Intercostal Muscle Strain

[GhostfaceKillah]

Background: Sunday night, after a particularly menacing chest workout, I began to experience slight chest pain on my left side. The pain seemed to occur every few minutes, lasted very briefly, and occassionally radiated into my shoulder and arm. This persisted for 2 days (I didn't lift Mon or Tues) and I finally decided to go to the ER in the event that my heart was on the fritz. After an EKG, blood tests, chest x-ray, and chest scan, the doctor said that by process of elimination I likely had a chest wall strain. He prescribed me some vicodin for the pain and told me to follow up with my doctor in a week. To note, my resting heart rate was around 44 bpm and my blood pressure was something on the order of 135/72. Considering I haven't had a physical in forever, I was relieved to discover I'm in reasonably good health.



Anyway, I trained legs the following day, and then the next day hit shoulders and tris. This is when the pain really jumped up a notch. Rather than intermittent pain, it is now constant and stronger. To note, the pain didn't increase at all after thrashing legs, despite getting my heart rate up pretty high.



I've now convinced myself that taking (at least) a week or two off from lifting would be the best idea. My question is, if I end up requiring a month off before I can get back into the full swing of things, what would be a good addition to my diet and/or supplement regimen to speed recovery and reduce muscle loss?

[ScottL]

Soft tissue injury=active release in my book (assuming no e.g. tendon/ligament tears which is not relevant here).



www.activerelease.com will help find you a practitioner.

[liorrh]

I think this should go in the injury forum...

anyway:

if the injury is relatively small you shouldn't change your diet.

if you are having healing problems, check out your immune system, HPA axis, somatotrope axis, macronutrients, essential vitmins and EFAs.

[Bachovas]

I had something similar a few months ago, something revolving the muscle attachments to the ribs. More towards the back than the side. Mine happened during a team practice while doing some agility and general movement stuff, as I stretch my arm too much in a jumping drill. Pain lingered for several weeks until it eventually went away, being worse as soon as waking up, and hurting a shitload when doing strenuous back or chest work.



I never had it checked or anything, but IME, I'd recommend you rest for at least 2 weeks, with no upperbody work or hard lower body (squats, sprinting). Keep a good diet as usual to avoid extra inflammation and apply some ice everyday.

Lastly, something completely optional, get a glucosamine based cream and apply it a few times per day on the affected area. I like VPX's joint cream called Glucosa Cream, as I find it to be incredibly miraculously for all kinds of shit.

[Colin]

If you take a month off I'd squat twice per week.The overall bennies of squatting will work in your favor towards retention of LBM.

Other than keeping protien high and low GI CHO intake relatively high I can't think of anything else.

[GhostfaceKillah]

[quote name='liorrh' date='Jan 29 2006, 05:38 PM']I think this should go in the injury forum...

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[/quote]

Hmm, you're probably right. I'd blame the misplacement on the boards reorganization, but something tells me that an "injury" forum has been around for awhile.



Everyone else, thanks for the tips. Right now I'm pretty depressed about the whole situation. Maybe some AMP + HEAT is in order to keep my spirits up.

[Colin]

Why so glum,chum?

I wouldn't expect to lose anything remotely resembling a signifigant amount of muscle,even with a month lay off from upper body work.Squatting works your entire body BUT will not strain the effected muscles,it's spot on for GH release which in turn will keep LBM levels in check.



Btw,my apologies for the opening line of this post That simpled minded retort,when used with irony,cracks me up and I like to use it whenever possible.

[GhostfaceKillah]

[quote name='Colin' date='Jan 29 2006, 10:37 PM']Why so glum,chum?

I wouldn't expect to lose anything remotely resembling a signifigant amount of muscle,even with a month lay off from upper body work.Squatting works your entire body BUT will not strain the effected muscles,it's spot on for GH release which in turn will keep LBM levels in check.



Btw,my apologies for the opening line of this post That simpled minded retort,when used with irony,cracks me up and I like to use it whenever possible.

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No worries my friend. I'm sure that my fears of losing massive gains are unfounded, but without lifting I realize how empty and frustrating my life is. It's taking away Picasso's brush.

[dressagerulz23]

Cissus Rx!!!

[trouble]

[quote name='GhostfaceKillah' date='Jan 29 2006, 07:42 PM'] I'm sure that my fears of losing massive gains are unfounded, but without lifting I realize how empty and frustrating my life is.* It's taking away Picasso's brush.

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If you feel you have no life without lifting...do you really think you *have one* if your life revolves around strength training?

[GhostfaceKillah]

[quote name='trouble' date='Jan 29 2006, 11:09 PM'][quote name='GhostfaceKillah' date='Jan 29 2006, 07:42 PM'] I'm sure that my fears of losing massive gains are unfounded, but without lifting I realize how empty and frustrating my life is.* It's taking away Picasso's brush.

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If you feel you have no life without lifting...do you really think you *have one* if your life revolves around strength training?

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I was awaiting a snide remark like this. My life, as a whole, involves lifting. It makes me complete. Thus, without lifting, I feel incomplete. I don't see this as a problem.



Edit: if your intentions were not malicious but rather a genuine question, I apologize.

[trouble]

The comment was not meant to be taken as being snide at all.



When dedication goes beyond moderation and becomes an all encompasing focus, mosthere who have habit driven type neurochemical profile find themselves moving closer and closer to outright addictive behavior.



This single minded determination pre-empts the need for an adequate rest period (at least 4-5 days off every month or so, and an even longer rest period at least once per year. It pushes many of us to try to 'work' through chronic tendonitis, strains, and repetitive injuries observed in athletes undergoing intensive training.



The other creeping issue that often occurs as we fall deeper into the ensnaring trap of addiction is dysmorphia - failure to gain satisfaction with our bodies as they evolve towards goals - smaller goals that may vanish without regard as we push ourselves ever harder for that next personal best, lower body fat, higher body mass goal.



In itself, this super dedication in the casual athlete results in worsened neurochemical balance, HPA overstimulation as training sessions lengthen, exertions loads increase, and CNS recovery is compromised. Sleep may become disrupted, and reliance on ECA type supps increase as mental focus declines.



This may not describe you at all. It is posted not for you, but for the forum populace to read and remember that many, many of us here have this tendency towards perfectionism, towards applying ourselves intensely to our the achievement of our goals...which can, when balance is lacking, become something more dangerous than a hobby.



Every addiction, no matter how healthy it seems, exacts a toll sooner or later.



Beg pardon if I gave offense. None was intended.

[GhostfaceKillah]

Sorry for snapping. A few of your remarks hit pretty close to home, and I won't deny that taking some time off will likely prove beneficial, mentally and physically, in the long run. It is just unfortunate that an injury led me to realize this. In retrospect, I believe that one of my ab exercises with a medicine ball on a decline bench, working the obliques, was the main culprit in tearing up the muscle fascia in my chest. The exercise involved a fair amount of twisting with the ball extended from my body, supported by only my arm. Everyday lifting ended up finally stretching the progessively weakened tissue until the pain reared its head.



Sounds likely, at least to me.

[trouble]

Good that you have an idea of what caused the injury. Easier to avoid reinjury later on.



I've provided you, by PM, a suggestion of some bodypart exercises that you may be able to do while you recooperate from your intercostal injury.



You didn't snap, you asked for clarification for my terse comment. I complied.



I see no disagreement here, only useful dialog. I've just recovered from a back injury and am all too familar with the situation you're in presently. I wish you a speedy recovery.





Edit: I have never seen the word "menacing" applied to describe a chest workout.

[Angelina]

The best thing to keep your spirits up right now is the mind set you have already. You are not going to give up and take a month off. Take some time and do cardio, like someone else said, work on your lower body but not necessarily with weights, try plyometrics and work on your core. Some exercises are very challenging and get your mind off of your injury. Please get that taken care of though. Good luck to your recovery. Let me know if you need specifics.

[GhostfaceKillah]

Thanks for the optimistic words, everyone. I hit legs yesterday and was able to do my typical workout without much difficulty. I did grip the bar slightly wider on squats to reduce some of the stretching in my chest/shoulder region. I also went lighter on sldls and stayed well away from failure. Today I may do some stretching and higher volume lower body work or cardio to help keep me sane.

[Colin]

I meant to reply to this sooner but honestly couldn't think of anything worthwhile to get across.Being that it is difficult to deny such a clear cut statement and placation is for fools.



I find myself lifting and running to my utmost and skipping rest days,disregarding the fact that this is clearly detrimental in all respects but I feel compelled towards vigorous exercise.This leads to a never ending cycle of degradation of the soul.



So to that end,the forced time off to reevaluate what you ultimately what from life and how your current situation is stopping you from realizing your goals is of much importance.This is obviously in lieu of just resorting to squashing such introspection and blidly going on fueled by in anger and pain.



I would spend some of your time reading to expand your line of thinking,which will help with seeing things from a new perspective.







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No worries my friend. I'm sure that my fears of losing massive gains are unfounded, but without lifting I realize how empty and frustrating my life is. It's taking away Picasso's brush.

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[GhostfaceKillah]

Recovery has been slow, but I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible. At the very least, this has given me the opportunity to lay off of stimulant abuse for awhile, and I feel that I am functioning better mentally (when not ripped on vicodin + tagamet + dxm). I'm also using this time to take a break from creatine. Hopefully when (if) I recover, I'll be refreshed and eager to thrash the gym once more.

[trouble]

When is the last time you had a training break of a week or longer?



I'll bet its been awhile...



If you, while the cause is unpleasant, the intermediate term benefits of extended rest might actually be good for CNS recovery, as you have guessed.