Breathing Exercise For Core Engagement

A breathing exercise to help you engage your core during movement, whether that's Pilates, weightlifting, or yoga. This session teaches you to coordinate breath with core engagement so your practice becomes more stable and controlled. You'll learn a breathing pattern that activates your deep core muscles, supports your movement, and reduces strain during lifting or flow-based practices. Use this before your workout to prime your breath and core connection.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Jenny Tecklenburg. I'm your holistic personal trainer, And I want to talk about breathing and how it intertwines into daily life, But more importantly, When you're doing your movement practice, Whether that's lifting weight, Doing Pilates, Doing yoga, Breath is the foundation. So why don't you do this exercise with me so you can feel the power right away of your breath. Place your hands around your ribcage. And remember your ribcage goes 360 degrees. So if you can hold this upper part. Take a deep inhale through your nose if possible and expand your ribcage into your hands. Try to relax the shoulders and put all the energy down here into your hands. As you exhale through the mouth, Push your ribcage inwards, Collapsing it. Let's continue. Inhale, Expand the ribs. Feel them on your back as well. Every breath, Just think little bit bigger and exhale, Push the ribcage back together. Let's do three more. Good, Adding on core engagement. We'll start here, But when we exhale, We're going to core set our core using our hands as well. Our hands are a beautiful cue to help this. We're also going to add a little bit of inner thigh engagement. So either place a pillow in between your thighs or just bring your feet super close together. And that is actually a direct connection to your pelvic floor, Which is a vital part of your respiratory system, As well as getting the best core engagement you possibly can when doing the exercise. So either put a pillow in between your knees or bring your feet super close together and maybe even engage your glutes. Hands back on the ribcage. Remember, Shoulders are not being pulled up to your ears. If you have a mirror, It's a fantastic tool to have. Let's do this. Inhale through the nose, Expand the ribcage. Hands come down to the waistline. Engage the core as you exhale. All the way. Hands come back to the ribcage, Inhale. Get the back, Get the sides, Hands come down to the waistline, Squeeze the inner thighs, Engage the pelvic floor, Up, Up, Up, As your hands corset around the torso, Complete the breath completely. Again, Hands come up to the ribcage. Hands come down to the core set. Exhale, Engage, Squeeze the inner thighs, Glutes, Pelvic floor, Core. Two more. One more. Amazing. So those are two breath exercises you can tie into your movement practice or you can do just sitting down just like we did right now or standing. I hope this helps. Have a beautiful day.