Alice McRae Advertorial

Alice McRae has taught Pilates since 2007 — across Scotland, in her own studio, online, and in large local classes. She was the person clients came to for pain relief, posture, and performance. Her own breathing was the one thing she couldn't solve.

For years, a lingering cough would flare mid-class, forcing her to leave the room, cough it out, and try to recompose herself in front of students relying on her voice and presence. Outside the studio, her own training — hill running, road biking — left her breathless with a racing heart rate. After a run of personal stressors and a hospital stay, she was diagnosed with asthma.

She used preventer and reliever inhalers daily for over six years.

"The inhalers helped... kind of. Nothing addressed the root cause."

As a teacher whose whole job was helping other people move and breathe better, the frustration cut deep — she could help her clients, but not herself.

The shift came through Patrick McKeown's book Close Your Mouth. The science — nasal breathing, carbon dioxide tolerance, simple breath holds — made immediate sense to her. She switched to nasal breathing during running and began practicing Many Small Breath Holds, an exercise she credits with finally stopping the coughing spirals during class. A quick pause in breath was enough to calm her nervous system before the cough could take hold.

"It felt like I had my teaching voice back."

The impact went beyond her own health. When her son developed asthma and was hospitalized multiple times before age four, she used MyoTape at night and taught him gentle breath holds — a shift that transformed his sleep and breathing too. That was the moment the personal solution became, in her words, a professional one: she reached out to Patrick to ask whether this could be woven directly into her Pilates teaching. The answer was yes.

Pilates already emphasizes nasal breathing, core control, and diaphragmatic engagement — but rarely addresses volume, cadence, or air hunger directly. Alice now teaches every class with nasal breathing only, guiding clients toward awareness of breath rhythm and depth. The response, she's found, has been strong across age groups — including older adults and clients managing balance issues, who respond particularly well to calming, breath-led work.

She went on to complete both Buteyko training and the full Oxygen Advantage® Instructor Training in person with master instructors, and now runs day retreats combining cold water immersion, breathwork, and movement — built entirely on the calming techniques she first found for herself.

Alice teaches over 90 clients a week today, with breath work at the center of every session — a practice shaped as much by her son's story as her own.