How and Why I Started Exercising for Pectus Excavatum

When I was diagnosed with pectus excavatum, I was recommended to start swimming, do yoga, and do bodybuilding exercises in the gym like dumbbell flys by my doctor. I also had scoliosis and thoracic kyphosis and was prescribed to startphysical therapy. Looking back, these were some of the tips that changed my life forever and made me an overall better person. 

Great for Mental Health

Starting to go to the gym was a life-changer for as it drastically improved my mental and physical health. I feel amazing during and after the workout. 

This is very important for everyone who has pectus excavatum and suffers psychologically. You'll feel better in your skin. The building of muscle and the improved appearance is just a by-product of weightlifting. The mental benefits of it are why I recommend it to almost everyone with pectus. 

Yoga

Yoga helped me a lot to improve my poor pectus posture and make my rib flare less noticeable by strengthening my core muscles. Also, yoga taught me how to breathe properly with my diaphragm. It made me feel more comfortable and peaceful in a stressful environment. I was following the yoga workouts of Sean Vigue on YouTube.

How Swimming Classes Helped Me

Going to swimming classes made me step out of my comfort zone. Taking off my shirt during my first swimming classes was very awkward for me. However, it got less awkward every time I went swimming, to the point where I didn't care anymore about revealing my condition to others.

Can Exercising Fix Pectus Excavatum?

There are very few studies about how exercising can help people with pectus excavatum. Most doctors believe exercising is necessary to improve pectus posture and reshape the chest by building muscle mass. 

Orthopectus

According to Orthopectus, exercising alone can't fix pectus excavatum, and can increase the central chest depression appearance by building hypertrophy of the pectoral muscles. The deformed cartilage and bones are not corrected by exercises alone. However, they developed a method called the Dynamic Remodeling Method in which they combine bracing and exercising. The brace provides external compression on the deformed structure of the flared ribs, while exercising increases the intrathoracic pressure and the balance of forces improves pectus excavatum. 

My Opinion

In my opinion, the sunken chest will only make your pecs pop out even more and will make them more aesthetic. It has been the case for me, and many others too.

If your case is not severe and is only cosmetic, and you want to improve the way your physique looks, then I recommend you start weightlifting and do bodybuilding exercises in the gym. To pull the sunken breastbone out, you will need a device called the vacuum bell.

Swimming

The only exercise Orthopectus recommends for patients they have not examined is swimming. Even though it can't fix the pectus excavatum deformity, it won't worsen its appearance. They recommend swimming only in backstroke, crawl, and breaststroke, and not butterfly style because they believe the direction of movement can aggravate a pectus excavatum deformity and worsen thoracic kyphosis.

About the Author

This is a guest post written by Mihail

Veleski, the guy behind PectusExcavatumFix.com. Started in 2015, Pectus Excavatum Fix has helped thousands with sunken chests improve their condition, both physically and mentally.

I pride myself on ensuring the info and methods I share are tried by me and backed by research. I improved my sunken chest and rib flare deformities non-surgically.