Breath, Belly, Butt, and Back – Marrying Contemporary and Classical Pilates

Breath, Belly, Butt, and Back: The Power of the “Bs”

(And perhaps some insights on marrying classical and contemporary Pilates…they make better bedfellow than you might think 😉

You know how when you go through your training there are certain phrases, concepts, or experiences that just stick? Those things that for some inexplicable reason resonate more strongly and make greater sense to you then all the other stuff you’re trying to learn. That’s what the Bs are for me. They’ve stuck with me over the years and although they’ve lost some of their impact I find that they inadvertently surface in a myriad of teaching moments as if bubbling up on their own. I can’t get rid of them and I love that!

Lately the Bs – breath, belly, butt, and back — have surfaced because of my exploration of the Long Stretch Series for our Manual Cueing Series. The first time I ever heard the Bs talked about was while learning from Carol Appel how to teach the Long Stretch Series. They’ve also been on my mind because of the time I spent with Amy Taylor Alpers this summer. Both Carol and Amy being direct descendants of Romana Kryaznowska I suppose the tendrils of my classic training have begun to peek back through. The beautiful thing is they don’t seem to oppose the more contemporary style I’ve grown accustomed to over the years. Quite the contrary! Pleasantly, I’m finding that with some thoughtful questioning and personal exploration the two together are hot in the sack!

BREATH – Where movement begins:

In all honesty, I don’t think breath came first in Carol’s original cueing, but I feel like it deserves the honor for multiple reasons.

For starters breath is where all movement is initiated — effective, well-balanced movement that this; movement that engages the nervous system in an organized and organic way facilitating the equitability of ease and effort as well as activating the musculoskeletal structure that lends support to the spine, pelvis and ribcage.

From the breath we expand and open, elongate and prepare the body and mind to move. The muscles and fascia stretch and are primed for the work they must do to accomplish any given task be it big or small. And as we know there is often, if not always, a delicate balance of both in the practice of Pilates and yoga.

On the out breath Joseph Pilates encourages us to squeeze out every atom of air not only cleansing the lungs but also preparing them to fill to a renewed “capaciousness.” This is my new favorite word taken from Amy. Capacious means the ability to hold much. It is the job of the lungs to be capacious and our job to promote rather than hinder that capaciousness. (Try it. It’s a fun word to say!)

As we exhale we have an opportunity to go deeper and connect more fully with the inner unit of core support as explained by Diane Lee as the transversus abdominus, multifidi, diaphragm, and pelvic floor. When these muscles synergistically participate they offer a great deal of connection to our center improving awareness, stability, balance, and efficiency in our movements.

BELLY – The natural partner of breath:

If we use the breath as above then we are already more than halfway to the activation we want through the abdominal core. After all 80% of our respiratory muscles are also our core support muscles.

Let’s review: Inhaling engages the external intercostals, the internal obliques and the diaphragm. The psoas elongates helping to lengthen the low back. Exhaling engages the internal intercostals, the external obliques, and the rectus abdominus. The transverse abdominus contracts and helps to activate the multifidi creating a deep support for the body’s center.

With the right training we can accentuate the natural process of breathing to strengthen all of these muscles and build elasticity and support in the pelvic floor, which completes the inner unit.

The Bs could be used in any order depending on what you want to achieve, however, beginning with breath and belly sets the student up for extending out of a very stable and strong center where much is possible.

BUTT – The underutilized muscle of contemporary Pilates! A champion of classical Pilates:

I can, as is always the case, only speak from my own experience and perspective. Let that be a caveat for this short discourse on the use of the glutes in classical versus contemporary Pilates and do with it what you will.

From the beginning I have always had a notion that overuse of the glutes was a common and detrimental habit of most of the population. That clenching the butt unnecessarily and as a compensatory pattern for the lack of hamstring and adductor strength was rampant.

I have, in fact, been witness to this truth in many bodies, but ultimately my mistake over the years has been to make a rule of it. That the glutes are always culprits to be hindered, disengaged, let go of and essentially ignored is neither an objective nor observant assessment that I would recommend using.

Working with Amy and looking back on the way I was taught I realize that any cue, intention or focus can be malleable with the right amount of thoughtfulness on the teacher’s part. Looking at cueing the glutes more aggressively or regularly as is the way at The Pilates Center (“pinch your butt”) I became acutely aware of innate value of focusing on the glutes as a way of connecting the legs into the pelvis and helping to support the holistic movement that we aim to teach in Pilates.

The catch is this: ANY cue can be detrimental. ANY focus or overly promoted aspect of contraction or action can be a hindrance. WHAT MATTERS is that we know EXACTLY what kind of result we want — understanding anatomy and physiology and movement patterns is key in this regard — and we can watch with unbiased eyes.

I found so much value in working with the glutes and Amy’s “pinch your butt” direction that I am convinced of its place in our work. It seems simple or perhaps even ridiculous, but the lovely thing about going down this path with Amy is that she is endlessly thoughtful and CLEAR about what her words do and she is SURE of what she wants. If using the glutes too much creates disproportionate tucking or locking down in the hips then she adjusts. She is still extremely conscientious how the body in front of her responds and is dedicated to reconnecting the body as a whole.

Amen to the glutes! They are a crucial part of piecing the whole back together and unifying are too often segmented parts. Especially in long stretch and other less supported exercises they are one of our most valuable assets (I couldn’t resist) when used in proper conjunction with the rest of our central supporting muscles.

BACK – Don’t miss out on what you can’t see:

The Bs are a great way to help us and our students quickly and effectively check-in with several of the most important components of moving successfully. Whether they are practicing a challenging exercise or lifting a heavy grandchild or grocery bag any way we can help them succinctly access the key players we are empowering their success in and out of the studio.

The back can be a difficult piece for our students to relate to, to organize, and to incorporate. Because we have such prevalent low back weakness and instability coupled with ubiquitous computer posture, the back body is not only a mystery (faint and dim) it is not uncommonly a source of pain or discomfort that students purposefully disconnect from.

By adding it into this particular mix we can give students a chance to see that the back is a part of a wonderful system of strength, energy and integrity. When used with the breath, butt, and belly, the back becomes like the mast of a ship, confident and steady.

I find that by using the 4 Bs with just a bit of consistency that students begin to pull themselves together quickly and well. Of course this takes some coaching in the beginning to define the pieces and give the student a chance to experience how they fit

together in a “felt” way. Students do need to have the inner knowledge of what it means to manifest this type of stability not just know the words.
The great thing about the back is that we can teach this one simple word to encompass what we want most from the multifidi, the erector spinae, the lats, the lower and mid traps, the rhomboids, the serratus anterior, and the posterior shoulder stabilizers.

Voila! Just like that (with a high level of skillful instruction on the matter of course) we have a powerful partnership for students to have at hand.