When you are doing Clinical Pilates, one area we’ll ask you to concentrate on is your breathing.  When you take a breath in, this creates a small degree of spinal extension, and when you breathe out, your spine naturally flexes. Therefore breathing can be used to facilitate this movement, or in reverse to stabilise the spine and lessen that particular movement. Depending on what goal we are trying to achieve, stability versus mobility, the breathing instruction may change. In addition to pairing breathing with movement, we will also be discussing the correct way to breathe to lessen rigidity, tightness in your shoulders and neck, and aid stability in your trunk.