Experiential Anatomy #1: The Rib Cage

Why do we call one of the most mobile parts of ourselves a cage?

After two posts looking at the themes of comfort and self-care, I thought I would change things up this week by offering an experiential anatomy lesson.

Every so often, I want to use this space to provide subscribers with an opportunity to explore a specific structure in the body - examining the ways in which detailed engagement with specific parts of our anatomy has the potential to offer up more holistic insights.

The first of these experiential anatomy posts is devoted to the rib cage. And my first point of order is to problematise the idea of the rib cage itself. In some ways, the idea of rib cage makes sense - it’s the bony structure that encloses our major organs in order to keep them safe from trauma. However, I’m wary of the ways in which the word ‘cage’ suggests a fixed and hard structure. A cage is a place where freedom of movement is limited. But if you look closely at the structure of the spine, you’ll see that the vertebrae with the widest range of movement are not in the neck or the lumbar, they are in the thoracic spine - where the ribs are attached. The ribs enclose and protect our organs, but they also move in lots of different ways. They expand and retract with our breathing. They twist, flex and extend.

As you can see from the image I’ve take from Gray’s Anatomy, the rib cage is a structure of delicate curves, closer the elegant vaulting of a medieval cathedral than the bars of a prison.

It’s also worth noting that the rib cage is the site of transmission for a great deal of our movement. Mobile ribs are fundamental for effective breathing. They allow us to find comfort as we try to rest against a floor, sofa, chair or bed. The rib cage’s freedom of movement is closely entwined with the freedom of movement of the spine, and, therefore, the head and pelvis. We balance on our ribs. We initiate movement by shifting the weight of our torso through our ribs and spine. We touch and embrace with our ribs. We make gentle contact with those we love through our ribs.

It’s not just a cage.

The movement of the rib cage is also fundamental to processing our emotions. When we feel anger or sadness we often hold our breath and fix our ribs in place. (To stop ourselves from feeling? Or maybe to limit our feelings?) When we feel happy, our rib cage lifts, bringing us into positive relation with the world. Look at the ribs of this toddler lifting and expanding as she runs towards her mother. Joy is in the ribs.

The father of mime, Étienne Decroux noted that you could roll all Michelangelo’s great figurative sculptures down a hill, breaking off the peripheral skeleton of arms and legs, without them losing any of their expression - because expression is held in the torso. As an art lover, it’s not something I’d advocate, but a perceptive point nonetheless.

So this week’s lesson is about feeling the movement of the ribs. It’s about sensing the centrality of our rib cage to all of our movement. You’ll need a space where you can lie on your back. The lesson lasts 23 minutes, but you might want to be ready to pause in order to spend more time with something. Enjoy!