How effective are regular exercises for the correction on pectus excavatum
Everybody who is unfortunate to suffer from the most common, but not so well known bone deformity called pectus excavatum has gone through the same thing. I remember myself the first time I went to the doctor. After some short look I was told there is nothing to worry about, that the deformity itself does not affect your overall health and that in order to correct the deformity all I have to do is hit the gym. Now the last thing really stuck in my mind. Hit the gym and all the problems would go away. I took that thing quite literally. And here I am not, several years later and not to blow my own hors, but after so much time spend reading online everything related with pectus excavatum, all the exercises and how they affect the separate muscle groups I consider myself quite the professional.
Does being a gym rat helps you with pectus excavatum?
Before I start I must inform that there are tons of information online how to work yourself out of your P.E. The website that I follow my regime from for now is http://pectusexcavatuminfo.com/ What I liked there is the exercise part especially. What the y say from the start is that regular exercises will not help you with your pectus excavatum. Doing just what the doctor told you or any gym rat that does not have deep knowledge in this particular problem could not only not help you, but make the problem worse. I have previously talked with a lot of personal trainers and the most common response was: oh, you just need to hit the bench. Well, I don’t blame them, it only seems logical that for filling the hole you need to work on your chest muscles. But in reality that is not the answer. Working and concentrating on your pectoral muscles will in fact have contra effect. Just as the muscles grow stronger and bigger, the dent bassicly cements itself in it’s position. The bigger the pectoral muscle get, the more you are going the wrong way.
The solutions is not there. For this strange abnormally, you need to focus on different parts. Starting from the spine, to the diapgrahm, to the lungs, a different system in play, requires different tactics
When trying to fix the dent our main focus should concentrate on: Trying to push the sternum in it’s regular position Working on strengthening our spine Diaphragm exercises (to place it in correct position) Trying to expand our lungs
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What kind of exercises tackle this the best ?
Again for best input of information, take a look at the http://pectusexcavatuminfo.com/ Most of my workout regime is based on the exercises there. I will try to explain here in my own words/
Chest exercises From the chest exercises the most important are the dumbbell pullover. It affects the whole upper body area and it works directly on the dent. Besides working on the dent it is great for the back,as it brings it in it’s regular place. As we all know people with pectus excavatum have a terrible posture. This is the only chest exercise you will need. Working other muscle groups will be in the overkill mode.
The only thing is you need to modify it a little. When pushing the dumbbell over you, rise the back a little. This is where the contradiction happens and it is what will push the sternum forward.
Core and spine strength This one is easy to explain. All I will say is one word. Deadlifts. Even the bodybuilders agree with me on this one. Deadlifts work so many muscle groups at once is crazy not to do it. I must say, this is not an exercise for beginners, so you need some initial fitness levels, but nothing too much.
Now this one will work directly on your core. I saw result as soon as 2-3 weeks after my initial start. When dealing with pectus excavatum the
posture is just as bad as the dent. Trust from a seasoned pro, fixing your posture is fixing half the problem. This is a pretty demanding and hard exercise so my recommendation would be maximum twice a week. It is recommended once a week by the personal trainers, but for fixing pectus excavatum you can put a greater focus on this one. Twice a week, 3 sets, 5-6 reps each will do wonders in short time.
Conclusion From the official gym exercises, these two are the ones I found that have the biggest impact on P.E. I will try to make an official workout regime for pectus excavatum, combined with cardio, weight lifting and other activities that will have the maximum effect. But if you are trying to fix your deformity in the gym, please put this exercises at the top of your list. In my next publishing I will put an overall workout regime. Goodbye for now and remember. Take one day and a time and see what happens. You can not expect result overnight.