Sore Ribs

[The_Grinder]

For some reason, over the past few weeks my upper ribs are starting to hurt, and it is continually getting a little worse each time I lift. Its getting to the point when I finish a set of bench or DB presses, I cant sit up normally because it hurts too bad. I have to twist and get up on my side. Deep breathing even hurts sometimes. I am on fall break from college until next monday. I am going to see the athletic trainer when I get back, but was just wondering if anyone had any ideas of what it might be. I never got hit in the chest, fell down hard, or anything like that.

[SonofBone]

Sounds like you may have some muscle inflammation & possible dislocated or sublaxation going on with your ribs. Do a google search on dislocated ribs or rib dislocation.MD Advice

One potential cause could be an imbalance in strength between your chest and back muscles. I found that to be the case one time when I visited a massage therapist. She had me walk checking my alignment. I didn't realize what she was doing, but the results made sense. The back of my hands were facing forward when I walked meaning that my chest was overpowering my back and getting me out of alignment and putting my ribs at risk of being more easily dislocated. Naturally, stretching and getting my back up to par helped that issue.

Anyway, I'd consider seeing a chiropractor (if you believe in them) or a DO who can also perform manipulations. Hope you get to feeling better.

[The_Grinder]

Thanks Son. It's still getting worse so I have an appointment with our athletic trainer at 2:00 today. I talked to him earlier and he thought it was just weird that I didnt have any blunt trauma yet my ribs hurt so bad I can't even sit straight up. I have been benching a lot more over the past few months. Could it be because of the bar hitting my chest so many times?? I bench twice a week, 5 sets each time for a total of 10 sets a week. That's not really overtraining is it?

[SonofBone]

I'm sure others will be able to answer this better than myself, but that definitely does NOT sound like overtraining. The only way I see that benching could be hurting your ribs is if your form is horrible and you're bouncing it off your chest. Then you'd stand a good chance of fracturing a rib or something.

It'll be interesting to see what the AT has to say. You may end up needing to see some sort of Orthopaedic Sports physician/surgeon or someone who will take xrays or a MRI.

Like I mentioned before, my first step might be a DO to see if they correct it by manipulation. It sounds to me like an alignment issue, but I'm certainly no physician. Pain sucks...hope you get to feeling better.

[The_Grinder]

Talked to the AT. He checked out my ribs a little bit. We talked about my workouts for a while and talked about my benching. He asked me where I gripped the bar, and he said I might be gripping it a little wide and that I should narrow it up a little bit. I guess gripping it wider exposes my chest a little more??? I do have a tendency to bounce sometimes, so that may be another problem. I am going to grip it a little closer together and quit all the bouncing, hopefully it will solve it. He said I probably have some bone bruising, but if it doesnt get better after a few weeks of the adjustments then he is going to refer me to someone to have X-rays. Thanks for the help and I'll update again if anything changes.

[Cmak92]

i have had the same problem before, and it was just torn cartilidge in my ribs and i had to take a few workouts off from benchpressing

[bm1984]

my ribs hurt too, a chiropractor fixed my pains.