One of the things that keeps Pilates exercises so challenging, regardless of how long you’ve been doing them, is the concept of developing strength with length.  The muscles of our abdominals and back are the ones that help provide the lift, length, and space between the ribcage and hip bones.

Here’s a video with a few thoughts on practicing better breathing habits to help improve your ability to be long and strong.  Start practicing this, and then learn how to apply it to all of your Pilates exercises (and other fitness exercises) to get maximum health benefits from your workout program.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In fact according to the AMA, 70 to 85 percent of all people have back pain at some time in their life. Yikes, what a staggeringly high number of people, and I suspect that unfortunately, these numbers are probably going up rather than down!

As one of those in this majority, who suffers with congenital back issues, I have spent most of my life actively doing things to help keep my body strong, fit, and flexible.  I have discovered over the years, that there are some things my body loves to do, and other things that are guaranteed to cause me grief.  And what I have learned is that the more I exercise and stay active, generally, the better my back feels, and the happier and healthier my whole-body is.

Let’s face it, when your body hurts, it’s under stress.   While some muscle tension is good and appropriate to maintain posture and help us move around, overly tight muscles create unnecessary stress and too much tension which unfortunately can lead to back pain. When any of the bones in our body are held too tightly together by muscle contraction, or misalignment, freedom of movement will be restricted and over time, with the inability to enjoy free and easy movement, poor posture and pain can be the result.  It’s no secret that stress causes tension… 

Discover how to reduce neck pain, and back pain with Pilates breathing techniques.

Learning effective breathing techniques can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to begin releasing stress and mobilizing the spine without big, dramatic movement or specific back-care exercises.  Whether back pain bothers your lower, middle, or upper back and neck – learning how to lengthen and support the back, AND breathe is a great exercise that can be practiced anytime and anywhere to help release stress and reduce pain.

While it’s always best to consult your physician if you’re experiencing any pain or injury, breathing is still required to stay alive!  And there are lots of different ways to breathe. When your body is in pain, it will resort to an instinctual pattern that is shallow and will help you turn over just enough oxygen to keep all systems functioning to keep you alive.

While this is practically helpful to be able to get through the day, it may not help solve the bigger issues at hand.

Pilates posterio-lateral breathing is an excellent choice to benefit back care. This is a big fancy word for breathing into the back (posterio) and sides (lateral) of the ribcage.  Under the ribcage are the lungs which fill with air on every inhale.  Not only does the ribcage help to protect our lungs and other internal organs, but each rib attaches to the spine.  As we inhale, and fill our lungs with air, each rib should lift and separate creating space and length through the back of the body (basically stretching the spine!) As the ribs separate, since they are attached to each segment of the spine(vertebrae) , the segments are pulled apart too.

Because I’m personally prone to both lower back and neck issues, I like to take the practice of my posterio-lateral breathing and carry it the full length of my spine so I can feel my inhale lengthen down through my tailbone, and up through the top of my head.  It feels slightly different when I’m seated, standing, or laying down, so I’ve got lots of different places to practice throughout the day.  I find that lots of times my inhale tends to stop at my shoulders and my head actually jams down on my neck – No wonder it hurts!  Feeling the head float off the neck on an inhale is very liberating for releasing tension.

Good breathing habits provide compression and decompression for the spine. Inhale and the vertebrae lift apart – decompression.  Exhale and the vertebrae come closer together – compression.  This rhythmic action should be happening with every breath we take, all day long to provide a pumping action for vital nutrients and fluids to move up and down the spinal column. When we experience an injury, accident, or back pain for any reason, there may be one, two,  or multiple segments restricted from this natural movement.  This tension of our bones being held too tightly together, and lack of freedom to move for decompression and compression during breathing, and daily life activities, may, over time result in a chronic back pain problem.

Practicing better breathing habits may not solve all your back pain issues, but it’s certainly a great place to start, and will assist you with good movement and muscle use while you incorporate the most appropriate back-care exercises into your daily routine to keep your body healthy and pain-free.

Discover helpful tips and techniques for Pilates posterior-lateral Breathing Exercises here:

http://www.centerworks.com/blog/2005/10/10/breathing-basics/

We are bombarded with millions of bits of information every second of the day.  Our brain has to sort, dump, and store based on relevance and importance for our survival and to insure that we enjoy pleasure and avoid pain.  In today’s society – television programs, commercials, and even YouTube have us eager to input micro-blasts of information and entertainment – rapid fire commando style.  We look for instant gratification, expect to point-click, and get what we want.  The faster you can get results -the better, and if it takes more than a few minutes you don’t feel like you have time to wait.

Does this lifestyle make sense to you?  Are you happy having to check your cell phone and text messages every couple of minutes?  Do you ever reach a feeling of overwhelm?  Wonder why you can’t get it all done?  Have you ever gotten completely frustrated with your progress?  Or just wish you could have a moment to think! 

I love the benefits of technology…but wonder where all the humans went?  We used to leave for work and had a peaceful drive with no distractions so we could pay attention to the road.  If someone needed to call us it was at work or home…If you weren’t in one of these two places your time was your own AND your mind was your own!  Now we’re running to check email, voicemail, the in-box, out-box, text messages, snail mail, facebook, twitter, blogs…and the list goes on!  Used to be if you planned a workout, you’d commune with nature on a bike or run.  Stay inside for a workout and there wasn’t a TV in front of every treadmill to distract you from paying attention to what your body was doing and how it’s feeling.  And now we’re a society that’s getting bigger & bigger because it’s “faster” and more convenient (or so we think..) to eat out than to shop, chop, and cook a healthy meal at home.  It seems like everything we’re doing is to try and juggle the frantic flurry of information.  There are so many things we have to do right now!  We are constantly being bombarded with so many things that rarely do we take a moment to “stop and smell the roses,” or tune in and quiet the pace.

I know that one of my least favorite and most beneficial activities is no activity at all!

When was the last time you did absolutely nothing?  AND all the little monkeys in your mind were Quiet!

What do you imagine when you think of a “Peaceful Mind?”  Calm waters, a clear blue sky, the gentle ebb and flow of the ocean, laughing children at play, or perhaps gazing at the stars and realizing the vastness of the universe?

A peaceful mind is an empty mind – clear of thoughts, present in the now, and enjoying what it’s like to just BE.

There are disciplines and exercises that can help you develop the skills to achieve a Peaceful Mind. And in society today these are definitely skills that need to be developed!   Breathing techniques, Yoga, Tai Chi, Meditation, and even Pilates can help to improve focus and attention.  Our ability to pay attention to the body, mind, spirit, or the nothingness and oneness that we all are to just be a part of, and apart of life on planet Earth will go a long way towards sending those monkeys to a quiet place for awhile.  Being able to take a break from the frantic pace that we’ve chosen to live with can help shine light on new perspectives and allow the opportunity to make new choices for a healthier mindset and lifestyle!

Designate a distraction-free time of day to turn on the phone, computer, and TV.  Put the pets out, turn the radio off, ask your kids and spouse to give you an UN-interrupted 5-15 minutes or longer to enjoy your favorite Peaceful mind activity (or indulge in the activity of doing absolutely nothing!)

Enjoy even a few minutes of a peaceful state of mind to rejuvenate, and re-energize yourself.  In no time at all, you’ll start to notice the shift in your consciousness as your worries decrease, your laughter increases, and you will gain the ability to clear your mind.  Gaining control of your thoughts and actions through the state of a Peaceful Mind is a powerful place to create a healthier lifestyle, and can help you manage and enjoy both the peace and pace of your life.

Since we want clients to breath into their posterio-lateral ribs for Pilates, try explaining the feeling of breathing into this area like a butterfly, opening it’s wings to fly. Breathing into your wings might help your clients associate to where they should put their air, and if they continue the breath out to the tips of their wings, you’ll really be able to open & widen the back ribs on every breath.

My last hint for the day on this – Suggest that their butterfly wings are attached very close to the spine. This way as they fill there will be a better sense of using the breath to elongate the spine as the ribs are opening. Without this, they might just be widening the sides of the ribs and not using the breath for the benefit of opening and lengthening the natural curves of the spine.

What color are your Butterfly Wings?

Happy Breathing!