03/24/2026
PART 22 PILATES TIPS: how to properly breathe in Pilates!! 🫁
Breath is one of the 6 Pilates principles 🌬️ and is SO IMPORTANT to incorporate throughout your practice - if you’re not using your breath to move through each exercise, it’s not Pilates..your breath combined with your core (aka your “powerhouse”) motors every movement that you’re doing!
Joseph Pilates always said “to breathe correctly you must completely inhale and exhale…the complete inhalation and exhalation of air stimulates all muscles into greater activity.” Let’s break it down a bit more:
👉🏼UNDERSTANDING THE INHALE:
You always want to inhale through your nose on the expansion, lengthening, preparation of an exercise. During the inhale you want to think about really breathing in through your ribs, 3 dimensional, diaphragmatic breathing expanding in all directions!
👉🏼UNDERSTANDING THE EXHALE:
Exhale out of your mouth audibly through pursed lips - the exhale will always be on the exertion of a movement and will include deep core engagement.
👉🏼UNDERSTANDING THE POWERHOUSE:
Every move in Pilates is powered from this area because it’s what stabilizes your body, the powerhouse is the center of your body - including everything from the bottom of your ribs to the top of your hips and bottom of your pelvis.
👉🏼PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE:
Your breath should be intentional throughout an entire Pilates practice - your teacher will guide you on WHERE to inhale and exhale in each move and this is purposeful. Typically an inhale will be on spinal extension and an exhale will be on spinal flexion. You will be laterally breathing while doing pilates exercises - really focusing on the ribcage expansion and closing, which helps to keep your core stable (keeping the “corset” of you abdominal wall engaged even as you intake air) - and the level engagement will vary depending on the exercise you’re doing. Think about it like a dial it could be 30% vs. 100% effort.
Make sense?! Any questions, let me know!!
