How to Master Pilates Breathing Techniques | FS8
Women practicing Pilates breathing techniques during some yoga-inspired movement

What is Diaphragmatic Breathing? How to Master Pilates Breathing Techniques

Breathing might feel automatic, but in Pilates, it’s something you learn to control.

At FS8, we view breath as part of the exercise. Each inhale expands your ribs to prepare your body, while each exhale helps your core switch on so you can move with precision.

So how do you know if you’re breathing the right way?

It starts with diaphragmatic breathing – a technique that teaches you how to direct your breath through your torso, so it actively supports each movement.

In this guide, we break down how diaphragmatic breathing works, the benefits behind it, and how to use it alongside other Pilates breathing techniques to improve your performance in our workouts.

What is diaphragmatic breathing? 

Diaphragmatic breathing (also known as belly breathing, or ‘360 breathing’) expands your breath through your belly and ribs, instead of lifting your chest.

The name (like the breath) comes from your diaphragm – a muscle that sits just below your lungs. When you inhale, it moves downward, pulling air into your lungs and creating space through your torso. Instead of your chest rising, you’ll feel your belly expanding and your ribs move outward. The reason people often call this technique belly breathing or 360 breathing is because your breath spreads through your front, sides, and back – giving your breath a holistic, all-encompassing feeling that supports better performance and relaxation.

Diaphragmatic breathing: 5 benefits 

Diaphragmatic breathing directs movement into the muscles that should be working. Without control of your breath, your body shifts effort into the wrong areas. 

Below are five diaphragmatic breathing benefits you’ll notice during an FS8 workout.

1. Strengthens your core

Diaphragmatic breathing activates your core by switching on the deep muscles that support your spine and pelvic floor². This helps you engage the right muscles as you move, so you can see stronger, more effective Pilates results.

2. Supports your spine and posture

During diaphragmatic breathing, your deep core muscles engage. This creates internal support for your spine, helping maintain alignment and reduce strain on your lower back2.

Instead of sinking into your lower back or rounding through your shoulders, your body stays lifted and controlled as you breathe – and move – throughout each exercise.

3. Prevents overworking the wrong muscles

It’s easy to grip through your neck, shoulders, or hip flexors when your breath drops off2. Diaphragmatic breathing shifts the effort back into your core and glutes, ensuring that the right muscles are doing the work.

4. Helps you stay focused when it gets hard

As a movement you’re practicing – or a pose you’re holding – becomes more challenging, your breath gives you something to return to2. In this way, diaphragmatic breathing keeps your mind and muscles engaged, instead of holding your breath or stopping the exercise.

5. Connects each movement

Linking Pilates and breathing turns separate reps into one continuous sequence. By inhaling to prepare and exhaling to move, the belly breathing technique ensures your body keeps progressing – instead of resetting each time.

How to do diaphragmatic breathing

Think of diaphragmatic breathing as a deep belly breath that expands your ribs and stomach, not your chest. If you’re a Pilates beginner, it might feel unfamiliar at first, but over time it will become a natural rhythm you fall into during movement.

If you’re practicing Pilates breathing for beginners, here’s what one full breath cycle should feel like:

  1. Place one hand on your chest and one on your stomach.
  2. Breathe in slowly through your nose.
  3. Let your stomach rise and your ribs expand. Keep your chest as still as possible.
  4. Breathe out slowly through your mouth or nose.
  5. Let your stomach fall and your ribs move back in.
  6. Repeat.

Ready to give it a go in the studio? Find your closest FS8 location and start your free trial to learn with real-time guidance from our trainers.

More Pilates breathing techniques explained

Once you’ve mastered diaphragmatic breathing, you can build on it with other Pilates breathing techniques designed to help you build core strength and support meditation.

Here are three to try in your next FS8 workout.

Lateral breathing

Lateral breathing keeps your core stabilized while your ribs expand out to the sides – like an accordion opening and closing.

In our workouts, we use this during core-focused movements, where keeping your core and pelvic floor engaged is key. You’ll feel it in exercises like the Pilates 100s and planks, where stability matters.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Place your hands on your ribs.
  2. Breathe in and expand your ribs outward.
  3. Keep your stomach steady.
  4. Breathe out and feel your ribs move back in.

Rhythmic breathing

Rhythmic breathing gives your movement a steady pace. Instead of holding your breath when things get hard, it helps you stay consistent from start to finish.

In strength-based classes like our FS8 Ignite workout, you use weights, bands, and spring resistance, so your breath becomes essential. It keeps your movement controlled as you build strength under tension.

Try this Pilates breathing method:

  1. Inhale for four counts.
  2. Exhale for four counts.
  3. Repeat.

Box breathing

Box breathing is a slower, structured breathing pattern often used in different types of yoga to help reset your pace and bring your focus back to your body.

As FS8 ambassador Christina Chan explains, “Focusing on your breath helps you keep that flow and feel more in sync with your body. Box breathing – along with diaphragmatic breathing and lateral breathing – is one technique you’ll practice in an FS8 workout – which brings together Pilates, tone, and slower, yoga-inspired movement, allowing each exercise to flow naturally into the next.”

Box breathing is when you:

  1. Inhale for four counts.
  2. Hold for four counts.
  3. Exhale for four counts.
  4. Hold for four counts.

Why breathing matters in FS8 workouts

At FS8, our workouts are low-impact – so it’s not about how many reps you get through, but how mindful and practiced your movements are. This is why your breath is so crucial: it’s what sets the pace, helping you stay connected to each movement and maintain your form.

As FS8 ambassador Christina Chan explains, “At FS8, we’re constantly cueing your breath – sometimes to slow things down, sometimes to pick up the pace, and sometimes just to remind you to do it. Because, for something our body does automatically, it’s surprisingly easy to forget!”

That’s why in an FS8 class, you’ll always find:

  • Breath cues that bring you back to the movement.
  • Trainer-led pacing, so you don’t rush your reps.
  • Warm-up and cool-down exercises that use breath to guide you into and out of each class.

Diaphragmatic breathing techniques support your body and your mind. Next, discover how FS8 can help you reboot your mental health.

1 https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9445-diaphragmatic-breathing 

2 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7602530/