Let's Get Your Ribcage Unstuck

Happy Tranquility Thursday, Overwhelmed Yogis.

There’s a long list of things I wish I’d learned about my body sooner in a quarter-century of practicing yoga.

Number one: Don’t flare your ribs.

This simple but profound postural adjustment, shown here, isn’t needed by everyone. But everyone should check to see if you need it.

I — like many people, especially many women who have been pregnant, and those who sit at a computer for prolonged periods — used to unknowingly thrust my ribs forward. To counterbalance, I had an excessive curve (an exaggerated anterior tilt) in my low back when standing. The pattern was exacerbated by doing lots of backbends in yoga. Sitting at a computer with my head jutting forward, my ribcage jutted forward, too. Then the load of a baby was added, twice.

The result was a huge postpartum gap in my upper abdominal muscles (diastasis recti), breath restriction, and a lot of low back pain.

The idea is not to flatten the low back but to maintain a neutral curve as the ribs stack over the hips and the head stacks over the ribs. All the time, not just in yoga. There are lots of cues for this. Knit your ribs. Gently tuck your ribs. Don’t flare.

If that language feels abstract standing, a glute bridge (shown in the video) is a great pose to feel what I’m talking about. Imagine very slightly closing the space between your lower ribs and your hip bones.

A gentle core activation happens naturally when the ribs aren’t protruding. The breath flows more freely, so the adjustment is soothing to your nervous system.

Once you’ve got it, it’s lovely to sit and deliberately breathe into the ribcage for a minute or two. Place your hands on your sides or you can tie a belt or yoga strap around the ribcage and breathe into the gentle resistance.

Questions? Feedback? I’d love to hear.

Each Monday I post a movement break to support your body, each Thursday an exercise or tip for your nervous system.