Weird chest/rib injury

[Furious_George]

I'll go to the doctor if it gets worse, but here's the story.

After 2 years I got back into the gym last week.

I did chest on Friday, and I'm still a bit sore today (Wednesday morning).

On Saturday I played some ball outside, and caught an elbow in the ribs a bit above my heart.

It was a bit tender, but not really hurting.

Post nasal drip from playing ball outside gave me some chest congestion, but I coughed it up over the next two days, with no discomfort.

Yesterday I did chest again.

I started with bench, and right after I began feeling like I have a bruised rib on that spot. First, between sets I noticed pain when extending my arm downward to pick up my water bottle.

Incline dumbbell press and machine flys didn't hurt, so I kept on working out.

After the workout the discomfort increased. It's not as bad as a cracked rib, but coughing, sitting up, twisting, etc, cause some pretty significant discomfort.

I don't see how it can be a muscular problem, or I assume it would've hurt to use the muscle during my workout (never really pulled a muscle in my life, so maybe I'm wrong there).

Then again, I don't see how it can be a contusion either. Why would an elbow I caught on Saturday suddenly get worse during and after my workout on Tuesday? Also, touching it doesn't hurt all that bad, but moving my body hurts more than just a bit.

I'm a bit confused about this.

Could I have tendinitis in my chest?

For now I'm just icing it.

 

[Furious_George]

It's not worse today, but it's not much better either.

I gave in and took a few Aspirin and I'm icing it again.

I'm supposed to do back, bis, and deadlift tomorrow. Hope I'm not out of commission for an extended period of time. That would suck after just getting started again.

 

[joeblow12345]

Not sure what it is exactly but I've been lifting about a decade consistently and something always hurts. The best thing to do is work around it and don't do anything that aggravates it. Go light on the exercises that bother it just to force some blood in that area but nothing taxing and give it time. You should be OK soon just don't use this as an excuse to stop trauning. I've seen far too many come and go over my years in the gym because of bs reasons. Its easy to quit and takes a lot of heart to stick it out in the tough times. But if you weather the storm you will be glad you did. When I started I was the young 18 year old kid asking the big guys for advice, now I'm the one that people come to seeking advice. Its amazing what hardwork and determination can accomplish. Good luck.

Sent from my XT1080 using EliteFitness

 

[Furious_George]

No way I'm quitting.

I'm thinking it could be an intracostal muscle spasm now. It feels kinda like one I had in my back not long ago (but obviously in my chest).

If I'm right it may go away pretty quickly, so hopefully I'll be a lot better tomorrow and I might be fine the day after that for chest again.

 

[Creepusmaximus]

I did something like by doing a baseball practice with my son's team. I hadn't hit a ball, thrown a ball or anything for maybe 15 years at that point and between throwing a batting practice and hitting fly's I did something to some small muscle in my chest. Hurt like a bitch for a few days especially when I tried to put a plate on the bottom rack of my dishwasher. If I got that pain out of the blue I would have called 911 thinking I was having a heart attack. Thing was the pain was very repeatable in one specific spot on my chest. It was fine in a couple of days simply a matter of me over loading a muscle in some way that it normally didn't get worked. The next week I hurt one butt cheek, just one. I was throwing off a pitcher mound and apparently my cheek wasn't ready for that. LOL> This went on for a month BTW, every practice there was a chance of something hurting the next day.

 

[Furious_George]

Hurt like a bitch for a few days especially when I tried to put a plate on the bottom rack of my dishwasher. If I got that pain out of the blue I would have called 911 thinking I was having a heart attack. Thing was the pain was very repeatable in one specific spot on my chest.

That sounds like exactly what I have. It's just about where my heart is too.

Anything that requires bending over and extending my left arm to the ground causes pain.

For instance: I did my pulls today. Most exercises caused little to no discomfort, but deadlifting was moderately painful, so sadly I skipped them.

Every day is a little better, but it seems like it's a real strain, and not just a spasm as I was hoping.

I need to ice it for another 24 hours, and then tomorrow is my push day with squats. I'm thinking that if I don't aggravate it like I did last push day, then I might be close to full strength early next week.