Chest Tightness? When excerising and day to day.

MagicalGiraffe

So I previously had anxiety. My main symptom was a constant chest tightness, imagine a hand in your chest between your breasts closed tight into a fist all day. It restrained me from breathing, I could only do shallow breathes and to feel like I've done a full breath I would need to force a yawn. It is painful.

I don't have anxiety anymore, life is going great. So I've started C25K again and week one went great. When I started week two, the tightness in my chest came back and it's making it difficult to run. I feel like I can't breathe properly and it's hard to force a yawn whilst walking let alone running.

The tight chestedness has also carried across to when I'm not exercising as well. I'm pretty sure that I don't have anxiety again, as I said things are going really well for me. When I exercise I'll try to breathe in and out on every 4th but it just doesn't feel full.

It almost gets to the point that I could see myself start to have anxiety because of this. I have to tell myself whilst I'm running that "I understand you can't breathe but its not because you're anxious, you're fine, just focus on your breathing" else I could get worked up because it's so tight.

Has anyone else experienced this? I've been to a doctor before when I had the tight chest pain but didn't realise it was anxiety back in 2013 and he just gave me a blue inhaler. Though that has no affect on the muscle tightness.. Just general talk appreciated around this.

Cherimoose

If it's muscular, try these 2 stretches:

Pectorals - https://youtube.com/watch?v=bO224K6mS2c

Rib & neck muscles - https://youtube.com/watch?v=rUrfdsJV2sY
Use a 45 cm ball (18 inches) if you're of average height.
If you have a foam roller, try doing the same thing on that, for a deeper stretch.

You'll get the most benefit from doing them every hour or 2, for 30+ seconds.

Sarc_Warrior

I'm a severe asthmatic and have sarcoidosis in my lungs. Every day is a tight chest day for me. Some days it feels like I have to concentrate on every breath. I feel your struggle.