Your Pilates breathing will probably be different than how you are used to breathing.

Well, actually, breathing is not something we are used to paying a whole heck of a lot of attention to is it?  If you are alive you are breathing. (Good news every day here on my little blog...) If you are alive then your body has found some way to get oxygen.  It's interesting, though, how the body can make compensations for past injuries and especially for stress that, in turn, changes the efficiency of breathing.  If you are asthmatic, you understand this.  But what about back pain?  You'd be surprised at how much back pain, or any pain, creates long-term changes in how we breathe.  Stress and any compensations that we make for current or past pathologies, make breathing more labored.  So you are could be making the simple act of breathing harder than it needs to be.  Weird, huh?  How hard can you be making it if you don't have to think about it?  You'd be suprised. 

For instance, did you know that the poor little diaphragm (okay, yes, it is actually quite a large muscle) could be doing (SHOULD be doing) a large part of the work for breathing.  The diaphragm should be working mindlessly to help you breathe.  But for most of us, it could be working more. The diaphragm is supposed to lower and move out of the way so the lungs can expand on the inhale.  If the diaphragm doesn't move out of the way then something else has to... something north of the lungs... something that we are always complaining about being tight and sore... something that your arms are attached to... Are you getting it?  Yep, it is the shoulders and the base of the neck.  But more about that next time. 

For now, focus on breathing into the sides and backs of your ribcage when you are doing Pilates exercises.  You have to mentally direct the breath into these places before it will happen.  There are a couple of easy ways to make this happen.  One is to lie on your back with your knees up and the soles of your feet down.  From this position, breathe deeply so that the lowest ribs on your back are trying to reach for the mat.  Another way to try this is to curl up in Child's Pose.  Child's Pose is a yoga position that places you on your knees, sitting on your heels and then your head drops down over your knees.  Your arms are by your sides or reaching in front of you.  Now, breathe deeply into the lowest ribs of your back. In this position, the rest of your body is essentially trapped so it makes it much easier to breathe into those low ribs. 

Please note that in the video, the shoulders of our model are rising. This is typical but also what we are trying to avoid when we are breathing into the backs and sides of the ribcage.  

Why do we breathe into the back of the ribcage in Pilates?  Breathing so that the shoulders rise and fall with each breath, is simply ineffective.  Diaphragmatic breathing (which this also is not) expands the tummy on the inhale.  In Pilates, we are trying to keep those abdominal muscles working for us during the entire session. If we inhale and expand the abdominal area then we are essentially stretching the stomach muscles on each inhale and it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to keep those muscles working for us.  

 

I'd be happy to help you with any questions.  Karena