Pilatez Comix
Primal Breath: The Role of Breathing in Pilates
30/10/09 15:38 Filed in: Pilates Breath
This will be the first blog I’ve ever written. I love the idea of forum discussion, and I understand that any stance I take also reveals my limitations. From discourse (y’all), I can learn better which limitations I am aware of and which ones sit goofily upon my head, unbeknownst to me.
Here I go with the Boldness. Modern Pilates is or should be a breathing based pursuit. Although it slows the initial learning curve, goal-oriented breath technique is fundamental. Proper breathing, given its cumulative potential, could easily produce more lifelong benefits than ANY sequence of movements from any time or culture. Think about it, even if your chosen modality (pilates, yoga, penjak silat, whatever) is awesomely authentic in application, it is still the rare and unlikely practitioner who practices 20 or more hours a week, its impractical.
Contrast that with the amount of time one can devote to breathing. Repetitive stress is a knife that cuts both ways...it can cut for the physical good. Perhaps you think I’m claiming too much by suggesting that all conscious breathing time could be dedicated to patterned, goal-oriented work. Certainly, if I had a nickel for every time a new client has said “Wait, you mean I’m supposed to breathe like this all the time?”, I could take us all out to lunch. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus; life-learned breath habits can be reshaped, and restorative posture does flow as free as the air itself.
This is my religion and my science, held in faith and checked by daily repetition. A “perfect” breath might be cheerfully impossible, but the daily number of attempts to create one could well define our health. Summarizing briefly, how closely you hew to your new breathing philosophy may be more important than the number of classes you hit this week.
In class, we study routines of movement, and each of these moves has a separate potential benefit to be ferreted out and cherished. We call these goals. A very different kind of goal would be to use only the most complete and effective breaths to move through the routine. This added dimension of difficulty requires more focus, more work/energy, and a stronger knowledge of the choreography. A person who could complete an hour-long session of hardish, funky, exercises without sacrificing the therapeutic qualities of their breath might have a real chance at getting through a whole mundane (IOW: backbreaking) day without sacrificing these same qualities. One whole unbroken day of healthy breath and posture could change your week. Week, month, year...life. This is a brass ring worth jumping for.
I believe this strongly enough to put my money o’er my mouth. I insist that all first sessions be no charge. This allows client and instructor a comfortable hour to turn the esoteric subtleties of good breathing into stuff that is common place and repeatable. Only in this form can it be incorporated into increasingly challenging maneuvers, and that’s where the goodness is.
Here I go with the Boldness. Modern Pilates is or should be a breathing based pursuit. Although it slows the initial learning curve, goal-oriented breath technique is fundamental. Proper breathing, given its cumulative potential, could easily produce more lifelong benefits than ANY sequence of movements from any time or culture. Think about it, even if your chosen modality (pilates, yoga, penjak silat, whatever) is awesomely authentic in application, it is still the rare and unlikely practitioner who practices 20 or more hours a week, its impractical.
Contrast that with the amount of time one can devote to breathing. Repetitive stress is a knife that cuts both ways...it can cut for the physical good. Perhaps you think I’m claiming too much by suggesting that all conscious breathing time could be dedicated to patterned, goal-oriented work. Certainly, if I had a nickel for every time a new client has said “Wait, you mean I’m supposed to breathe like this all the time?”, I could take us all out to lunch. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus; life-learned breath habits can be reshaped, and restorative posture does flow as free as the air itself.
This is my religion and my science, held in faith and checked by daily repetition. A “perfect” breath might be cheerfully impossible, but the daily number of attempts to create one could well define our health. Summarizing briefly, how closely you hew to your new breathing philosophy may be more important than the number of classes you hit this week.
In class, we study routines of movement, and each of these moves has a separate potential benefit to be ferreted out and cherished. We call these goals. A very different kind of goal would be to use only the most complete and effective breaths to move through the routine. This added dimension of difficulty requires more focus, more work/energy, and a stronger knowledge of the choreography. A person who could complete an hour-long session of hardish, funky, exercises without sacrificing the therapeutic qualities of their breath might have a real chance at getting through a whole mundane (IOW: backbreaking) day without sacrificing these same qualities. One whole unbroken day of healthy breath and posture could change your week. Week, month, year...life. This is a brass ring worth jumping for.
I believe this strongly enough to put my money o’er my mouth. I insist that all first sessions be no charge. This allows client and instructor a comfortable hour to turn the esoteric subtleties of good breathing into stuff that is common place and repeatable. Only in this form can it be incorporated into increasingly challenging maneuvers, and that’s where the goodness is.