Posture Diagram

Posture Diagram

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Light Weight Exercise for Pectus Excavatum: Sternum Lifter


I have during the last two months found out what I believe is the ultimate way to lift and stretch the sternum. It is a light weight exercise that I have developed myself. I will call this exercise “Sternum Lifter”. It activates the muscles in the upper body in two opposite directions which will make the sternum to stretch and lift. I believe that it’s best to do it right before going to sleep so that the muscles in the upper back will get optimal rest during the night. How to do it?

Because this is a light weight exercise you don’t have to buy dumbbells. I grabbed two rocks with a weight around 1.5 kg each.




1.       Lie down on the back with the arms along the side.

2.       Lift the upper body a few centimeters at the same time as you lift the arms so that the rocks              touch each other as illustrated in the picture (not higher than the illustration shows).

3.       Repeat many times (10 reps, 2-3 sets).

Note: I believe that it is very important to not use too heavy weights because that will probably make the wrong muscles to be activated. This is a so called “light weight exercise”. It is also very important to not lift the arms too high. Not higher than the picture shows.


7 comments:

  1. Have you tried doing dumbbell pullovers for pectus excavatum? Most people say it is an effective exercise but it made little difference for me in 6 months of doing them regularly.

    This 'sternum lifter' works great! It seems to activate all core muscles as well.

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  2. Dumbbell pullovers is probably the most widespread “anti-PE” exercise on the internet from what I have seen. I have tried it many times during very long periods of time without any results. I don’t know if it’s worthless for everyone but for me it is. I have even noticed nowadays since I have made such great improvements that it might get PE worse. But I don’t say this must apply to everyone. I’d like to hear from someone who have made significant improvements from dumbbell pullovers. It feels really great to hear that my “sternum lifter” works for you. I will publish an exercise soon which is similar to dumbbell pullovers but interacts the whole body very powerfully in a way that can help to close the lower ribs. I’ll do it during next week.

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  3. Important updated information: I have now developed a modified version of dumbbell pullovers which turned it into an effective exercise by increased interaction with the abdominal area. It can be found here on my blog. Look in the archive for march 2014 and you will find it there.

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  4. I'm not sure if I am doing it right. Any chance you could post a video?

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  5. Yes, I will do videos of all my exercises. By the end of this month I hope they are all ready to publish. Right now i will improve the picture in this post. Basically just lift yourself a little and look into "the ceiling".

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  6. This exercise is great! It really opens up the chest, gets my heart racing and winds the heck out of me. If it slows or reverses the progression of pectus excavatum, that would be AMAZING! Thank you for posting.

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  7. Thank you for the good feedback!

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