“I want to work on my rib cage,” said no one ever. Goals vary in every fitness program. People come into Mind the Mat for different reasons. But I’ve never heard the reason: “to improve my rib function and thus improve my livelihood and longevity.” Well, now is the time to make your rib cage a priority in your exercise program. I am here to declare 2021 the year of the rib cage!

Why would we want to work on our ribs? What if I told you that rib mobility is crucial to our health? We are always sitting, but we are anatomically designed for crawling, climbing, hunting, and gathering as our ancestors did. In fact, my rib cage is my most challenging body part to target and control when I work out with my pilates teacher (oh yes, I have a pilates teacher, and he is brutal and amazing at the same time). Our rib cage has many functions and, now more than ever, it is crucial that we address its range of motion and mobility. Our lives depend upon it.

Here’s why:

Efficient Breathing: Did you know that our rib cage has a huge role in respiration? It not only encases and protects the lungs and diaphragm, our main breathing muscle, but it also has actual respiratory muscles that allow the lungs to fully expand and contract. This function ensures we maintain good lung capacity. We typically, due to our desk jobs and lack of activity, ignore using our ribs by breathing with our bellies and neck muscles. The latter compensation can cause neck pain and even headaches.

Practice breathing with the sides and backs of your ribs. Imagine your lungs are like the sails of a sailboat as you fill them with air. Keep your belly in tight, and your shoulders relaxed. This skill takes practice, so spend a few minutes a day on this at first until you master it. 

Shoulder Function: Did you know that our ribs form a key joint in the shoulder complex? Yes! The scapulothoracic joint, where the shoulder blade glides along your upper back, allows for proper leverage and range of motion with overhead activities like putting on your seatbelt or reaching into cabinets. If ribs lack normal range of motion or one is out of place or tight, your shoulder can be affected, making seemingly normal or easy activities more difficult.

Practice by sitting up tall and reaching only one arm up in the air, slowly in several directions. Allow your trunk to side bend and twist as you reach as high as you can. Repeat on the other arm.

Spine Health: We have 12 pairs of ribs, each attaching to the thoracic spine or your upper and mid-back. Therefore, maintaining rib mobility supports spinal health as well. If our ribs are either too stuck or too mobile, the movement in our spine can be affected.

Practice side bending, twisting, rounding forward, and extending backward in both sitting and standing. These isolated trunk movements establish and improve normal spinal range of motion and spinal health.

Try the above activities daily or add yoga and or Pilates to your exercise routine as these practices use rib movements as their foundation. Visit our full schedule at www.mindthemat.com

Did this scratch the surface anatomy lesson spark your interest? I teach the anatomy section in our upcoming yoga teacher training beginning this January 2022!