Spilling the Pilateas☕️ Edition 32 Lets Talk Ribs

Let’s talk ribs—not the ones you eat, the ones that surround your lungs. They go all the way around, but I am willing to bet when you saw ribs, you only thought about the ones directly in front. Am I right?

Your ribcage has so much to tell you. Here’s a bit of what I see when I watch my clients.

What I see when I watch someone’s ribcage isn’t simply how they breathe. I see rotation, shifting, compression, asymmetry, bracing, and where they’re finding movement—or avoiding it. I see how cohesive they really are through their whole body, or how disconnected.

The ribcage is usually the missing link between your shoulders and pelvis. I love to describe the connection this way: think of the primary powerhouse (pelvis to belly button) as a V and the secondary powerhouse (shoulders and ribs) as another V that slides into and out of the first. The connection is fluid, but not separate.

We tend to look at the pelvis and shoulders as separate areas, but the ribcage connects them. If the ribs are rotated or shifted, both ends have to respond.

Simply trying to fix your shoulder or hip squareness won’t solve the problem. More often than not, it is not coming from those places—it’s just showing up loudest there. So when I want to truly see what’s throwing the balance of the body off, I look to the ribs and how they are functioning.

Can you truly slide your secondary powerhouse into your primary for the Hundred? When you do Chest Expansion, are you able to keep your ribs in front connected, or do they flare?

All of these things tell me how effective you are in your chosen sport or activity outside of Pilates. If you ride and are too open or disconnected here in class, then you are in the saddle too. Half-halts lose their effectiveness without your ribcage. Balance is often tipped too far forward when the ribs flare and the low back is too arched, preventing the fluid movement of the seat.

So this week, your challenge is to observe your ribcage more. How are you actually engaging it—or maybe not engaging it—in the exercise?

If you are not sure, when you scoop up for the Hundred, look at your abdominal wall. If it is popped up like a bread loaf, then your ribs are not working effectively. Neck exhausted at the end of one of the Five? Your ribs aren’t contracting enough, and the work is getting translated to the neck.

Tell me what you notice, and see if you can carry it out of the practice and into your day. Notice if those little pains and imbalances become less when you start integrating your ribs better into your powerhouse.