The Pilates Breath: How to Breathe in Class and Why It Calms Your Nervous System
At Sojourn, the breath is the first thing we teach, and the most important. When the breath settles, the body follows: the deep core wakes, the shoulders soften, the nervous system finds somewhere to land. This is the work, before it looks like work.
If you are new to us, or new to Pilates altogether, this is a considered guide to the breath we teach. What it is, why we cue it the way we do, how it differs a little from the breath you may have learned in a classical studio, and what it is actually doing inside your nervous system while you move. There is a small at-home ritual at the end too, so you can build your practice wherever you are.
What we mean by the Pilates breath
The Pilates breath is a lateral, three dimensional way of breathing. Rather than letting the belly balloon outwards on the inhale, we direct the air sideways and back into the lower ribs, fanning them open as though the ribcage were a soft bellows. On the exhale, the ribs settle back down and inwards, and the deep abdominals draw quietly underneath.
It can feel technical at first. The intention behind it is anything but. We want the diaphragm to descend fully so the lungs can fill, while the deep core stays responsive and the pelvic floor stays gently lifted. Belly breathing alone tends to switch off the deeper stabilisers we are working to recruit. High chest breathing leaves the diaphragm tight, the shoulders busy, and the nervous system on alert. Lateral breathing sits in between, and it is the position from which the movement we teach makes the most sense.
You will hear this called lateral thoracic breathing, costal breathing, or simply ribcage breathing. They are different names for the same idea: a quiet, three dimensional fill, then a long, considered release.
Contemporary, not classical: how we approach the breath at Sojourn
Joseph Pilates spoke of breath as an "internal shower". His original method, what we now call classical Pilates, used a forceful, percussive breath with a prescribed pattern for every exercise. The Hundred, for example, is paired with five sharp sniffs in and five short puffs out. The intention was to fully empty the lungs and oxygenate the blood, and there is a real beauty to that lineage.
We teach a contemporary practice at Sojourn, which means we hold that respect for breath and build on the more recent research into how the body actually works under load. Rather than prescribing a fixed pattern for every movement, we treat breath as a tool with three jobs: it manages the pressure inside the abdomen, it pairs intelligently with effort, and it tunes the nervous system. The pattern becomes a little more fluid, a little more conversational, and no less important.
In practice, you will hear us cue an exhale on the moment of effort. This is because exhaling helps the deep core engage and the pelvic floor lift in concert, which is what protects the spine and creates a stable base for the work. We will cue an inhale to prepare, or to lengthen, or to make space. The pattern shifts intelligently rather than identically for every body. That, in our view, is the heart of contemporary Pilates: a method informed by research on how the diaphragm, pelvic floor and deep abdominals work as one coordinated system, rather than a fixed choreography of breath.
What the breath is actually doing to your nervous system
The Pilates breath does something quietly powerful that has very little to do with looking lean, and very much to do with feeling well. A slow, extended exhale stimulates the vagus nerve, the long, wandering nerve that carries the parasympathetic signal from brain to body. When the vagus is engaged, heart rate slows, blood pressure eases, digestion improves, and the body steps out of fight or flight and into rest and repair.
Research into heart rate variability shows that breathing at around six breaths per minute, roughly a four to six second inhale and a six to eight second exhale, produces the most pronounced parasympathetic response in most people. That cadence sits comfortably inside a well-paced Pilates class. The breath is not a polite addition to the movement; it is one of the reasons our clients leave the studio feeling so noticeably different to how they arrived.
There is a structural story too. The diaphragm is not only a breathing muscle. It is a quiet central player in core stability, working with the transversus abdominis (the deepest layer of your core), the multifidus (the small stabilisers along your spine) and the pelvic floor as a coordinated canister around the lower spine. When the diaphragm moves well, the whole deep core works better. When the breath is held, or pushed only into the upper chest, that synergy is lost and the more superficial muscles take over. Lateral breathing brings the whole canister back into conversation.
For our clients in Broughton Astley, Lutterworth and across Leicestershire who are managing the accumulated tension of a busy life, the months around perimenopause, postnatal recovery, or simply a long stretch of poor sleep, this matters. The breath is the most direct conversation you can have with your nervous system. We think the Pilates breath is a particularly considered version of that conversation.
How to breathe in class
Once you are on the reformer or the mat, your teacher's cues become your guide. A few principles will help everything settle a little faster.
Inhale to prepare, exhale to move. Most of our exercises pair the exhale with the moment of effort. As you exhale, the deep abdominals will draw in, the ribs will settle, and the pelvic floor will lift quietly. This is the moment to commit to the movement.
Breathe into the back and sides of the ribs. Picture the ribcage as a soft umbrella that opens on the inhale and closes on the exhale. You should feel expansion under your bra line or across the back of the ribs, not a rise in the upper chest.
Keep the breath audible to you, not the room. The Pilates breath is not a sigh and it is not a forced sound. It is a contained, three dimensional fill and a long, smooth release. If you find yourself holding the breath, or rushing it, pause and reset. We never mind.
Do not chase a perfect pattern. If a particular exercise feels demanding, breathe in the rhythm your body can sustain rather than the one we have cued. The breath supports the movement; it does not police it. The patterns become second nature with time.
If you ever feel light-headed or a little anxious in class, lengthen the exhale. Drawing the out breath out is the quickest way to bring the nervous system back into balance, and it is the cue I find myself returning to most often as a teacher.
A small ritual to practise at home
You do not need a reformer, a mat, or a studio to begin. Five minutes a day, last thing at night or first thing in the morning, will make a noticeable difference to how the breath feels when you arrive at Sojourn. Treat them as a ritual rather than a workout.
Seated, hands on ribs. Sit tall in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Wrap your hands around your lower ribs, fingers forward, thumbs back. Inhale through the nose for a count of four and feel your ribs widen into your hands. Exhale through softly pursed lips for a count of six. Repeat for ten breaths. The hands give you immediate feedback that the breath is travelling sideways rather than up.
Prone breathing. Lie face down on a folded towel or mat, forehead resting on stacked hands. Inhale and feel the breath travel into the back of the ribs, lifting your lower back gently towards the ceiling. Exhale and feel the ribs soften back down. Continue for two to three minutes. Lying prone makes lateral breathing almost impossible to avoid, which is precisely why we love it.
Four-six breathing before sleep. Lie on your back with knees bent, feet flat. Inhale through the nose for four counts, exhale through the nose or mouth for six counts, with a small pause at the end of the exhale. Aim for six full rounds, then let the breath find its own rhythm. This is the same pattern the heart rate variability research is built on, and it will quietly train the parasympathetic response your Pilates practice will draw on later.
A few weeks of this and the breath you have been cultivating at home will travel into the studio with you. Your first class, or your fiftieth, will feel a little more like coming home.
A breath that travels with you
The Pilates breath is not a separate skill from the movement. It is the architecture beneath it. It is what allows the deep core to wake, the spine to lengthen, the shoulders to settle and the nervous system to come down from whatever the day has asked of it. It is, in many ways, the part of the practice that travels home with you and shapes how you sleep, how you carry tension, and how you meet the next morning.
If you are preparing for your first time with us, you might also like to read our first class guide, where we walk you through what to expect from the moment you step into the studio.
