Breathing & Stomach Position in Pilates

Video Transcript

"Here's Danielle. She's going to help us with basic principles. Pilates follows a couple of basic principles in order to get the maximum benefit of the exercises, and we're going to go really quick through them. Basically, the breathing, which is the first one, it's a little bit different than yoga or others. We inhale through the nose. Feel the ribs expanding on the side. We exhale through the mouth thinking of squeezing the ribs down and squeezing the abdominals in. One more time. As you inhale, send the breath into the back and exhale. Think of squeezing the ribs and pull the abdominals in. Make sure you don't want to breathe into your belly; you want to breathe into the back and relax the ribs. Inhale and exhale through the mouth like you blow candles on a cake. Very good. Second one is pelvic position, so you're going to place your hands on your hip bones, fingers on pubic bone. Start rocking the pelvis backward and forward. That forward position where you're flat here with the ground, then you have a little bit of a curve in your lower back, it's called neutral spine. You're going to inhale, feel the ribs expanding on the side. Exhale. Squeeze the abdominals and hold down your pelvis. Very good, one more time. Inhale and exhale holding the neutral. Now we're going to go in a different one called imprint. We're going to inhale. Stay neutral. With the exhale, you're going to squeeze the abdominals to bring the hips and ribs one inch together. Your pelvis is slightly going to tilt. Inhale releasing neutrals. Rock your pelvis forward. Exhale and squeeze abdominals to imprint. One more time. Inhale neutral and exhale imprint. This imprint is very good when you have both legs up in the air. That way it protects your spine."