The importance of modern breathing technique in Pilates, and the benefits when practiced on Pilates Apparatus - By Loraine Prokopiou
The breath is an essential part of any Pilates practise and is considered to be one of the many principles of Pilates. While Joseph Pilates did indeed implore everyone to “breathe correctly” he didn’t actually fully explain what that meant. I have often heard the story that Joseph Pilates would say “you must OUT the air to IN the air” encouraging a full exhale to then fully inhale, which I think is why we often hear the forced expiration in Pilates classes. Unfortunately, I believe this can lead to over-breathing - blowing off too much carbon dioxide. Whilst our muscles need oxygen to work, more oxygen is not necessarily better. We do in fact need some carbon dioxide to be able to offload oxygen to the mitochondria (the energy giving cells) in the muscles. This is called the Bohr effect. For more information on the Bohr effect: Don’t get me wrong; a forced expiration can be a really useful tool to bring the focus of attention to a particular muscle group, usually the abdominals, in