The ribs are down.
Now make it stick.
Surgery moved your lower ribs, but breathing and core are what hold them there. The complete, cited recovery plan for after chest-wall repair.
Four phases, from the hospital stay to a full anti-flare program. You progress on your surgeon's clearance, never the calendar.
Joined by 1,000+ people fixing their chest without surgery, since 2015
A repair isn't automatic.
Here is what protects it.
The correction holds only if the loading around it is timed right.
This in-app browser can only play video fullscreen. To watch it here in the page, open the menu in the corner and pick Open in browser.
The surgery is done.
Now what?
Rib flare almost never warrants surgery on its own, so if yours was operated on, it was part of a larger chest-wall repair with hardware. The ribs are in a new position now, and whether they stay there comes down to retraining the diaphragm and core that no one tells you how to use.
The plan you should have
left hospital with.
Not generic post-op advice, a phase-by-phase recovery program written specifically for a chest-wall repair involving rib flare, with every claim cited so you and your surgical team can trust it.
Surgery set it.
Breathing keeps it.
Rib flare lives and dies on breathing mechanics. A diaphragm that can't fully exhale leaves the lower ribs hiked up and flared; pain after surgery makes that worse, and shallow breathing also collapses the lower air sacs. Retraining the exhale fixes both at once, physiotherapy alongside chest-wall correction improves functional outcomes, and every figure below maps to a numbered reference you can check.
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.
"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"
"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"
"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."
"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."
"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 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"
"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"
"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"
"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."
Shared with each client's permission.
Did I help you with your pectus?
Share your 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”
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.
From surgery
to normal.
Read it before the operation if you can, then live in whichever phase you are actually in. Every step moves on your surgeon's clearance, never the calendar.
Get the ProgramGo in fit and ready, practise exhale-led rib-down breathing, build a back and core base, sort nutrition, and set up home for the first two weeks.
Multimodal pain control, walking on day one, hourly breathing work and clot prevention, what to expect and how to make it count.
Restore quiet, rib-down breathing, the foundation of rib position. Long, full exhales; no twisting; log-roll everywhere.
Reprogram the diaphragm-and-core pattern that keeps the ribs from flaring, and avoid the back-arching stretches that pop them forward.
Build deep-core and posterior-chain control on your surgeon's clearance so rib position holds under load. The gym + bodyweight program begins.
Return to full training and most sport while keeping rib-down control automatic. Collision sport only with clearance.
The whole recovery,
start to finish.
The full contents,
nothing held back.
- Start
- Part 1Start here01–02
- 01How to Use This Program
- 02Why Recovery Decides Your Result
- Part 2Before & hospital03–04
- 03Prepare Before Surgery (Prehab)
- 04The Hospital Stay
- Part 3Understand05–07
- 05Your Surgery & What Is Healing
- 06Your Recovery Timeline
- 07Complications & Red Flags
- Part 4The plan08–20
- 08The Four Phases
- 09A Day in Early Recovery
- 10Breathing Mechanics
- 11Pain Management
- 12Everyday Activities & Movement
- 13Wound & Scar Care
- 14Sleep & Positioning
- 15Nutrition, Bone & Bowels
- 16Energy, Fatigue & Return to Work
- 17Core & Posture
- 18Mind & Expectations
- 19Meditation & Anxiety
- 20Intimacy & Relationships
- Part 5Train21–23
- 21Daily Mobility & Decompression
- 22The Strength Program
- 23Cardio & Conditioning Return
- Part 6Protect & return24–27
- 24Precautions
- 25Return to Activity
- 26Travel, Flying & Imaging
- 27Living With the Hardware
- Part 7Reference28–29
- 28FAQ
- 29References
- Finish
Fully cited, with a four-phase recovery timeline, a day-by-day routine for early recovery, an anti-extension core and strength program, and the red-flag list that tells you when to call your surgeon.
I had it. I fixed it.
Now I help you do the same.
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.
Medical reviewer
Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yüksel, MD is the medical reviewer for the mrpectus correction plans. He checks the clinical claims they make.
Thoracic surgeon, founder of the Chest Wall International Group
Recover passively,
or recover on purpose.
The operation is done either way. What is still in your hands is what you do with the twelve weeks after it, and that is the part nobody hands you a plan for.
Some post-op ribs need this.
Some need more time.
This program never overrides your surgeon or physiotherapist. Their instructions, and your own pain and activity limits, always come first.
No surprises between
you and starting.
No waiting on a reply, no onboarding call, nothing to install.
Protect the result
you already paid for.
The full recovery program, yours for life, for less than a single physio session. Best read before the operation, and useful from whatever week you are in right now.
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.
Common questions.
Is this a substitute for my surgeon's advice?+
No, and it says so on every page. This program organises the breathing, posture, pacing and strengthening around your recovery, but your surgeon and physiotherapist always come first. Where their instructions differ from anything here, follow theirs. It's designed to make you a better-informed patient, not to replace your team.
I've already had my surgery, is it too late to start?+
Not at all. It's ideal to read before your operation, but the bulk of the program is the twelve-week-plus recovery that happens at home. Whatever week you're in, pick up from the matching phase and use everything from there forward.
When can I start lifting again?+
Resistance training usually begins around week six and only on your surgeon's clearance, building to full loading by about three months. The program lays out a phased track that builds deep-core and posterior-chain control first so rib position holds under load, with clear "not yet" lists so you don't push too early.
Will this help with the pain?+
It explains the multimodal approach your team uses and how to get the most from it, staying ahead of pain with scheduled non-opioids, tapering opioids early, splinting a cough, and the breathing that prevents a chest infection. It is education, not a prescription; your pain medication comes from your surgical team.
What format is it in?+
It's a structured, written program you can read on any device, clear chapters and phases with tables and a day-by-day routine, so you can reference exactly what you need mid-recovery without scrubbing through video. Every factual claim links to a numbered reference.
My rib flare was part of a bigger operation, does this still apply?+
Yes, that's exactly who it's written for. Isolated rib flare almost never needs surgery, so when it is operated on it's part of a combined chest-wall repair with hardware (often sternal compression alongside a Nuss bar). The program is built around that combined repair and the rib-down breathing and core work that hold the result.
How is this different from free advice online?+
Free content is scattered, a breathing tip here, a restriction there, none of it sequenced or sourced. This is the whole recovery in order, written for after surgery, with every claim cited. The value is the system and the trustworthiness, not the individual facts.
How do I get access after checkout?+
Straight away. The moment your payment clears, an email goes out with your link and the password that opens it - usually inside a minute. You type the password once on a device and the page just opens from then on. There is no app, no download and no file to lose: it lives at a fixed web address, so you can bookmark it, read it on your phone between sets, or print the whole thing if you would rather have paper. Anything I add or rewrite later appears on that same page and I email you to say so - free, for as long as the page exists. If nothing has arrived in ten minutes, check spam, then message me and I will send it over myself.
What's your refund policy?+
30 days, no questions asked. Read the program, use it, and if it isn't what was described, email me for a full refund.
Three honest ways forward.
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 ribs moved.
Keep them there.
The full recovery plan for after a chest-wall repair involving rib flare, prehab to full return to sport, built on the rib-down breathing and core that make it permanent.
Get the Program
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
