How can I get muscle on my ribs?

Question

I'm naturally skinny and have been able to put muscle on most of my torso except for my ribs which was the main area I wanted to cover up. Can anyone tell me what exercises I could do to put muscle on there so my ribs don't show up as much? Thanks.

Answer 1

In general, there are 4 muscles that cover the rib area, excluding the back. The rectus abdominis (abs), the pectoralis major and minor (chest), latissimus dorsi  (under your armpits), and the serratus anteriors, which are on the side, between the pecs and the abs.

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

Click on the name of the muscle for a description, and then the description page click the title at the top for a list of exercises you can do.

Hope that helps. If something's unclear or you have any more questions, let me know.

Answer 2

As mentioned, the serratus anterior is the main muscle that covers your ribs. It is best worked with rotational exercises and exercises that require stability in order to maintain correct form. Rotational exercises arae best done with cable machines (at the gym) because they keep constant stress on the muscle, and the effects of gravity don't alter the difficulty of the movement. I've always found horizontal cable rotations the best, as they also work the external obliques and erector spinae (lower back) to make your core a more functionally strong one, not just strong at doing crunches for example. Stability exercises include swiss ball crunches, swiss ball plank etc where you have to keep your body stabilized. Make sure that you're not overtraining this particular area, forget the rumours that you must do 9999999 crunches an hour for a six pack, 3 sessions a week, containing about 12 sets in total is more than enough in conjunction with a weight routine to get you a solid mid section.

Answer 3

You're probably just not using the right exercises. To help cover your ribs, crunches would help for your abs, but weighted crunches, and preferrably on a machine with resistance. As well, I would check out http://www.SwoleFitness.com it's one of the best fitness sites I've seen lately.

Answer 4

crunches