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NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, May 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Excerpt from the article: Rib Flare Assessment: The Myth of “Flared Ribs”
– Related course: Overhead Squat Assessment: Introduction
– Related Certification: Human Movement Specialist (HMS)
SUMMARY:
Based on a comprehensive review of the available evidence and a rigorous psychometric evaluation, the clinical assessment of “rib flare” lacks reliability, scientific validity, and clinical utility.
– What Moves The Ribs: The magnitude of rib motion, and specifically rib flare, is most heavily influenced by thoracic extension/flexion, not core muscle contraction, or respiration.
– Lack of Standardization and Subjectivity: Rib flare as an assessment lacks objective quantification, definitive thresholds, and normative data, reducing it to a highly subjective visual estimate governed entirely by examiner bias.
– Failed Reliability and Validity: Without standardization, the visual estimation of rib flare is highly unreliable, and, lacking correlation with impairment, specific joint pathologies, or injury risk, the assessment lacks any construct and criterion validity.
– Physiologically Flawed Interventions: Prescribing corrective exercises to pull the ribs “down and in” relies on unassessable metrics (e.g., the “zone of apposition” and rib flare) and the physiologically absurd assumption that resting muscle tone can permanently deform cortical bone.
– Inability to Measure Outcomes: Because the rib flare assessment is both unreliable and invalid, any perceived “improvement” cannot be objectively verified. There is no means of distinguishing an actual change from measurement error, transient changes in respiration, or a change in thoracic posture. The lack of reliability and validity means rib flare cannot be used as a reassessment to determine whether the interventions were effective in reducing rib flare.
– Loss of Clinical Utility: Because of a lack of standardization and definitive thresholds, rib flare cannot reliably be used to group patients as those who would or would not benefit from a specific set of interventions. Further, this assessment cannot be used to measure progress because it lacks reliability. Lastly, there are more reliable and valid assessment options. Given these issues, this assessment does not serve a clinical purpose.
– Evidence-Based Alternatives: Clinicians should abandon the rib flare assessment in favor of rigorously researched, psychometrically sound evaluations. Our recommendations are the use of the Overhead Squat Assessment (OHSA) and the lumbar-locked rotation test (note that we often use this test as a thoracic mobilization and stability technique – Thoracic Mobilization).
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Brent Brookbush
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