Watch the following Session Video and read the accompanying article below. This video will detail and add on to the overall work you saw in Session 1. Did you notice the detail of Casey’s cueing and how she is so attentive in watching the body? This is what informs the cues that come out of her mouth.

Be careful of simply parroting what you read in your manual or in sequences that you observe by other instructors. The goal is to become adept at watching the story of your client’s body unfold and then use this information to guide you through the session.

BREATHING

by Jennifer Gianni

Breath is the first prerequisite to life, health, and movement. To live in an easy, mobile, flexible, and expansive body, one must first start to pay attention to and experience breath. In Pilates, we can start to hone this skill right away by bringing attention to how the breath can create subtle shifts in the body and how it can bring about an integrated and connected feeling inside the exercises. When you start to notice how the breath changes the movement, you also start to understand why breathing is the number one foundational principle in Pilates. Everything else is built on the foundation of breath.

It is important and valuable for most people to visualize and understand the anatomy and the structures at work to fully embody the breath work.  The diaphragm is the primary respiratory muscle, as well as a very important core player. It serves as the top of the core cylinder, which moves in synchronicity with our pelvic floor. The diaphragm is a flexible, irregular shaped dome that separates the chest and abdominal cavities. Its shape is similar to a jellyfish or a parachute. The diaphragm lives inside the ribcage and is a large structure. The top of the dome is located slightly higher than the xiphoid process, at the bottom of the breastbone. At the back, it has attachments to the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. The outside of the diaphragm is attached to the entire circumference of the inside of the ribcage. All the muscle fibers of the diaphragm converge at its central tendon.

The diaphragm also has three structures that travel through it: the Vena Cava, the Esophagus, and the Abdominal Aorta. The lungs and the heart are attached and sit on top of the diaphragm. The stomach, liver, intestines, pelvic organs, etc., live underneath the dome. Many of these structures are directly attached or are attached from the periteneum (a serous envelope which wraps most of the abdominal organs) to the diaphragm. The most incredible detail about how this works is that the lungs fill and empty because the diaphragm moves; not the other way around. One tends to imagine the lungs filling and pressing down on the diaphragm, but it is actually just the opposite.

Here’s how it works. On inhalation, the diaphragm’s muscle fibers contract and it pulls the central tendon down. This central tendon is attached to the baggies that surround the lungs, so a vacuum is created in the chest, which then pulls air into the lungs. The reverse also happens. On exhalation, the muscle fibers of the diaphragm relax, which releases the central tendon and empties the lungs. When gliding optimally, the diaphragm massages all our internal organs and creates circulation and nutrition. When the diaphragm floats down on the inhale, there is a pull and elongation of everything above and a pressure and massage of everything below. The reverse happens on the exhale, and the diaphragm floats and relaxes upward. Without expansive breathing and the undulation of the diaphragm, our body becomes rigid and stagnation occurs. To explore the natural undulation of the diaphragm, try this next sequence.

• Stand or sit with an upright spine.
• Lace the fingers with the palms down and place the hands below the breasts in a domed shape representing the diaphragm.
• Take a deep, expansive inhale and float the hands down, representing the glide down of the diaphragm, the massage of the pelvic organs, and the expansion of the pelvic floor.
• Exhale slow and steady and float the hands back up, representing the contraction of the pelvic floor, the lift and traction upwards of the intestines and pelvic organs, and the passive float up of the diaphragm as the lungs empty.
• Take a few more deep inhales and exhales, exploring the glide up and down.
• Now start playing with the breath and softening into the top of your inhale and the bottom of your exhale.
• Inhale and find a home spot at the very bottom where you can expand and rest for a few moments.
• Exhale slowly and find that home spot at the top of the exhale where you can expand and rest for a few moments.
• Take a few more of the home breaths, exploring the pause and the space you have created.
• Practice these sequences daily and you will start to feel more ease of movement and a bit less stressed and anxious!

Make sure to initial and date that you have completed Session 2 in your Master Log.