The Breath & the Neutral Spine

The GLOW Body breath

How you breathe while you move matters. Many people hold their breath through an exercise, which isn’t at all helpful. As a simple rule, we inhale to prepare for a movement and exhale to execute it.

Inhale gently through the nose, sending the breath deep to the lower lobes of the lungs; exhale through softly pursed lips. Breathe laterally — think of expanding the ribs to the side and back.

This is not yogic breathing. If you let the breath drop into the belly, as a yogi does, you lose proper engagement of the abdominals. Send the breath to the lower lungs while keeping the abdominals, spine, and pelvis stable and in control.

And the pattern isn’t fixed. Once you’re moving well, I’ll often change the breath to challenge you — it depends on how you’re engaging and how you’re getting stronger. That’s the part a script can’t do: in GLOW Body I’m watching everything and cueing as we go, so the breath grows with you.

Neutral vs. imprinted

Neutral spine and pelvis — lying on your back, the triangle formed by the two front hip bones and the pubic bone lies parallel to the mat. The lower back keeps the natural curve it has when you stand; there is no pressing the spine into the mat.

To find it: lie down, knees bent, feet flat and hip-width apart, hips-knees-heels-toes in one line, arms at your sides. Let everything relax — back, neck, shoulders, jaw — and breathe deep into the lower lungs.

Imprinted is a gentle drawing of the navel down so the lower back lightly meets the mat — a small tilt of the pelvis used to protect the lower back in certain exercises.