Hi Cecile,
great video, thanks for that. Can you explain what are all the reasons we need to have ribs in proper alignment? What are consequences caused by incorrect position of ribs while exercising?

Hi Silvia, thanks for your question. One of the main reasons is because when the ribs begin to "flair out" it usually causes the thoracic or middle of the back to over arch creating an incorrect position of the spine.

Another big reason, especially in a curling forward and then lying down movement like a sit up or a roll up is that once again the spine gets out of alignment when one lies down allowing the ribs to flair, then when the person begins to come back up the usually are having to fix the ribs to begin the movement which often means that a good part of the upward movement is caused by using the back rather than the abdominals.

Hope this helps!!

Thank you Cecile!it really helps!very nice and understable explanation.

very nice explanation cecile, especially the part regarding the cat stretch....all of my clients arch a lot the thoracic spine and not the lumbar spine, and i always cue them about it....i find that sometimes there's a lot of misunderstanding about closing the ribs, because most of the times people try to do it with too much effort, and the only result is that they become stiff , and they don't need that at all...the softer way sometimes pay more than the strong way, but it's very difficult to teach that to people looking only for fast results...

...and sorry for my english, i don't practice it very much here in italy...

Thanks Fillipo, I'm glad it came across as clear. I agree with you it's still hard to get people to do this without getting over focused on it. It just takes time, but hopefully some of this helps.

Great tutorial, the exercise with the arm crossed has worked great with my clients to get a sense of the ribcage being closed. Thank you!

Loving your hair!!!

God this has been helpful for all!

Hi Cecile,
one more question sorry for bothering!
at min 5:13 that's as far as he can go...
is it because his ribcage is not elastic enough?
Thanks a lot!