If you’ve ventured onto GymTok, you’re probably familiar with the term “rib flare.” If you haven’t heard of it, a quick search on the app reveals its meaning. Essentially, it refers to when your bottom ribs protrude out, adding an extra bump to your body’s side profile. But learning about this viral phrase from the fitness side of the app might lead to a few more questions, like “Is it bad?” “Is it dangerous?” and “Can it be fixed?”
“What do you mean you can correct your rib flares?” asked TikTok user Nemesis Irizarry. “This is just what they always look like, and now I’m seeing videos of girls saying that you can correct that sh*t.”
“I don’t understand either, my rib is a bone. Like, how am I meant to fix that?” one user commented.
Rib flare shouldn’t be another insecurity to add to a growing list of totally normal features TikTok deems “bad.” All bodies are built differently, and for some people, their ribs are just naturally more prominent. But, in some cases, rib flare can be the reason your workout is less effective than it could be. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to get your gains back on track.
What Is Rib Flare?
According to Michelle Ditto, CPT, the vice president of training and technique at Pure Barre, rib flare occurs when the bottom five sets of ribs — the ones that aren’t attached to your sternum — stick out a little more, leading to open chest, elevated shoulders, and arch in the upper mid back. This can totally be your natural anatomy, but it can also be indicative of poor postural alignment.
How can you tell which category you fall into? “If it is your bone structure, you’ll still be able to experience the correct engagement of both your core musculature and your diaphragm,” Ditto says. If you can take full, deep breaths while exercising, you’re in the clear.
Flared ribs, if they’re not your body’s natural shape, can be due to poor breathing techniques while exercising and can also cause more troubled breathing during workouts. Poor posture, incorrect form, or a habit of sucking in your stomach, all of which lead to postural imbalances and less core engagement, can also be potential causes.
If you have true rib flare, there will be signs. “You’ll see a decrease in your ability to engage your core, to lift as heavy as you want, to effectively endurance train as long as you want,” Ditto explains. “So [rib flare] can just diminish your natural capacity to do the type of fitness that you’re interested in doing.” Essentially, it can make your gym session less productive.
How To Fix Rib Flare
If your rib flare is a result of your bone structure, it can’t be changed. But, if you’re experiencing adverse effects, like lower back pain, tightness through the upper back and shoulders, or less mobility through the spine, working on your posture and breathing techniques while exercising can help your workouts go further and feel better.
Proper breath technique starts with taking full, deep breaths — something you might not even realize you’re not doing. “If you hold your rib cage, you think about your bottom ribs like a bucket handle. The bucket handle should move not only out, but up when you breathe in,” Ditto says. “So think of expanding wide and broad versus forward and backward.”
While performing an exercise, it’s also important to exhale on the “effortful motion,” she explains. So, when doing a sit-up, exhale as you curl up, and inhale as you roll back down.
When it comes to form, things get a little more complicated. Correct form can vary from one exercise to another, but the act of engaging your core stays mostly the same, whether you’re at the squat rack or the yoga mat. Ditto’s hack for engaging the entire core (which includes your transverse abdominis and back muscles, too) is to “hug your baby.”
“It’s that idea of being held from the outside in,” she says. “I think that’s really applicable even if you haven’t been pregnant. Think about holding a baby inside, hugging it tight. It’s that type of engagement of the core muscles that we’re after.”
Exercise can be anxiety-inducing for some, and concerns that you’re doing it wrong and harming yourself can add another layer of stress. But Ditto maintains that exercising “correctly” is not the be-all, end-all. She suggests focusing on your posture and breathing during just one exercise in your routine, and slowly adding that strength and control to your tool belt.
“If you are somebody who’s experiencing rib flare right now. It doesn’t mean that you’re destined for failure,” Ditto says. “It means that there might be a better way to do what it is you’re trying to do.”
Source:
Michelle Ditto, CPT, VP of Training & Technique at Pure Barre
