubic bone) draw in and up.

One of the main reasons that we draw the low belly muscles in?

Through the contraction of the deepest layer of our abs, our transversus abdominis, we provide strength & support to our lumbar spine.

Here's a way to feel what happens on the inhale:

Hold the sides of your ribs, index finger to the front & thumb to the back (imaging holding your hips and sliding your hands up).

Once there practice breathing into the webbing of your hand towards your thumb feeling the rib cage spread apart. As you begin to exhale and without changing where your pelvic bones are, draw the low belly in, up, and back (like tightening the head of a drum on a slope from pubic bone to back of waist) feeling your ribs soften as you continue to empty your lungs.

If you wanna feel the exhale, place the heels of your hands on your hip bones with your fingers facing inwards towards your belly button. As you breathe out you should feel a subtle tightening under your skin.

Joseph Pilates saw the breath as cleansing and invigorating

Again, in Return to Life he very clearly laid out his thoughts on breathing which still ring true today.

Here’s a juicy quote:

”Since we cannot live without breathing, it is tragically deplorable to contemplate the millions and millions who have never learned to master the art of correct breathing. One often wonders how so many millions continue to live as long as they do under this tremendous handicap to longevity.”

 

Unfortunately even with the best intentions we can unknowingly ‘handicap our longevity’. There are a couple of traps we can fall into when we teach or practice Pilates that limit our full breathing!

Pilates Breathing Pitfall Number One:

photo by Jornada Produtora 

Be aware that with some Pilates cueing (draw the ribs together, knit the ribs, don’t let the ribs flare) it can be all too easy to limit the movement of the rib cage however, this is not a healthy nor functional way to approach the breath.

This is a biggie especially in the 100 curl, the ab series and most of the rolling exercises.

The main primary breathing muscle is the diaphragm and the other primary breathing muscles, .i.e. the ones essential for full breathing, are the intercostals (the muscles that lie in between the ribs) and the abdominals (I think we all know where they reside).

Did you know the diaphragm is responsible for 75% of our respiration? You can see then that we want to make extra sure that we’re not preventing it from doing its job.

If we don’t allow the diaphragm to move when we breathe we won’t actually be able to fill our lungs up to take a full breath. We’ll inhibit the movement of the ribs and then the mid back will be stiff and tight.

We’ll create what I call The Dragon Eating Its Tail:

The diaphragm doesn’t move, so the lungs don’t fill up, then the rib cage and spine stiffen, and the muscles including the diaphragm get tighter which means they don’t contract and release as easily and it becomes harder to take a full breath - and so it goes, the cycle repeats & repeats & repeats.

If this dysfunctional pattern continues we end up breathing with our secondary breathing muscles which are designed as breathing assisters, not primary movers, and guess what…

We become really inefficient breathers!

The secondary breathing muscles are in our neck and upper chest, they include the scalenes, (front of neck to upper ribs), the pecs, the sternocleidomastoid (behind the ear to sternum and collar bone) and the upper trapezius (those super tight bands on the tops of our shoulders).

If we lock down our diaphragm and don’t allow our ribs to move and shift into using our breathing “assisters” to do the job of the primary muscles, we become chest breathers. Some people call them “Sippers”.

If you’re a Sipper you might have headaches, upper back and shoulder pain, jaw tension and, breathing this way can even make you feel as though you're having a heart attack - Yikes! Not good!

Remember Mr. Pilates said not breathing correctly was a tremendous handicap to longevity?

He. Was. Right!!

Let me shout it from the rooftops:

Above all, learn how to breathe correctly!!

Pilates Breathing Pitfall Number Two: (& connected to pitfall one)

photo by mike hoydich 

We over contract the abdominals.

What??? Aren’t you supposed to be really, really, really using your abs?

Well yes, but this goes to the idea of efficiency.

If one of our goals as a Pilates practitioner is to become a more efficient mover then we have to balance the stability/mobility teeter totter.

• Too much stabilisation = not enough movement.
• Too much movement = not enough stability and support.

Let’s apply the Goldilocks Principle here:

Not too Hot

Not too cold

But JUST RIGHT

We need to find the ‘just right’ amount of abdominal support for the job at hand otherwise we lose our efficiency.

There’s another problem with pulling the belly in at 100%, 100% of the time, which is:

It can cause us to lock down our pelvic floor muscle(s) which is a problem cause these muscles should be able to contract and release - just like your biceps, just like your quads.

(I’m going to leave the pelvic floor deep dive for another blog post because it a big-ole topic, but just trust me when I tell you that over engagement of the pelvic floor leads to all sorts of dysfunction…) 

More Things Joseph Pilates had to say about the Breath:

He emphasised using a very full breath in his exercises, why?

Because he realised the value in increasing the intake of oxygen and the circulation of this oxygenated blood to every part of the body.

Think about it, our cells get nutrients from our blood and what powers our circulatory system is our breath.

Here he is again,

“The exercises have stirred you sluggish circulation into action and to performing its duty more effectively.”

AND

”Contrology exercises drive the pure fresh blood to every muscle fibre of our bodies…”

This is what he termed the “Internal Shower”

photo by Alberto Zanetti  - I know it’s an external shower to illustrate and internal shower but I like the photo!

Mr. Pilates also spoke about using a full exhale to allow for an easier inhale:

”To breathe correctly you must completely exhale and inhale, always trying very hard to “squeeze” every atom of impure air from your lungs in much the same manner that you would wring every drop of water from a wet cloth. When you stand erect again, the lungs will automatically completely refill themselves with fresh air.” 

Remember that I said the inhale is designed to provide buoyancy & lift? This way of breathing creates ease inside of the Pilates exercises - Yay!

https://unsplash.com/@marcsm

Ooh, here’s an aside just because it the coolest thing:

The diaphragm is connected to the heart through a line of fascia so that every time you let your diaphragm move and fully breathe you’re giving your heart a massage!!

photo by Braydon Anderson 

Generally the Pilates breath is taught to be in through the nose and out through the mouth. 

The way I was trained, the Pilates exercises are intimately coordinated with the breath, and using the breath properly is an integral part of getting the most out of each repetition, but…

I know that some teachers believe that the breath is not that important in Pilates or is too confusing for people to master which makes me kindov’ sad.

This is my opinion so please take it as such.

I understand not wanting to overload the beginning client with this very specific way to breathe, but just as we don’t expect them to catch on to the choreography of the exercises their very first time, we need to let them learn how to breathe.

Also, I find that if I layer the breath into the learning right from the get go, my clients begin to understand that Pilates is a full bodied as well as fully embodied Method.

Lastly there’s also this idea that if you’re teaching something called Pilates, and the dude that invented it clearly wrote about how important the breath was, why would you not think he was on to something?

Okay, off my soapbox now :) 

I’ll leave you with just one story:

In my previous career as a dancer the company I was in spent a good part of our contract year providing arts in education outreach to schools. We performed lecture demonstrations & taught movement master classes for the kiddies which was generally really fun except for that one time…

…Imagine 30 screaming kindergarteners in the middle of the world’s biggest gymnasium. Yeah no, it was not exactly one of my more successful teaching endeavours

Anyhoo, the script for the lec dems was always the same (no matter what the students’ ages or grades) and one of the first talking points was

The first dance we ever did was breathing! 

I love that!

We breathe to live!

We breathe to move!

We move to breathe!

We move to live!

What a wonderful dance.

Thanks for reading!

xBec

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this blog are not intended to amount to advice and Rebecca Forde disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this post

all uncredited photos by moi'