The non-surgical route for a sunken chest.
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
In plain words.
Cartilage, not bone
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.
It is usually deepest in your teens
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.
Flexibility beats severity
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.
It 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.
Read the full guide: what pectus excavatum is and how severe yours is
Steady lift, for enough hours, over enough months.
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.
- Patients reviewed
- 278
- Compliant vs not
- 28% vs 16%
- Went on to surgery
- 15.5%
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.
Start at the bottom.
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.
- 01The free pectus excavatum planThe whole method written out: what the research shows, who it works for, and a three-phase plan you can start tonight.AddsEverything you need to begin without owning a single piece of equipment.Free
- 02Vacuum bellThe device that does the lifting, built to your chest measurements and shipped to you.AddsThe mechanical part. This is the rung where the sternum actually starts to move.$399
- 03Vacuum Bell GuidePressure, session length, weekly hours, skin care, and how to progress each of them without going backwards.AddsA schedule. A bell without one is a gadget you own rather than a treatment you are doing.$29
- 04PE Exercise ProgramSixteen weeks of training and breathing, written in gym and home versions.AddsThe muscle and posture that hold the position the bell opens up, and fill out a frame that makes the dip read deeper than it is.$67
- 05Pectus Excavatum CourseComing soonThe complete non-surgical method on video, in order, with the reasoning behind every step.AddsBeing shown rather than told - and the judgement calls a written plan cannot cover.$197
- 061-on-1 coachingI build your plan around your measurements and severity, fit your equipment, and rewrite the plan every two weeks.AddsSomeone looking at your chest specifically. You have my WhatsApp between check-ins.$199/mo
None of this is behind a price.
The long answers on a sunken chest, written out in full. No sign-up and no email for any of them - start wherever your question is.
- What it isPectus Excavatum (Sunken Chest): Causes, Severity and Fixes18 min
- TrainingTop 10 Pectus Excavatum Exercises: Mistakes + Tips27 min
- Vacuum bellHow To Use Vacuum Bell: First Therapy, Phases & More33 min
- Breathing6 Breathing Exercises For Pectus Excavatum: 6 Pros12 min
- PostureDynamic Remodeling Method: Fix Pectus Non-Surgically25 min
- SurgeryNuss Procedure For Pectus Excavatum: Essential: Guide30 min
- After surgeryWhat Is Pectus Bar Implant? Removal, Complications & More20 min
- SymptomsPectus Excavatum Pain In Chest, Back, Rib: How To Cope15 min
- Vacuum bellVacuum Bell: What It Is, How It Works, Risk & More28 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.
"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."
"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 bump 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."
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 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.”
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.
Am I too old for this to work?
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.
How long before I see anything?
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.
Can exercise alone fix it?
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.
Do I need the bell if my case is mild?
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.
Is a vacuum bell safe?
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.
Should I just have surgery?
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.
