Breathing is the most fundamental physical activity that I have conscious access to. My heart is always beating, but I can't change it's rhythm just by thinking about it. If I want to inhale..... Now! I can. I can speed up the breath, slow it down, and even pause it for a time. But if I'm not thinking about it, the breath just happens, some 17,000 times a day.
The muscles used to breath are strong. Breathing provides a natural rhythm of expansive and contractive energy that can be tapped to initiate movement. Rather than breathing while moving, or even synchronizing breath with movement, the breath can become the beginning of the movement, and propel its direction. Then the practice begins to deepen, until the entire movement is breathing.
When the breath is at the center of awareness, I can keep my body aligned so that the breath is privileged. I feel the entire body pulse with breath. Strenuous positions become easier as the muscles are fed a strong and steady supply of oxygen. Breath aligns rib cage and spine so that side bends and twists are both easier and deeper.
The expansiveness of inhale lifts and aligns, and the power of the core engaged to exhale moves the body. Breath-powered yoga is the term that came to mind when I began to explore this territory, moving beyond moving "with" the breath, to moving "from" the breath.
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