When you exercise, do you pay attention to how you breathe? Most people don’t.
When someone comes to pilates for the first time, they might be surprised to hear breathing cues. To understand the importance of breath and its impact on movement, let’s take a look at what happens when we breathe.
The act of breathing.
Inhalation allows the body to take in oxygen and deliver it to your muscles. The more oxygen you take in, the more efficient your muscles can work. Equally important is the exhale. In pilates, we want you to try to exhale all of the air out of your lungs. By doing this, you’ll be activating those deeper abdominal muscles and getting rid of carbon dioxide which, at the end of the day, allows for deeper oxygen intake.
Do you take shallow or deep breaths?
The following exercise will help you determine how you typically breathe.
Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet placed hip distance apart. Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. Now, take a deep breathe and notice if one hand rises and falls more than the other. If the hand on your chest rises and falls more so than the hand on the stomach, then you may be more of a shallow breather. If the hand on your stomach rises and falls more than the hand on the chest, then you are more of a diaphragmatic breather.
In pilates, we encourage you to breathe fully using your diaphragm. This will allow better oxygenation of the red blood cells, and lead to more efficient movement. If you tend to breathe in your upper chest, take a few minutes each day and focus on breathing into your low belly. You may be surpised what it can do for your exercise routine. In our next post, we’ll be discussing how diaphragmatic breathing benefits movement.