The non-surgical route for a protruding chest.
Your breastbone and the ribs beside it push outward, so the middle of your chest sticks out like a bump or a keel. Of the three conditions, it responds best to a brace, and a flexible chest usually flattens without surgery.
Joined by 1,000+ people fixing their chest without surgery, since 2015
In plain words.
Overgrown cartilage
The costal cartilage that joins the ribs to the breastbone grew longer than the frame it sits in, so it pushed the sternum forward. It's the same tissue as in a sunken chest, pushed the other way.
It shows up around a growth spurt
Carinatum usually appears or gets worse in the early to mid teens, sometimes so fast it feels like it happened over one summer. That's also when the chest gives most easily.
It responds to pressure better than the others
A flexible carinatum chest is the most correctable non-surgical case on this site. Steady compression is a well-established treatment for it. What holds people back is almost never the chest. It's the hours.
Lifting weights didn't cause it. Neither did pushing your chest out or your posture, although posture can make it look worse than it is. And you don't have to choose between bracing and training. In the trial below, every group did daily exercises alongside the brace, including the group that improved most.
Read the full guide: what pectus carinatum is, its causes and types
Steady compression, and enough hours of it.
A brace puts steady pressure across the bump. Cartilage under sustained load remodels toward the shape it's held in, so the bump flattens over months instead of springing back. Clinicians measure a chest's flexibility first, meaning the pressure it takes to push the bump flat, and they brace the flexible ones instead of operating. The part you control is wear time, and that's what decides the result.
- Brace patients
- 286
- A cohort where every chest was screened for flexibility first. The study's conclusion: bracing is a valuable option for correcting carinatum in a patient with a flexible thorax.
- Best-performing wear time
- 23 h/day
- A randomised controlled trial compared 23 h/day, 8 h/day and a control group. Every group improved. The 23-hour group improved most, with no extra side effects.
- Brace and exercise
- Both
- Every group in that trial did daily exercises alongside the brace. You need both. The brace moves the bump, and the training holds the frame around it.
Start at the bottom.
They're in order, cheapest first. Each one adds something the one below it doesn't. Most people start at 01 and stop when their chest doesn't need any more.
- 01The free pectus carinatum planWhy compression and breathing reshape a flexible carinatum chest, the evidence for it, and a phased plan you can start today.AddsEverything you need to start, without owning a brace.Free
- 02Pectus carinatum braceThe compression brace that does the flattening, built to your chest measurements and shipped to you.AddsThe mechanical part. This is the step where the bump actually starts to come down.$299
- 03Carinatum Brace GuideFitting, correction pressures, the wear schedule, skin care, and how to progress each one without losing hours.AddsA schedule you can actually live with. Comfort matters here, because it's what makes 20-plus hours a day possible.$29
- 04PC Exercise ProgramSixteen weeks of training and breathing, written in gym and home versions.AddsPosture and back work, so a rounded, narrow frame stops making the bump stand out more.$67
- 05Pectus Carinatum CourseComing soonThe complete non-surgical method on video, in order, with the reasoning behind every step.AddsBeing shown, not told. That matters most for the fitting, which is hard to get right from text.$197
- 061-on-1 coachingI assess your chest flexibility, build the brace to your measurements, set the pressures, and rewrite the plan every two weeks.AddsMe, measuring your chest specifically. You can message me in the Trainerize app between check-ins.$199/mo
None of this is behind a price.
Long answers on a protruding chest, written out in full. No sign-up and no email for any of them. Start with whatever you want to know.
- What it isPectus Carinatum (Pigeon Chest): Causes, Types and Fixes12 min
- TrainingPectus Carinatum Exercises: Pigeon Chest Home and Gym Guide11 min
- SurgeryPectus Excavatum Surgery: Nuss vs Ravitch, Recovery, Risks17 min
- What it isPectus Carinatum in Women: Breasts, Bracing and Surgery14 min
- PosturePectus Carinatum Brace: How It Works, Who It Suits, Results13 min
- PostureBest Pectus Carinatum Brace: 2026 Prices and How to Choose12 min
- What it isPectus Carinatum Causes: Is It Genetic? 13 Known Factors12 min
- What it isPectus Carinatum Types: Pictures of Each Pigeon Chest Shape10 min
Transformations
& Real Stories
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.
"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 bump has visibly come down. He swims without the shirt."
"I came across your blog about a year ago and I just want to say how much you've changed my life for the better. I thought it was going to be another average article, but the tips you gave were things I hadn't heard of before. Now I've improved so much and im more confident then ever."
"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."
Shared with each client's permission.
Did I help you with your pectus?
Share your before & after
Before
After
“I'm 52. I have both a bump 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 bump 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 bump, then the bump 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”
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.
The ones I get most.
How do I get rid of pigeon chest without surgery?
If your chest is flexible, with a brace and the hours to go with it. Press on the bump. If it gives, steady compression can flatten it over months. Early on that means 14 to 23 hours a day, and the trial group that improved most wore it 23. Add daily exercises, because every group in that trial did them. A flexible chest usually shows measurable change in three to six months, then you cut down to nights so it holds. Clinicians check flexibility first and brace the flexible chests instead of operating, so if yours barely moves when you press, get it assessed before you buy anything.
How many hours a day do I really have to wear it?
The trial group that improved most wore it 23 hours a day. The 8-hour group still improved, just less. That is the trade: more hours buy speed and a better final result. In practice most people settle on "everything except showering and sport" for the first phase, then cut down to nights.
How long does it take?
A flexible chest usually shows measurable change in three to six months, with most of the correction in the first year. After that comes a maintenance phase of wearing it only at night, so it holds. Stopping the moment it looks flat is the most common way people lose the result.
Am I too old to brace?
Cartilage hardens with age, so an adult chest needs more pressure and more months, and may only correct partly. What matters more than your age is how much your bump gives when you press on it. If it moves, bracing is worth a try.
Will the brace be obvious under clothes?
Under a t-shirt, mostly no. It's a strap and two pads, not a cast. Under something tight, the front pad can show. Most people wear it at school or work without trouble, and the fit matters more than the clothes do.
Is it meant to hurt?
It should press, not crush. Marks that fade within an hour are fine. Skin that stays purple, blisters, broken skin or real pain mean the pressure or the hours are too high, so back off. Controlled pressure beats maximum pressure every time, because it's the only kind you'll keep wearing.
Can I train while bracing?
Yes, and you should. Every group in the randomised trial did daily exercises. Take the brace off, train, and put it back on. Training doesn't replace the brace, and it doesn't get in its way.
