Why Your Ribcage and Pelvis Matter More Than You Think
Updated: 2 days ago
Cristina Max is the founder of 110 Yoga and creator of the 110 Method, a movement re-education approach challenging the outdated belief that stretching is the answer to tightness and pain. She teaches people to restore the relationship between their ribs and pelvis to address the root cause of movement dysfunction, not simply chase the symptoms.
Your ribcage and pelvis do not work in isolation. Understanding how they interact can improve your posture, breathing, stability, and movement while helping you address the underlying causes of recurring tightness.
Your ribcage and pelvis are connected
When people think about posture or alignment, they often focus on individual body parts. “Pull your shoulders back.” “Tuck your pelvis.” “Lengthen your spine.” But your body doesn’t work in isolated pieces.
One of the most important relationships I teach is the relationship between your ribcage and your pelvis. These two areas influence how your spine, hips, shoulders, core, and breath work together. When they are organized well, movement becomes more efficient. When they are disconnected, other areas of the body often have to pick up the slack.
This is one reason I stopped looking at tightness as simply a flexibility problem.
What does it mean to stack your ribs over your pelvis?
You’ve probably heard the cue, “Stack your ribs over your pelvis.” But what does that actually mean?
It doesn’t mean forcing your ribs down, tucking your pelvis under, or holding your body in one rigid position. It means creating a relationship between your ribcage and pelvis in which your body can move, breathe, and create stability without constantly fighting itself.
Think of your ribcage and pelvis as two major points of organization. When they are excessively shifted away from each other, the rest of your body has to adapt.
Your lower back might extend more. Your hip flexors might work harder. Your shoulders might become more involved. Your abdominal muscles might brace. Your breathing can change.
The body finds a way to keep moving, but that doesn’t mean every part is contributing equally.
Why does this relationship matter so much?
Your ribcage houses your lungs and plays a major role in breathing. Your pelvis is the foundation for your hips and connects your lower body to your spine. They are constantly interacting.
When you change the position of your pelvis, you change the position of your spine and ribcage. When your ribcage shifts, your spine and pelvis have to respond. This relationship affects how you stand, walk, bend, balance, reach, and practice yoga.
That’s why I don’t want people to think about alignment as simply making a pose look “right.” Alignment is about how the body is organized so it can actually do something.
What happens when your ribcage and pelvis aren’t working together?
Your body will always find a way to accomplish the movement. You can still touch your toes. You can still lift your arms. You can still do a deep lunge or a backbend.
But if your ribcage and pelvis aren’t working together, you might rely on other areas to create the stability you need.
This is where people often start chasing the wrong problem. Your hamstrings feel tight, so you stretch them. Your lower back feels tight, so you stretch your hips. Your shoulders feel restricted, so you stretch your chest.
But if the underlying organization of your body hasn’t changed, the same sensations can keep showing up.
Your breath is part of the equation
This is also where breathing becomes important.
Your diaphragm sits beneath your lungs, attaches to the lower part of your ribcage, and works with the muscles around your trunk to help manage pressure and support movement. Your breathing isn’t separate from your posture. Your ribcage has to move for you to breathe, and the way your body is positioned influences how that movement happens.
When you constantly remain in a position where your ribcage is lifted or your pelvis is disconnected beneath it, breathing can become part of the compensation.
This doesn’t mean every posture problem is a breathing problem. It means breathing is part of the system, and it deserves to be considered when we talk about alignment and stability.
We’ll go much deeper into that in the next article.
Stop thinking about alignment as “perfect posture”
One of the biggest misconceptions about alignment is that there is one perfect position you should hold all day. That isn’t what I teach.
Your body needs to move. Your ribs need to move. Your pelvis needs to move. Your spine needs to move.
The goal is not to freeze yourself into perfect alignment. The goal is to understand how your body organizes itself and develop the ability to move from a more supported position.
That’s a very different approach from constantly correcting individual body parts.
Start paying attention to your ribcage and pelvis
The next time you practice yoga, stand, or move through your day, notice the relationship between your ribs and pelvis.
Are your ribs constantly lifted forward? Does your pelvis feel like it is tucked underneath you? Do you hold your breath when you are trying to create stability? Do you feel like certain muscles have to grip to keep you in a position?
You don’t need to immediately fix anything. Start by noticing.
Once you understand the relationship between your ribcage and pelvis, you have a completely different lens through which to look at movement. That's the foundation of the 110 Method.
The way you move matters
At 110 Yoga, we look beyond the shape of a pose and focus on how the body is actually organizing itself within the movement.
Because when you understand the relationship between your ribcage, pelvis, breath, and stability, you stop chasing symptoms and start understanding the system.
The way you move matters.
Read more from Cristina Max
Cristina Max, Founder of 110 Yoga & Creator of the 110 Method
Cristina Max is the founder of 110 Yoga and creator of the 110 Method, an alignment-based approach to movement re-education. After years of teaching and personally experiencing the cycle of stretching, injuries, and recurring tightness, Cristina began questioning the conventional approach to tightness and pain. Her work focuses on restoring the relationship between the ribs and the pelvis, building stability, and improving breathing mechanics rather than stretching tight areas. Through the 110 Method, she helps people understand the root causes of tightness and pain rather than chasing symptoms. She wants to help change how people understand their bodies so they can perform better and feel their best.
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