Breathwork is an essential tool that enhances your Pilates practice and overall well-being. It helps shift your body from stress to relaxation, promoting inner healing. Let’s explore what breathwork is, why it’s beneficial, and how to incorporate it into your routine.
What is Breathwork?
Breathwork refers to conscious breathing exercises aimed at improving mental, emotional, and physical health. It combines breath awareness (observing your natural breath) and controlled breathing techniques to bring balance to the nervous system, restoring the body to a “rest and digest” state.
Why Train the Breath?
Most of us aren’t breathing optimally. Shallow breathing is common due to stress, poor posture, or a sedentary lifestyle, which weakens the diaphragm and reduces oxygen intake. Breathwork allows you to retrain your breath, helping regulate the nervous system, lower your heart rate, and enhance recovery. By consciously working with your breath, you create an opportunity to restore your body and mind, improving your overall health.
Diaphragmatic Breathing: Resetting the Body
One of the most effective breathwork techniques is diaphragmatic breathing, also called “belly breathing.” This method fully engages the diaphragm, allowing for efficient oxygen exchange and providing several key benefits:
Resetting the Diaphragm: Shallow breathing weakens the diaphragm over time. Diaphragmatic breathing retrains the diaphragm, improving lung capacity and promoting deeper relaxation.
Supporting the Lymphatic System: Diaphragmatic breathing also stimulates the lymphatic system, which is responsible for removing toxins from the body. The pressure changes in the chest aid lymphatic fluid flow, boosting detoxification and supporting the immune system.
Patterned Breathing Techniques: Box Breath and Elongated
Exhales: Patterned breathing exercises, like box breathing and elongated exhales, are powerful tools to calm the mind and reset the nervous system.
Box Breathing: Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts, and hold again for 4 counts. This technique promotes calm and focus, making it a great tool for reducing stress.
Elongated Exhales: Inhale for 4 counts and exhale for 8 counts. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and grounding the body. I often use patterned breathing in my sound healing sessions to create presence before moving into deep listening.
Getting Started with Diaphragmatic Breathwork
Set the Space: Find a quiet, comfortable place and enhance the experience with a calming playlist if desired.
Body Positioning: Lie on your back with pillows supporting your spine and keep your head flat or slightly elevated. Using an eye mask can help deepen relaxation.
Start Slow: Begin with 5-10 minutes of practice. As you get comfortable, you can extend the duration.
Diaphragmatic Breathing:
Practice a 3-part breath by inhaling deeply into the belly, continuing the inhale into your chest, and fully exhaling. Start with 5-30 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing, then return to natural nasal breathing for 3-5 minutes to complete the practice.
Breathwork is restorative, and having this practice alongside Pilates has helped me recover faster and train more dynamically. My body holds less energetic tension, and I am able to go deeper into the embodiment of Pilates exercises. This means that the movement is more aligned because I have used breathwork to “stretch from the inside to the outside.”
My clients who love the physical nature of Pilates training have learned to sit in stillness with breathwork and feel relaxed and energized. It is a powerful tool that brings harmony into the body.
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