Can you expand your rib cage?

[edge-man]

If your ribcage didn't expand when you take a deep breath, how can you explain your chest moving in and out when you breathe? By your reasoning, the ribcage is solid and only the lungs expand inside it, therefore no change should be seen as you breath in and out.

[ElPietro]

From Howstuffworks.com:
http://health.howstuffworks.com/lung1.htm
When you inhale, the diaphragm and intercostal muscles (those are the muscles between your ribs) contract and expand the chest cavity.

Did you actually read anything in that before posting it? Did it say the rib cage expands? Did any bone or skeletal structure expand? Or muscles? Muscles only expand and contract, so this is a simple concept. Bones are not muscles.

Read again carefully what you quoted.

[TBone4Eva]

The muscles cause the rib cage to pull up and out, which I call expansion. This causes the chest cavity to expand and allows you to breathe.

Here is an illistration:



Why this is even an arguement, I will never know (looks at his own chest as he breathes).

Are we now?

[ElPietro]

Did it stay expanded? Did you breathe and your rib bones grow?

[TBone4Eva]

My arguement has nothing to do with that.

Shane said the following:

Your ribcage does not expand when you take a breath.

This is what my arguement was related to.

[Shane]

Actually LP is the only one that got my meaning. I wasn't talking about the temporary expansion from when you breath man. That's a given everyone knows. I'm talking about permanent expansion. Sorry, I guess I should have stated that.

Think about it man. If doing a few deep-breathing exercises permanently expanded your ribcage then who would have the largest ribcages? Athletes like cyclists, marathon runners, triathletes, sprinters. They are constantly huffing and puffing far more than bodybuilders. Also, the expanded ribcage would be more obvious on them because they do not typically have the musculature to match. If all the hours of training they put in don't expand their ribcage to any signficant degree, why would a few minutes of doing a certain exercises?

You guys can try if you want. No skin off my back. Oh yeah, T-Bone of course we're .

[Zygote]

There is one proven one to expand your ribcage...

I was in a boxing fight (me and my brother built a ring in the back yard he he) and my brother being a pretty decent amatuer boxer, staved one of my ribs in. I didn't go to the doctor because I thought it was just bruising and a few years later I discovered, after losing some weight, a 2 cm palpable and visible lump on my side which turned out (luckily, I first thought I had cancer) to be a poorly healed fracture.

Anyway the moral of the story is.. If you can get somebody to break your ribs in multiple places over and over again (without killing you mind), you can put on a fairly decent amount of girth, 2cm for each break!

Its very painful but I can attest, it really does work!

Zygote

[TBone4Eva]

I guess I just took what you said too literal Shane, my bad.

[Shane]

I guess I just took what you said too literal Shane, my bad.

Actually, when I went back to look at it it DOES look like I meant that the ribcage doesn't expand at all. Unless you were in my head you couldn't tell that wasn't what I meant. So I should of said it better.

[oldernotwiser]

Had a severely caved in chest. Getting Rolfed, breathing exercises, and continued fascial self-manipulation of neck/anterior shoulders/chest areas has made a considerable difference.

[40 Nunc]

Maybe we could all do isometric chest exercises while chanting "I must, I must, I must increase my bust" that way when we grow up we'll all have big boobies!

[youngguns]

you did notice this post was from 2004....

[ancom41]

Thoracic skeletal morphology and high-altitude hypoxia in Andean prehistory

Living humans from the highland Andes exhibit antero-posteriorly and medio-laterally enlarged chests in response to high-altitude hypoxia. This study hypothesizes that morphological responses to high-altitude hypoxia should also be evident in pre-Contact Andean groups. Thoracic skeletal morphology in four groups of human skeletons (N = 347) are compared: two groups from coastal regions (Ancón, Peru, n = 79 and Arica, Chile, n = 123) and two groups from high altitudes (San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, n = 102 and Machu Picchu and Cuzco, Peru, n = 43). Osteometric variables that represent proportions of chest width and depth include sternal and clavicular lengths and breadths and rib length, curvature, and area. Each variable was measured relative to body size, transformed into logarithmic indices, and compared across sex-specific groups using ANOVA and Tukey multiple comparison tests. Atacama highlanders have the largest sternal and clavicular proportions and ribs with the greatest area and least amount of curvature, features that suggest an antero-posteriorly deep and mediolaterally wide thoracic skeleton. Ancón lowlanders exhibit proportions indicating narrower and shallower chests. Machu Picchu and Cuzco males cluster with the other highland group in rib curvature and area at the superior levels of the thorax, whereas chest proportions in Machu Picchu and Cuzco females resemble those of lowlanders. The variation in Machu Picchu and Cuzco males and females is interpreted as the result of population migrations. The presence of morphological traits indicative of enlarged chests in some highland individuals suggests that high-altitude hypoxia was an environmental stressor shaping the biology of highland Andean groups during the pre-Contact period.

-Am J Phys Anthropol, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

^ Anyone know if instances like this are examples of natural selection over generations caused by the severe hypoxia from high altitude life or a body's ability to adapt to unique environments?

If it is the later, then theres your answer.

[mmoore2468]

I am an opera singer and after I stopped using german breathing technique (lower abdominal and back) and switched to Italian breathing (Ribcage expansion) I had to buy two sizes up in dresses because my chest was that much larger. Breathing absolutely brings out the ribcage and makes it much larger. Some would argue that it just returns to its normal state if you stop breathing but actually it takes a while for it to collapse back and it can definitely be developed out. My best advice is if you want to get larger, do these breathing exercises
1.) put your hands on your lowest ribs on each side. Push in with your hands and breath to make your hands go out creating resistance.
2.) Take a tape measure or a ribbon or string and put it around your lower ribs. Tighten it and then breath in again to feel the resistance.
keep it up. It takes time to make the intercostal muscles push the ribcage out permanently. feeling sore is GOOD. It means you are really getting them out there!