Your breastbone sits deeper than the ribs around it, so the middle of your chest reads as a dip or a hollow. It's the most common chest-wall difference there is, and for a flexible chest it moves without surgery.
Joined by 1,000+ people fixing their chest without surgery, since 2015
The costal cartilage - the springy strip joining each rib to the breastbone - grew longer than it needed to and pushed the sternum inward. Cartilage stays pliable for years, which is the whole reason a bell can lift it.
A dip that was barely there at ten often deepens fast through a growth spurt. That is also the window where the chest moves most easily, which is why starting early is worth so much.
How deep the dip is matters far less than how much it gives when pressure is applied. A deep but springy chest usually responds better than a shallow rigid one.
What it isn'tIt isn't caused by anything you did or didn't do - not bad posture, not skipping push-ups as a kid, not sleeping face-down. And it isn't automatically a surgical case. Surgery is the right answer for some chests, but in a 278-patient review of vacuum-bell therapy only 15.5% went on to have it, and none from the group that reached an excellent correction.
A vacuum bell seals against the chest and pulls the sternum outward. Held there for long enough, often enough, the cartilage remodels around the new position rather than springing back to the old one. That's it - there is no trick to it, and the two things that decide the outcome are how flexible your chest is on day one and how many hours a week you actually wear the thing. Training and breathing work hold what the bell gains; on their own they change how the chest looks, but the bell is what moves the sternum.
A single-centre review of vacuum-bell therapy found chest-wall flexibility and a milder starting depth were the strongest predictors of an excellent correction.
Patients averaging about 28 hours a week corrected nearly twice as much as those who did not. Weekly hours was the single strongest predictor of success.
In that same review - and none of them came from the group that achieved an excellent result with the bell.
These are in order, cheapest first. Each one adds something the one below it doesn't give you. Most people start at 01 and stop wherever their chest stops needing more.
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
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 🇩🇪
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 🇮🇪
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 🇳🇿
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 🇬🇧
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 🇦🇺
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 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 🇮🇹
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 🇺🇸
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 🇺🇸
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 🇳🇱
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 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 🇬🇧
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 🇳🇴
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 🇺🇸
"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."
"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."
"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"
"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."
"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"
"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 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"
"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"
"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."
"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."
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
Shared with each client's permission.
Did I help you with your pectus?
Share your before & after
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
“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
“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”
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.”
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.
Older chests are stiffer, so they take longer and often correct less. But the compliance study concluded that for a highly compliant patient, therapy can be effective regardless of age or severity - and the case log on this page includes men in their thirties. The honest version: age changes the timeline and the ceiling, not whether it is worth trying.
Most people notice the dip filling slightly within two to three months, and measure a real change in chest depth somewhere between four and nine. It is slow and it is not linear. Photograph and measure monthly rather than staring in the mirror daily, which tells you nothing.
Not the sternum. Training builds the chest, back and shoulders around the dip, which changes how it looks - sometimes a lot - and it is genuinely worth doing. But the bone and cartilage move under sustained mechanical pull, which is the bell's job. Anyone selling you exercises as a complete correction is overselling.
Mild and flexible is the profile that responds best, so if anything the bell is a better bet for you than for a severe case. That said, start with the free plan. If a mild dip mostly bothers you visually, the training side alone may take you far enough.
Used at sensible pressure it is well tolerated. Expect redness that fades within an hour, and occasionally some transient swelling early on. Stop and reassess if you get persistent bruising, broken skin, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness. If you have a known heart, lung or connective-tissue condition, clear it with a doctor before starting.
For a rigid or severe chest, or where the dip is compressing the heart or lungs, surgery is a legitimate and often the better answer - and you should be assessed by a surgeon for that. What I object to is being told surgery is the only option before anyone has checked whether your chest is flexible enough to move without it.
