At our recent Breathe Better workshop, we spent time exploring something many of us rarely think about: the way we breathe.
Breathing is something we do automatically thousands of times a day, yet it has a significant influence on how we move, create support and manage pressure throughout the body.
One of the recurring themes throughout the workshop was the idea that many of us are trying to create support by adding more tension. We pull our ribs down, tighten our abdominals. We grip through the glutes and brace. We try harder.
While these strategies often come from good intentions, they don’t always create the outcome we’re hoping for. In fact, they can sometimes do the opposite.
Many participants were surprised to discover how much their neck and shoulder muscles were contributing to their breathing. Others noticed how little movement they felt through the sides and back of their ribcage. Some realised that the harder they tried to “hold themselves together”, the less movement and ease they experienced.
The goal of the workshop wasn’t to find the perfect breath. Instead, it was about creating more movement options. Because support isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes it’s about allowing the system to work more efficiently.
When the ribcage, diaphragm, abdominal wall and pelvic floor can move and respond together, breathing often feels easier, movement feels less effortful and the body becomes more adaptable. And adaptability matters!
Life doesn’t happen in ideal conditions. We bend, reach, carry, react, lose our balance, change direction and encounter unexpected demands every day. A body that only knows how to create support through tension has fewer options available when those demands arise. A body with more movement options is often a more resilient body.
Rather than relying on a single strategy of gripping, bracing or holding, it can adapt, respond and recover. It can create support when needed and let go when it isn’t.
This idea of creating support through adaptability rather than rigidity is something we’ll continue to explore in the next workshop in our Understanding Your Body series.
The Intelligent Core: Support Without Stiffness
Many of us have been taught that core strength means tightening our abdominals, pulling our ribs down or learning how to “switch on” our core.
But what if support wasn’t something we had to force? What if strength and ease could coexist?
What if the goal wasn’t to become more rigid, but more resilient?
In this workshop, we’ll explore how the breath, spine and abdominal system work together to create support that is responsive rather than rigid, adaptable rather than fixed. We’ll move beyond outdated ideas of core strength and investigate how movement, coordination and pressure management contribute to stability, strength and confidence.
Because true support isn’t about holding yourself together. It’s about developing a system that can adapt to changing demands, recover when challenged and continue to move well.
A system with options. A system that is resilient. A system that supports you not just in the studio, but in everyday life.
The Intelligent Core: Support Without Stiffness
Saturday 1 August | 11:15am–12:30pm
