Breathing is one of the principles of Pilates, and it is fair to wonder why. Most of us have been breathing our whole lives. Surely we are good at it by now.
Not necessarily. Plenty of people breathe in a pattern that is not serving them, and a pattern, once set, tends to stay. With scoliosis, the shape of the spine has a say in it too.
A breathing disorder is not a breathing disease
These are not the same thing.
A breathing disorder is not a diagnosis. It means there is room for improvement in how a person is breathing: too many breaths per minute, perhaps, or a breath that goes to one part of the body and skips another.
That is good news, whether you teach people with scoliosis or live with one yourself. A pattern is a habit, and habits can be retrained.
Why scoliosis changes where the breath goes
When the spine curves and rotates, the ribs go with it. On one side they sit further apart. On the other they sit closer together.
When a vertebra rotates, the ribs follow. One side is swept back into a sand dune, the other opens at the front.
Breath takes the easy route. It goes to the spaces that are already open, the sand dunes, and passes over the hollows.
That happens to a small degree on every breath, all day long. So for a spine with scoliosis, breathing is never neutral. Each breath is a small vote for the shape the spine is already in.
One breath to try right now
Sit with your hands on your knees and your feet a little apart.
Be aware of your next breath in. Do not make it a big one. Then exhale slowly, and keep exhaling past the point where you think you are finished.
Now wait. Do not inhale again until your body tells you it is time.
The inhale that arrives will feel like a rebound. It will feel free.
Notice that nothing here asked you to breathe in. There is a reason for that, and it is one of the first things the class explains.
So where does your breath go?
Not where it should go. Where it actually does.
Some people breathe high into the chest. Some breathe low into the belly. Some fill one side and barely touch the other. With scoliosis, a history of bracing, or a spinal fusion, the answer is often not what you would guess from looking.
It can be measured. The assessment is simple, takes a few minutes, and gives you numbers you can write down and check again later.
In the class, you will see it done on three women with scoliosis: one with a spinal fusion, one who is pregnant, and one who spent years in a brace. Same assessment, three very different answers.
Those numbers do two jobs. They tell a practitioner when a client needs a referral as well as a session. And they show where to begin, because two people with the same diagnosis can need very different breathing work.
Learn the full assessment
In Lotus of Breath, Scolio-Pilates® founder Karena Thek teaches the whole process in just over two hours:
- Learn which clients need to be referred to a pulmonologist.
- The common breathing cue that teaches the wrong pattern, and what to say instead.
- Why a client who feels dizzy “from all that oxygen” is telling you something else.
- Where a fused, braced or pregnant body sends its breath, and when to leave it alone.
- About 40 minutes of exercises to change the breathing pattern.
The class is taught in practitioner language, but everyone is welcome.
