Carinatum is highly correctable, if the pressure, hours and phases are right. The cited bracing protocol, from first fitting to retention.
Joined by 1,000+ people fixing their chest without surgery, since 2015
Too little does nothing, too much shuts you down. Here is the window that works.
A brace applies pressure, but whether that pressure flattens the ridge depends on getting the science right. Most people guess, and months disappear.
The brace isn't the variable.
Your hours are.
Carinatum responds to compression better than any other pectus type. What decides the result is your pressure, your hours and your phasing. Get those right and the ridge settles back toward flat.
Read them by rating, or by what people actually got out of it - the transformations, the honest reviews, and the messages that land in my inbox every week.
across 12 rated statements
500+ reviews collected since 2015. Open a bar, a tag or a condition to read the published ones.
What the 4.9 is made of
17 published statements · 500+ collected since 2015
first call he told me straight up itd take a year and id hate months 2 through 5. he was right about both lol. 12 months on and my PC is flat. took my shirt off at the beach in january without doing the whole towel thing
DimiPC19
1-on-1 CoachingAustralia 🇦🇺
the brace is made really good, i wear it under the t-shirt at school and nobody has noticed in 4 months. my mother was crying when we compare the photos. sorry for my english
NicoPC17
Pectus Carinatum BraceItaly 🇮🇹
My son is 15 and had started keeping a shirt on in the pool, which is how I worked out something was wrong in the first place, because he certainly wasn't going to tell me. He would never have stuck with the brace on his own. It was the fortnightly check-ins that did it - he didn't want to turn up with nothing to report. Six months now and the ridge has visibly come down. He swims without the shirt.
Noah's mumPC
Pectus Carinatum BraceUSA 🇺🇸
read the blog for months before i actually did anything with it. no coach, no brace, just the stuff in the articles done properly. i feel a lot better now and the photos say the rest
DaniloPE
Read the blogCroatia 🇭🇷
Two months in and I've put on 3 kg of muscle. My chest doesn't cave the way it used to when I'm standing relaxed, and that alone was worth it.
MiloPE25
1-on-1 CoachingGermany 🇩🇪
Had the flare since i was about 14 and just assumed that was my ribcage, permanently. Brace plus the breathing drills and my mrs asked when i'd lost weight. I hadn't lost anything, it's just the ribs sitting where they should now.
DanielRib Flare27
Rib Flare BraceUK 🇬🇧
didnt know you could be breathing wrong for 21 years. thats the whole thing right there. flare started going down on its own once i stopped breathing into my shoulders, which is not what i paid for but ill take it
benjiRib Flare21
Rib Flare CourseUSA 🇺🇸
the bell leaves a red ring on your chest the second you take it off, and nobody warns you about that. it fades within the hour and the skin has never been an issue since. 100% satisfied - the sternum sits higher than it has my whole life
PiotrPE25
Vacuum BellPoland 🇵🇱
He knows more about this than the two consultants I paid to see, which says more about them than it does about him. Showed my GP the 9 month photos and he asked me for the website. Half a star off because the time zones make the calls a nightmare from Ireland.
RuairíPE29
1-on-1 CoachingIreland 🇮🇪
ive bought like four programs for this over the years and quit every one of them by week two. finished this one. i think its cus you cant move on until you can actually hold the position, so theres never that thing where you're guessing if youre ready or not
MateoRib Flare23
Rib Flare CourseUSA 🇺🇸
watched the youtube for six years before i spent a single cent. bought the program, did it properly for 7 months, and the only thing i actually regret is the six years
TanePE26
PE Exercise ProgramNew Zealand 🇳🇿
I went in wanting to debunk it, honestly. Started opening the citations one at a time and they were real papers that said what he said they said. That is a depressingly low bar and nowhere else online clears it.
SanderRib Flare34
Read the blogNetherlands 🇳🇱
bump is 0.5cm down in 5 months. bro i genuinely thought this was gonna be bench press for a year, its like 80% breathing drills and posture stuff. wasnt what i signed up for but i cant argue with the tape measure
EliasPC16
Norway 🇳🇴
every doctor said come back when youre done growing, which is a mad thing to say to a 17 year old whos already miserable about it. did four months of training instead. 4kg on and my t shirts actually sit on something now
JakePE17
USA 🇺🇸
1 cm off the depth in eight months. I had this filed under things about my body that got decided before I was born, and I'd stopped thinking about it somewhere in my twenties, so being wrong about it has been a strange few months honestly.
VincentPE + Rib Flare36
France 🇫🇷
i did abs for two years thinking that was the fix. it was never going to be abs. three months of the brace plus actually learning how to exhale properly and its 1.5cm narrower down there
AlexRib Flare22
USA 🇺🇸
i was the skinny kid who kept his top on at the beach every single year. 6 months, 5kg heavier. took it off in ibiza this summer and genuinely forgot to be weird about it until we were leaving
CallumPE17
UK 🇬🇧
"first call he told me straight up itd take a year and id hate months 2 through 5. he was right about both lol. 12 months on and my PC is flat. took my shirt off at the beach in january without doing the whole towel thing"
"the brace is made really good, i wear it under the t-shirt at school and nobody has noticed in 4 months. my mother was crying when we compare the photos. sorry for my english"
"My son is 15 and had started keeping a shirt on in the pool, which is how I worked out something was wrong in the first place, because he certainly wasn't going to tell me. He would never have stuck with the brace on his own. It was the fortnightly check-ins that did it - he didn't want to turn up with nothing to report. Six months now and the ridge has visibly come down. He swims without the shirt."
"read the blog for months before i actually did anything with it. no coach, no brace, just the stuff in the articles done properly. i feel a lot better now and the photos say the rest"
"Two months in and I've put on 3 kg of muscle. My chest doesn't cave the way it used to when I'm standing relaxed, and that alone was worth it."
"Had the flare since i was about 14 and just assumed that was my ribcage, permanently. Brace plus the breathing drills and my mrs asked when i'd lost weight. I hadn't lost anything, it's just the ribs sitting where they should now."
"didnt know you could be breathing wrong for 21 years. thats the whole thing right there. flare started going down on its own once i stopped breathing into my shoulders, which is not what i paid for but ill take it"
"the bell leaves a red ring on your chest the second you take it off, and nobody warns you about that. it fades within the hour and the skin has never been an issue since. 100% satisfied - the sternum sits higher than it has my whole life"
"He knows more about this than the two consultants I paid to see, which says more about them than it does about him. Showed my GP the 9 month photos and he asked me for the website. Half a star off because the time zones make the calls a nightmare from Ireland."
"ive bought like four programs for this over the years and quit every one of them by week two. finished this one. i think its cus you cant move on until you can actually hold the position, so theres never that thing where you're guessing if youre ready or not"
"watched the youtube for six years before i spent a single cent. bought the program, did it properly for 7 months, and the only thing i actually regret is the six years"
"I went in wanting to debunk it, honestly. Started opening the citations one at a time and they were real papers that said what he said they said. That is a depressingly low bar and nowhere else online clears it."
first call he told me straight up itd take a year and id hate months 2 through 5. he was right about both lol. 12 months on and my PC is flat. took my shirt off at the beach in january without doing the whole towel thing
Shared with each client's permission.
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Share your before & after
Before
After
“I'm 52. I have both a ridge and a dip, which I'm told is unusual, and I've had the pair of them since I was a boy. Nine kilos off in five months and for the first time my chest looks like one chest. I did not expect to be sorting this out at my age, but there we are.”
Before
After
“3 months and 5kg later the ridge is sitting lower than its ever been. i was 100% convinced surgery was the only option, like id already looked up how much it costs and everything”
Before
After
“9 kilos in 6 months. the trick nobody tells you is you build the muscle around the ridge, then the ridge is not the first thing people see. before this i am buying only loose shirts, maybe 8 years like this”
Before
After
“before, the carinatum is the first thing i see in every photo of me. now i show someone and they must ask me where it is. i did not have any surgery, only the training”
Before
After
“Four months in and the side profile is the thing that changed. I used to clock myself in every shop window I walked past, at 30 years old, and I hadn't even noticed I was doing it until I stopped.”
Before
After
Before
After
“I'm 32. Everything I ever read said the window on this shuts at 18 and after that you either get cut open or you live with it. Nine months, 5 kg on, 1 cm off the depth. Nobody is more annoyed about the wasted decade than me.”
Before
After
“came in skinny with a deep dip and ribs that stuck out at the bottom. six months, 4kg up. funny thing is nobody says anything about the dip, its the flare going down that people actually noticed”
Before
After
“The brace did the flare, the training did the rest. Seven months, 6 kg on, 1 cm off the depth. The part I wasn't ready for is that I now own shirts that fit, after about fifteen years of buying everything one size too big.”
Before
After“5 months, 4kg on. still there if i go looking for it. nobody else has said a word”
Before
After“read the blog for months before i actually did anything with it. no coach, no brace, just the stuff in the articles done properly. i feel a lot better now and the photos say the rest”
Before
After“the bell leaves a red ring on your chest the second you take it off, and nobody warns you about that. it fades within the hour and the skin has never been an issue since. 100% satisfied - the sternum sits higher than it has my whole life”
PE pectus excavatum · PC pectus carinatum · RF rib flare
Drag each slider to compare.Tap any case to open and compare.Published only with the client's written consent.
Medically reviewed byProf. Dr. Mustafa Yüksel
Tap any message to read it full size. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube & TikTok comments, DMs, WhatsApp and email - real messages from real clients. Names and handles blurred, content untouched.
Case 01Case 02Case 03Case 04Case 05The four that come up most, answered the same way I would answer them on a call.
Take the 60-second quizPosture and breathing shift inside the first few weeks. Visible chest change is slower - in the case log above, Milo hit his at 2 months, Ian at 6. The programs run 16 weeks because that is how long it takes to show in the mirror.
Almost certainly not. The clients on this page were 22 to 32 when they started. Cartilage stiffens with age, so progress is slower, but slower is not stopped. Age changes the timeline, not whether it is worth doing.
Either works. Every program ships with a gym track and a no-equipment track for the same 16 weeks, and you can switch between them mid-program without losing your place.
No, and that matters. A sunken chest and a protruding chest need close to opposite work, and rib flare rides along with both. There is a separate program for each, if you are not sure which you have, the 60-second quiz sorts it out.
Fourteen chapters across four parts (understand it, see the evidence, learn the framework, then do it) every claim cited from first fitting through maintenance.
Measured anterior compression remodels the overgrown costal cartilage that bows the chest forward, the opposite job to a vacuum bell.
The two pressures the brace measures in PSI, your pressure of correction and the treatment pressure you actually wear, and why they separate success from suffering.
A plain-English review of the strongest evidence base of any non-surgical pectus treatment, success rates, wear hours and recurrence.
The famously contradictory hours advice settled: the >12 h/day success threshold versus the sustainable schedule you’ll actually keep.
Score your flexibility (POC), age, symmetry and protrusion size against the evidence to set a realistic expectation before you invest months.
The five-level framework that ranks what actually decides your result, from daily hours at the base to posture and exercise at the top.
How to set the pads, find your pressure of correction on day one, set POT safely below it, and re-measure monthly as the chest remodels.
The high-hours corrective phase to flatten the ridge, then the maintenance phase that tapers wear and locks the correction in.
Chase the early visible win, kill the discomfort, get family on board, wear it under clothes, the evidence-backed ways people actually finish.
The pressure-first strategy that keeps the skin healthy so you keep the hours, plus a practical skin-care routine and what each mark means.
The honest read: postural strength and thoracic mobility support the result and the look, but the brace hours do the correction.
Keep the pads clean and the pressure mechanism reading true, inspect straps, and re-fit as growth and weight change, a drifting reading means guessing at POT.
Your at-home dashboard, monthly photos, POC trend and an hours log, plus the measured psychosocial payoff bracing delivers.
Why finishing maintenance matters: recurrence runs ~2.6% done properly, but stopping at the first flat mirror-day risks losing a chunk back.
No more guessing the pressure, the guide gives you a phased build from first fitting to steady correction.
Get the protocolPosition the pads and find your pressure of correction, firm, effective and skin-safe.
Acclimate to the wear schedule with the comfort strategy so the skin holds and the hours stick.
Hold corrective pressure consistently, log the response, and adjust as the ridge begins to settle.
Shift to the retention phase settings that lock in the correction without relapse.
Built on POC/POT pressure science, from your first fitting through maintenance and recurrence prevention.
I'm not writing this as a doctor looking at a scan. I had the sunken chest, the flared ribs, the shirt that stayed on at the pool, and nobody could tell me what actually works.
Years of consistent, non-surgical training made mine unnoticeable. Everything on this page exists because I needed it to exist ten years ago.
I tested all of it on my own body first, then refined it every time someone hit a wall I had not planned for.
Featured in Healthline · Level 5 DUKE Institute Certified Personal Trainer (ISSA) · Specialised in pectus excavatum, carinatum and rib flare.
Medically reviewed
I don't publish a clinical claim until Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yüksel, MD has checked it
Thoracic surgeon, founder of the Chest Wall International Group
Not in dollars. In time. Side by side, honestly.
No waiting on a reply, no onboarding call, nothing to install.
The cited compression protocol (POC/POT, the hours debate, the predictive score and a two-phase plan) for less than a single wasted month of bracing. Instant download, lifetime access.
Try the whole thing for 30 days. Use it, and if it isn't what was described, message me for a full refund, no questions asked. The risk stays with me, not you.
It’s most useful if you have a compression brace or are about to get one, it’s a protocol for using it well. The candidate score and science sections are also valuable while you decide.
Yes. The pressure science, hours strategy and phasing apply to any anterior compression brace. It’s about how you use the device, not which one you own.
Free advice on carinatum hours and pressure is famously contradictory. This resolves the debates with cited evidence and turns them into a single, followable protocol.
The predictive score weighs your flexibility and age against the evidence so you set a realistic expectation before investing months.
Yes, referenced throughout, mapped to claims so you can check the evidence yourself rather than take it on faith.
The hours-strategy section resolves exactly this, the famously contradictory advice, with what the evidence supports: consistent daily hours in the right pressure range, phased from break-in through active correction to maintenance. The guide gives you the schedule, not a vague "as much as possible".
No, pain is not progress. Effective pressure is firm and consistent, not painful; pain usually means wrong placement or too much force, and both waste weeks. The pressure science section shows you how to find the range that corrects without bruising.
With consistent hours in the right range, flexible (usually younger) cases often show first change within 2–4 months; stiffer adult cases take longer. The predictive score sets your expectation honestly before you invest the time.
Yes, and you should. The guide covers how exercise fits around wear hours, and why building the chest and posture matters for how the corrected shape holds once the brace comes off.
Cartilage that has remodelled holds its shape, but stopping abruptly at the first good mirror-day risks regression. The maintenance phase weans hours down gradually while monitoring, the guide treats the exit as part of the protocol, not an afterthought.
The guide covers what to look for in any anterior compression brace. If off-the-shelf options don’t match your chest, the custom-built carinatum brace is made to your measurements, and this guide is the manual for using it well.
Straight away. The moment your payment clears, an email goes out with your link and the password that opens it — usually inside a minute. Read it on a phone, a tablet or a laptop; the password is typed once per device and then the page just opens. If it hasn't arrived in ten minutes, check spam, then message me and I'll send it over myself. Lifetime access, free updates, nothing to ship.
Thirty days and a full refund on one email. If the guide doesn't answer what you bought it to answer, that's on me.
Take the free 1-minute assessment and get a straight answer for your condition and severity.
Take the assessment →The chat bubble in the corner reaches me directly, ask anything about your case before you decide.
Try the whole thing. If it isn't right for your chest, every dollar comes back.
Start risk-free →The cited compression protocol, pressure science, the hours debate, the predictive score and a two-phase plan from first fitting to retention. Stop guessing; start flattening the ridge.
Get the protocol
P.S. If you've read this far, part of you has already decided. The only thing you can lose by trying is the version of next year where nothing changed. - Mihail
