How important is when you breathe in Pilates?
Breathing and Pilates. Pilates and Breathing. How important is breathing in your Pilates workout? Is it something that has to be learned in the beginning? When to inhale in that particular Pilates exercise? When to exhale in another Pilates exercise? Should it be the thing that as Pilates teachers or clients you are the most focused on? There are many thoughts on the importance of the breathing in Pilates so, I am just going to give you my thoughts on Pilates Breathing.
Joseph Pilates said “Lazy breathing converts the lungs, literally and figuratively speaking, into a cemetery for the deposition of diseased, dying and dead germs”. Sounds awful but what Joseph Pilates meant by this was even when we are exercising hard, only about 50 percent of the air in our lungs gets expelled out. Joseph Pilates believed that the air left in our lungs “was a haven for a multiplication of harmful germs” and sought through his exercises to purge the lungs, thus cleaning our systems. This was as he put it “the equivalent of an internal shower”.
In Pilates we want to breathe through the entire movement of the exercises, not holding the breath but, having it flow just like the exercises.
Does this mean that each exercise has a specific breathing pattern? Inhale here and exhale here?
The answer is a little all over the map in my opinion. There are exercises like the Hundred with the specific inhale for 5 counts and exhale for 5, Coordination on the Reformer and inhaling and continuing that until the legs pull back in with that exhale, the Footwork on the Reformer inhaling as you press the carriage out and exhaling as you pull it back in.
When it comes to movement in Pilates historically it has also been inhaling as you extend and exhaling as you go into flexion. This one to me just makes sense in what naturally wants to happen for our breath. Great examples of this are Swan and inhaling as you extend into the move as well as the Roll up and exhaling as you roll up into flexion.
Now, what about all those exercises that are not included in these few? This is the moment I go with the thought process of Kathy Grant, a first-generation teacher who said breathing in Pilates was an advanced move.
This is something I tell my clients and students when they first begin Pilates. There is so much you are learning as you begin Pilates so let’s just breathe.
When our body becomes stressed or finds something too difficult and thinks this can’t happen, we hold our breath. We don’t breathe. It is the body saying “stop, I am not sure about this”
Pilates teachers can guide in the beginning to inhale, and exhale but, the focus should not be “oh wait..I messed up and inhaled and didn’t exhale.” We should just be breathing fully, inhaling as much as we can and exhaling as Joseph Pilates said to get that “internal shower”
For someone who is new to Pilates or learning a new more challenging exercise, the focus is usually on what the body needs to do for that person. The choreography of the move. Finding the connections in the body to get that mobility and stability needed for the exercise. In these moments the breathing should just be something that is happening to move through the difficult parts for that client.
To stop to focus on do I breathe here or here takes the brain and that full-body movement and exploration away from the client. All that is in the mind is to inhale now, exhale now.
Think about it this way. Do we walk around all day thinking take a step now inhale, take this step and exhale. Of course not. We just walk and we are breathing. Now, when we are in the water and swimming it changes right? We exhale in the water and turn our head to inhale and back in to exhale. We have to learn that as we begin swimming as kids but, soon it becomes just memory of movement. We feel less like we are just thrashing around and swallowing water the whole time.
Pilates is learning in the same way. When we first begin we may “thrash” around a bit ( it can sure feel like that) as we get the springs and apparatus to “talk” to our bodies. We may hold our breath when we get overwhelmed with what we are being asked to do. The important thing is just to breathe.
Take that inhale and let that exhale go and keep moving. It is ok as long as we are breathing.
In my sessions with clients I very rarely cue the breath unless I see they are not breathing then I say “are you breathing?” and I usually get “oh, no..I forgot” to which I say “well, remember to breathe”.
What I have found after 30 years of teaching Pilates is that breathing comes and it is not what I want the client most concerned with in the beginning. This thought process I have found leads to the clients then truly focusing on what is going on for their body, muscles, and movement. They are breathing and when they hold that breath? I let them know to breathe all the way through it, keep breathing.
If that breath won’t come? Then we need to find another way to build to the movement where they are breathing and not taking that body into an “I can’t do this” moment.
Joseph Pilates was trying to in a way exaggerate how important breathing is. He believed If you are able to control your breathing correctly you are able to exercise in the right way.
In the journey and practice of Pilates for each individual that control and breathing correctly will come. The more that exercise and movement are found in the body the breath becomes more controlled and this is truly a beautiful thing to see as a teacher and feel as a client.
Next time you hit the mat or come into the studio just breathe. It will just feel good, your body will go with it and you will leave feeling that “internal shower” and if you are just starting Pilates then just keep breathing, don’t worry so much on how or when.