Breath, Pilates, and the Philosophy of Moving From Center
We’re so excited to launch our Teacher Training offerings with our 75-hour Mat Pilates Training this fall.
Our lead facilitator is Chandler Farren and you’ve ever taken a class with Chandler, you know there’s a depth and thoughtfulness behind the way they teach movement. This piece is a beautiful window into that expertise - exploring breath, Pilates, and the philosophy of moving from center.
It’s also a little glimpse into why we believe in offering practices like Core Flow, HIIT Pilates, and Mat Pilates alongside our Hatha-based, Vinyasa and Yin offerings, giving us a different way into the body and breath, helping us build strength, awareness, control, and a deeper understanding of how we move.
Read on for Chandler’s thoughts, and learn more about Teacher Trainings here.
Team North Ray
Breath, Pilates, and the Philosophy of Moving From Center
By Chandler Farren
When people hear the word core, they often think about abs. But the deeper I get into teaching Pilates, the more I believe the core isn't something we train in isolation. It's the place movement begins.
The diaphragm, pelvic floor, deep abdominals, multifidi, and the muscles that support the spine all work together to create stability, manage pressure, and organize movement. When those systems communicate well, breathing becomes easier, movement becomes more efficient, and the rest of the body doesn't have to compensate as much.
Long before it's about aesthetics or intensity, Pilates is about restoring that relationship.
The breath that unlocks the diaphragm
Joseph Pilates built his method around one instruction above all others: "Above all, learn how to breathe correctly." He believed breath was the beginning and end of everything the body does. As he put it, "Breathing is the first act of life, and the last." In class, I cue that through a long "shhh" exhale: emptying the lungs fully while the ribs widen sideways instead of collapsing forward.
Like any muscle, the diaphragm benefits from moving through its full range. When we spend most of our day breathing shallowly, the neck and shoulders often start contributing more than they need to. Pilates gives us an opportunity to restore a fuller, more coordinated breathing pattern.
That breath doesn't stop at the ribs. As you exhale and round through a C-curve (the shape you find in a Roll-Up or Spine Stretch), the pelvis tips slightly and the pelvic floor gets room to lengthen. When you return to neutral, it can lift and engage again with more coordination. I think of the breathing diaphragm and the pelvic floor, sometimes called the second diaphragm, as a pair that need to move together, not separately. That deep core is also closely tied to the vagus nerve, which is one reason consistent breath work doesn't just build strength. It helps regulate the nervous system too.
Why longevity isn't really the goal
This is one of the reasons I've never believed Pilates is about memorizing exercises. It's about understanding why we're doing them. Joseph Pilates called the center the "powerhouse" because he believed movement should originate from a well-organized system rather than isolated effort. When we move from that place, strength becomes more useful. Compensation drops away, and coordination takes over. For me, that's what longevity really means: not moving forever, but moving well. In my experience teaching, the students who stay with this practice for years aren't usually the ones chasing intensity. They're the ones who've learned to trust their center.
Pilates can be whatever you build it to be
One of the things I love most about teaching this method is that it refuses to sit still. Joseph Pilates developed Contrology out of gymnastics, boxing, and, famously, springs rigged to hospital beds during his internment in World War I England, an early ancestor of the reformer. From there it's been reshaped by dancers, rehab clinicians, and now strength science, without losing what it's actually for.
That's one of the reasons I love teaching teachers. Pilates has never been static. It continues to evolve because our understanding of movement does too. Mat work, apparatus work, contemporary blends with functional strength training: it's all still Pilates, because the principles travel. Understanding that gives you permission to stop looking for the "correct" version and start building the one that actually serves the body in front of you.
The Six Principles of Contrology
Everything Joseph Pilates taught traces back to six ideas. I still come back to these with every group I train:
Concentration "Concentrate on the correct movement each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits." The mind has to lead; the body follows.
Control Contrology's namesake. "Contrology begins with mind control over muscles." Nothing is thrown or rushed; every movement is chosen.
Centering All strength radiates from the powerhouse: abdomen, low back, hips, and glutes. "A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics."
Flow Exercises link with rhythm and continuity, so the practice trains not just muscles but coordination, "suppleness, natural grace, and skill" that shows up in how you walk and work, not just how you exercise.
Precision Quality over quantity, always. "Correctly executed to the point of subconscious reaction, these exercises will reflect grace and balance in your routine activities."
Breathing The foundation underneath all five of the others, and the one most people skip past on their way to the "real" exercise.
It was never meant to be one-size-fits-all
One of the biggest lessons I've learned through teacher training is that exercise is rarely the point.
Two people can be performing the exact same movement while working on completely different things. One might be discovering spinal articulation for the first time. Another might be learning how to manage pressure after pregnancy. And another might simply be building confidence.
Good teaching isn't about delivering the perfect sequence. It's about understanding the person in front of you and knowing how to adapt the principles (tempo, range, load, leverage) to meet their body.
Joseph Pilates himself was adapting constantly, right up through writing that:
"Since we live in this Modern Age, we must of necessity devote more time and more thought to the important matter of acquiring physical fitness." — Joseph Pilates, Return to Life Through Contrology
He built a method for keeping pace with a changing world, not something meant to be preserved exactly as he left it. My hope for teachers reading this is simple: trust the principles more than the choreography. Contrology was always intended to be more than exercise. It was Joseph Pilates' vision for helping people move through life with greater awareness, strength, and ease.
That's ultimately what keeps drawing me back to this work: breath as the foundation, the core as an ongoing conversation rather than a muscle to isolate, principles that matter more than perfect shapes.
The exercises will keep changing, and the research will keep evolving. But as long as we keep returning to the center, literally and philosophically, the method stays remarkably timeless.
