If you have a tense breathing pattern, if you hold your breathe when work out you will create tension in your workout and that can often lead to pain.
First thing you do is check in with yourself and notice how difficult it is to just breathe naturally. As you are breathing let go of any tension you might have in your body, in your neck and shoulders, your hips or your back. As you exercise you will find that you are able to breathe more deeply, more fully.
Your breath is like the fuel to your car, it fuels your workout so you need to be breathing naturally.
Sometimes we work on breathing specifically within the exercise and that is just a guide within a breathing exercise so that you can learn how to breath naturally.
The goal again is to just breath naturally.
Try this - lay on your back and bend your knees get comfortable. Start to think of the box of your body, the squareness of your hips, the evenness of your shoulders and as you breath allow your box to stay in place and start to add in some of the things that are in all of the Pilates exercises such as squeeze your bottom, lengthen your spine, pull your belly in and up, open your shoulders, lengthen the back of your neck. Now check and see if you are breathing naturally. Just do that for 1 minute.
Keeping your breathing in mind, keeping your box in mind and working within what your body wants today.
That is the way to breath naturally - the Pilates way