Pilates Breathing and “The Hundred” as Taught to Francene Perel By Mary Pilates
I am so fortunate to have been taught by Mary Pilates, niece of Joseph Pilates. Mary was very emphatic about breathing as one of the fundamentals of the Pilates Method. I recorded Mary speaking and one of first things she said was, “You have to teach them how to breathe. It’s not easy and most of them don’t know how to breathe right anyway, or they hold their breath and don’t do it at all.”
According to Mary, the way you begin a Pilates session is to do “The Hundred” because this is your warm-up, and nothing else is needed. Not only does it involve breathing, it involves the entire body and mind. I must admit that I got a strict reprimand from Mary early on in my studies with her. “You don’t tell them to close their eyes and relax their shoulders and stretch different body parts, while they breathe deeply and let go of their troubles,” said Mary. She was right. “The Hundred” is not easy and simple. “Starting any other way makes you too tired to execute the full 100 breaths, especially when you are raising and lowering your arms in a 6-inch to 8-inch range.”
Much like her Uncle Joe, Mary was a very gruff and a hands-on teacher. Mary said, “If you could feel the movement done correctly at least once, you could memorize this feeling and work on repeating it and perfecting it.” This is how she taught Pilates breathing and how it applies to “The Hundred.”
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