Can you discuss the role of breath in Pilates and how it can enhance the benefits of the practice?
Breath is an important part of pilates and can be used to engage the deep core muscles. By focusing on the movement of the rib cage, it can improve the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide and make a connection between mind and body. Transcript: "Can I discuss the role of breath and pilates and how it can enhance the benefits of the practice? We use our breath to engage our deep core musculature, transversus abdominus. The deepest of our for abdominal muscles, generates its energy from oxygen. So we want to use that breath to get the right level of Engagement. Let's try that now, place your hands on your belly and just let it be very soft, won't you take a breath in through the nose and then exhale, through the mouth? a mouth and just start to draw the skin away from your And do that again, take a breath in through the nose as you exhale, like you're blowing out a birthday candle to start to feel that abdominal wall flat. Now test that, can you maintain that connection on your next? Inhale if you had trouble you may have been going to deepen your engagement of your muscles so that breath can allow us to have that understanding of what degree of Engagement we want to have. The thing I think about is the movement of the rib cage. When we have the best optimal movement of the ribcage, we get the best exchange of gases O2, in CO2 out. So imagine these bottom ribs, they're like the handles on the shopping baskets, the supermarkets or like bucket handles, you want them to lift and lower on your breath, place your hands on your bottom ribs here as you inhale, start to feel the ribs lift up and then exhale close down. And it now I'm not lifting and lowering my shoulders. I'm Just feeling that movement of the rib cage. Also, we never think about breathing. We take 20,000 breaths a day. We never think about them. Once we do, we're making that connection between mind and body. So asking yourself questions like, where does my breath originated from my shoulders, my belly. What is the quality of my breath? Is it flowing? Is it stuck when we can answer those questions and then make changes? We're going to enhance our practice. Yeah."
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2 Answers
Carol Earle
Pilates Instructor and Movement Specialist
Can I discuss the role of breath and pilates and how it can enhance the benefits of the practice? We use our breath to engage our deep core musculature, transversus abdominus. The deepest of our for abdominal muscles, generates its energy from oxygen. So we want to use that breath to get the right level of Engagement. Let's try that now, place your hands on your belly and just let it be very soft, won't you take a breath in through the nose and then exhale, through the mouth? a mouth and just start to draw the skin away from your And do that again, take a breath in through the nose as you exhale, like you're blowing out a birthday candle to start to feel that abdominal wall flat. Now test that, can you maintain that connection on your next? Inhale if you had trouble you may have been going to deepen your engagement of your muscles so that breath can allow us to have that understanding of what degree of Engagement we want to have. The thing I think about is the movement of the rib cage. When we have the best optimal movement of the ribcage, we get the best exchange of gases O2, in CO2 out. So imagine these bottom ribs, they're like the handles on the shopping baskets, the supermarkets or like bucket handles, you want them to lift and lower on your breath, place your hands on your bottom ribs here as you inhale, start to feel the ribs lift up and then exhale close down. And it now I'm not lifting and lowering my shoulders. I'm Just feeling that movement of the rib cage. Also, we never think about breathing. We take 20,000 breaths a day. We never think about them. Once we do, we're making that connection between mind and body. So asking yourself questions like, where does my breath originated from my shoulders, my belly. What is the quality of my breath? Is it flowing? Is it stuck when we can answer those questions and then make changes? We're going to enhance our practice. Yeah.
Cheryl Alden, PT
Pilates based physical therapist, instructor/trainer
Can you discuss the rule of breath in Pilates and how it can enhance the benefits of the practice. Every movement in Pilates can be correlated to either an inhale or an exhale. When we inhale, our spine has a tendency to extend. And when we exhale, our spine has a tendency to flex. We can use this to our advantage in Pilates. When we flex or round our spine an exhale is generally associated with the movement to help engage the core and create movement. Conversely, when we extend the spine like in swan dive, we inhale to allow the ribs to open and the spine to extend. Like all things, However, this can change. We can use the exhale to help with the connection of the muscles to help provide strength and stability throughout an exercise while performing any movement. Using the inhale as a preparatory breath. We can also use the breath to challenge the body to flex with an inhale. In some more advanced exercises like jack knife and scissors and air. The most important thing to remember, however, is that inhales flow into exhales. Don't hold your breath. Sometimes our bodies want to inhale when we cue an exhale and the reverse, which is absolutely fine. Just keep breathing.