Intercostal muscle strain

Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2009
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5,293
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Bristol
Has anyone had this and if so, how did you get on regarding recovery?

Mine began when I was doing lots of surfing lessons in September and paddling on the board with my head up, back arched upward and stomach stretched.

Since then I've been doing lots of swimming, weights. and walking, but I think I need a rest period for a couple of weeks.

If anyone else has experienced this I'd be keen to hear.

PS I'm not asking for medical advice, but I understand if the thread isn't allowed.
 
I have a chest condition which makes me susceptible to this, that might make my situation slightly different to yours but when I get a bad intercostal muscle strain (which happens once every couple of years), I have to basically do no heavy lifting or strenuous exercise for about 6 weeks for it to fully recover. The first few times it happened I tried to push and carry on exercising but it just ended up prolonging it.
 
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I had this and it took me about 3 months to recover. I had it in my back and all round the same side to my ribs. I don't know how I did it in the first place. Just came on one day. I probably did it playing football or doing some DIY not realising it. I had to wfh for most of the recovery period and had to take ibuprofen a lot. For me, sleeping was hard too. I didn't do much other than rest. The advice with these kind of things is often to get back moving as much as you can but I think you have to listen to your body.
 
Thanks both for your responses.

I think I've definitely prolonged it by exercising, and it does sound like taking it easy for a week isn't going to fully heal it.

It's coming up to Christmas now and I might take a forced rest from strenuous exercise and gently get back into training in the new year.
 
Just an update:

Things didn't get better, in fact they got worse and even using a keyboard and mouse was causing pain across my upper stomach.

In early December I completed a surgery questionnaire and was referred for an appointment at my local surgery with a physiotherapist.

The physio got me to do some movements and diagnosed sprained upper abdominal muscles. He prescribed 1 month of rest. Thing hadn't seemed to have improved until this week, when the pains started to lessen when engaging my core for simple everyday things like washing and dressing.

I've done some slightly more moderate stuff this weekend, such as wash the car while being careful not to use my core too much and fingers crossed things seem to be going in the right direction.
 
Quick update:

Things are thankfully on the mend. I've still got a weakness in my core upper abdominals but it's only a dull ache after doing household tasks rather than actual pangs of pain.

I've started exercising again but taking things very gently. I'm only doing strength training on my legs (I had an MCL injury in late 2022) because the lack of exercise was causing knee ache, but I've taken loads of weight off the dumbbells and am doing light weights and swim stretches and run stretches.

I'll build up the reps this week and then do a test swim next week to see how things go. The physio did say don't do any upward stretching while I'm healing so I'll need to be careful.

If that goes ok I'll introduce some distance walking the week after and, hopefully, progress to jogging and running.

I'm doing a triathlon in June so want to start training properly!
 
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