02/05/2026
Breath facilitates movement. Movement facilitates breath
Many people assume The Hundred is mainly a core exercise, where arm pumping is used to stimulate abdominal activation.
But in Principles of Movement, Dr. Brent Anderson emphasizes that The Hundred is fundamentally a breathing exercise, organized through thoracic flexion and breath strategy.
In this video, I use the Breath-a-Cizer, a breathing tool developed by Joseph Pilates, to demonstrate how different breathing strategies can be used to support deep trunk organization through coordinated inhalation and exhalation.
You may notice that the arms do not need to pump for the exercise to be effective at the end.
From a movement science perspective, muscles are recruited by task, not by conscious muscle contraction. When the nervous system is given a clear task—such as directed breathing with resistance—it naturally organizes the appropriate muscles, including the deep stabilizers of the trunk, to meet the demand.
This is why simply blowing into the Breath-a-Cizer during The Hundred can create effective core activation—without forcing, gripping, or thinking about which muscles to engage.
