Exercise with broken/bruised ribs

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judybarin
judybarin Posts: 2 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi there,

Had a wee accident in the shower on Friday and to cut a long story short, i suspect i've either bruised or fractured my ribs just below the breast. Haven't gone to docs as didn't see much point only to hear 'rest and painkillers' - so this is what i've focussed on this weekend. My question is - what exercise would be suitable to get back into after this first week? I try to stay quite active and usually do some cardio (bike, elliptical trainer etc) and walking daily along with weights and also fitness dvds throughout the week. I've managed to lose quite a bit of weight over the past 3 months and i don't want my hard work to be ruined by this injury, so any ideas/tips would be fantastic!

Judy

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  • KidP
    KidP Posts: 247 Member
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    Tough question. When i cracked ribs a few years ago, there was very little i could do that wouldn't cause pain. Lifting my arm caused pain. Breathing too deeply caused pain. About the only thing I could do was walk, and not at too intense a pace as any big increase in breath intake caused pain. It lasted a couple of months.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
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    Big difference between bruised and broken so worth getting a diagnosis at least before deciding if you should be exercising at all.

    If broken you might find getting a physio to apply strapping really helps with reducing the pain. I cracked a couple of ribs playing rugby and the difference strapping made was really surprising compared to the previous time I had the same injury (jumping off a motorbike at high speed...).

    BTW - avoid anything that might provoke sneezing!!

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