Pilates and yoga are widely recognised as very powerful wellness tools and forms of exercise. They’re both recommended as physical exercises that offer their practitioners stress relief, improved physical fitness and strength, improved flexibility and mental wellbeing.
Yoga is as much about physical exercise as it is about the connection of mind to body. It’s also about discipline, and being present in the moment. In a nutshell, the student of yoga moves through a series of postures, each designed to stretch and strengthen a particular area of the body.
Pilates, on the other hand, is about physical inner strength. It’s about achieving a posture that strengthens the core and the spine. Through a variety of basic exercises (with and without apparatus), the student enhances her “powerhouse” (i.e. her core), while also improving the flow of movement, control of the body and concentration. What both forms of exercise have in common is an emphasis on breathing. And while it may seem -at least to the rookie - that breath is used the same way in both, it most certainly isn’t. Let’s take a closer look at the differences.
Yoga: Each breath moves through three stages
In yoga, breath is called “pranayama”, which literally translates as the ‘discipline of energy or life’s force’. The yogi breathes in AND out through the nose, as this is what creates heat inside the body. It also creates the audible breathing sound that’s part of the meditation aspect of yoga. In yoga, you use your breath to strengthen the effect of each posture. Each breath moves through three stages:
- 1.Abdominal breathing: the diaphragm moves down and you fill your lower lungs with air;
- 2.Thoracic breathing: the ribcage expands sideways as you fill it with air;
- 3.And, clavicular breathing: your collar bones move upwards slightly.
In other words, when you breathe in, you fill your lower lungs and abdomen, then expand the ribcage to fill the lungs sideways, then fill the top of the lungs. When you exhale, you reverse this order.
Pilates: Breathe out to achieve
In Pilates, you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Most importantly, you use the exhalation to help you empty your lungs and tighten the abdominals just before each exercise. It’s this tightening of the inner abdominal muscles – specifically the pelvic floor and the transverses abdominus – to provide your body with stability. This is what decompresses the spine and lengthens it. This also makes each exercise challenging physically, since it takes a lot of effort to maintain this stability and isolate the muscles correctly during the exercise and the movement. But over time, you are able to build strength in the inner core muscles. As you can see, understanding how to use your breath in each form of exercise is incredibly important. It can make or break the exercise for you.
