Pilates Breathing Technique

Posted on 21/10/2020 by Lyndsay in Recommendations Advice Tips & Guides

Share Article:

Pilates Breathing Technique

Pilates Breathing

 

Image showing correct breathing technique

 

All too often I hear my patients say the Pilates breathing technique feels the wrong way round, they often want to inhale when I am asking them to exhale.

When you understand how the 'core' works you can then appreciate why we breath the way we do in Pilates. We use the breathing technique in Pilates to improve the activation of the deep tummy muscle and pelvic floor.

As you inhale your diaphragm contracts and flattens, which pushes your internal organs further down into the abdominal cavity forcing the pelvic floor muscle and abdominal muscles to control a slight release in order to accommodate extra space for the organs.

As we exhale the diaphragm moves back up into the chest cavity and we have a natural reflex of our pelvic floor and transverse abdominus muscle contracting. Therefore we want to train our core in the same way by exhaling when we want our 'core' to be most active during movement. Exhale on the effort part of the exercise for best technique.

Try this: Take a deep breath into the base of your lungs, feel the ribs expand out to the sides. Now as you exhale imagine you are blowing 100 candles out on a cake, did you feel as your continued to exhale the abdominal muscles contract? Why not try using this technique with one of our videos now!

Related to this article

Get in touch