1. Hanging Leg Raises

– The hanging leg raise is great because of the difficulty of pulling the pelvis to the rib cage. When done correctly under control it will force you to engage your lats to create rigidity through the rib cage. Initiate the exercise by tucking the tailbone (pushing pubic bone forward) as you squeeze your abs. Then the actual raising of the legs happens from the last and the core working together to raise the weight of the legs. An easier variation would be a knee raise or even easier by resting on your elbows if the machine is available.

🧠 Think about the connection between abs, rib cage and lats. You shouldn’t be caving in at your sternum much during this exercise, even though it’s a spinal flexion exercise. You should think about maintaining a good head, neck and shoulder posture relative to your rib cage. Meaning your shoulders shouldn’t be all the way up to your ears as you perform this exercise.

2. V – Hold

– I love this isometric exercise because it will expose you directly to your pelvis and rib cage relationship. The various difficulty levels challenge you more by adding more weight away from the axis of the lever that is your hips. By moving your arms further away from your hips, it is making your abs work harder to stay connected to your hips. You’ll know instantly when you’ve lost the correct tension in this exercise because your low back will start to extend and you’ll shift a bit further away from your legs.

🧠 Think about the perfect 90° angle between your thighs and abdomen. Holding this angle requires your rib cage to be tightly connected to your pelvis via your abdomen muscles. Striving for a perfect hip angle and good “robot-like” posture through your rib cage, head and neck will expose you to a good challenge and improve your kinesthetic awareness

3. Zombie Front Squat

– This exercise is more challenging than a standard front squat because your rib cage has not assistance from your arms in supporting a barbell on top of it. If you hinge forward too far due to poor ankle or hip mobility (like during an RDL) then you’ll lose the bar out in front of you. Ensure you’re bracing your core and abdomen tightly and opening up your stance to stay as upright as you can. This is a great exercise to tightly connect your rib cage position with your larger leg muscles (especially your glutes and rectus femoris)

🧠 This about the arms out in front of your staying parallel to the ground throughout the whole lift. Before each rep, connect the brace of your abdomen with the support of the bar that is provided by your rib cage position. Your legs are directly squatting your rib cage up and down here, there just happens to be a heavy Barbell stacked on the front of your rib cage.

4. Weighted Plank

– Have a trusted friend load a plate onto your lower back, lined up right on top of your center of mass (about your belly button). Hold this until you absolutely can’t maintain a strong bridge between your rib cage and your pelvis. Obviously that will be the main challenge of the exercise and if you lose the position as soon as you feel some shakiness, you’re probably not trying hard enough. Embrace the suck!

🧠 A small tuck of the pelvis (clinching your glutes) here will give you awareness of your strong abdomen creating the bridge support on the underside of your body in this position. Usually with other exercises, you brace and hold your breath in until finishing a rep. But you gotta breathe here. So notice how your breathing is limited and how the rib cage not being able to expand is a compromise to maintain tension.