Your ribs are the foundation of your pressure management system, and if you’re having trouble with core coordination, they’re worth a deeper look.

Rib flare is a common discussion in postpartum rehab, so let’s talk about it.

During pregnancy, our internal organs move upward to make room for a growing baby. This can push the ribs up and out during inhalation, leave the intercostals tight and weak, and, combined with a shift in centre of gravity, move the pelvis into a more anteriorly tilted position. All of this can affect rib cage positioning.

Once you’re postpartum, these patterns can stick around.

A full, expansive inhale allows your diaphragm to descend and your ribs to move outward and downward. That inhale is what makes a strong, complete exhale possible. Without it, your exhale can become shallow, and your core contraction has less to work from.

This matters because your pelvic floor relies on that same breath cycle. A proper inhale allows the pelvic floor to lengthen and recoil, while a full exhale allows it to lift and contract again.

If your ribs are stuck in a flared, expanded position, that whole sequence can become disrupted before it even reaches the pelvic floor.

Your ability to generate and manage intra-abdominal pressure depends on your rib cage and diaphragm moving effectively with each breath.

Flared ribs can also mean:

• Your obliques and serratus, which are key core stabilisers, get underused.
• Your lats may take over, pulling your rib cage into more extension and further disrupting alignment.
• Your pelvis may compensate by either tucking under or flaring forward, creating or adding to imbalances below.

We don’t need to focus an entire strength program on “fixing” rib flare — that can be assessed by a rehab professional. But your breath, posture, and how your body handles pressure and load are all worth paying attention to.

Here are 5 exercises I often program for a client with rib flare:

90/90 Breathing With Banded Reach

In a 90/90 setup, your ribs are stacked directly over your pelvis, which immediately puts you in a better position with relatively little effort.

Adding a serratus reach during the exhale helps position the ribs down and in rather than allowing them to stay open.

It’s a low-load entry point for practising breath mechanics and pressure management, particularly in the early postpartum period.

Side-Lying Breathing With Rib Smash + Overhead Reach

Rib flare often shows up unevenly, particularly when there’s restriction through the back and sides of the rib cage. Many people also notice more rib flare on the left side.

This position targets lateral expansion directly, helping you inhale into the rib cage, especially through the lower ribs.

The overhead reach adds length through the side body, while the rib smash on the underside encourages the inhale to travel into the opposite side.

This can be a particularly useful setup if you’re not getting much out of a standard side-lying 360-degree breathing drill.

Open Book Stretch

The muscles between your ribs, the intercostals, and the fascia surrounding the rib cage can become tight.

When your mid-back can’t rotate well, your ribs can’t expand as effectively and your diaphragm can lose some of its available range.

Flared ribs also tend to sit in a more extended position, which can limit thoracic rotation and affect breathing mechanics, core coordination, and more.

This is why thoracic mobility is such an important part of addressing the bigger picture.

Quadruped Serratus Push-Up

Here, we can load the serratus more directly.

A strong, active serratus helps position the rib cage rather than allowing the lats to take over and pull it back into extension.

Training it in this closed-chain position builds strength in a supported, early-postpartum-friendly setup.

From here, you can eventually progress to bands, cables, or dumbbells with reaching and protraction movements, or move into more challenging setups as your capacity improves.

90/90 Diagonal Pullover With Iso Adductors

This final exercise brings a little bit of everything together.

You’re maintaining a rib-pelvis stack under light load while also managing a rotational demand. The isometric adductor hold adds another layer of deep core connection.

It’s a good step toward more integrated work: breath, rib control, rotation, and the core working as a system rather than trying to isolate each piece.

This directly reflects what happens in your strength training, where you’ll eventually need to manage your rib position and pressure in more dynamic and challenging setups.

Final Thoughts

Rib flare isn’t something to fear, and it isn’t necessarily permanent either.

With the right sequence of breath, mobility, and strength work, your rib cage can find its way toward a position that better supports how you move and train.

If you want this built into a full progression rather than five standalone exercises, this is exactly the kind of work we start with in Return to Strength.

The assess and foundational phases take you through rib-pelvis awareness, breathing mechanics, and progressive strength, so your core has a solid base before we load anything on top of it.