Side Stich

Holly_Wood_888
Holly_Wood_888 Posts: 268 Member
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Does anyone know the science behind a 'stitch' ? I've heard a lot of different info .
I get a stitch on my R side almost every time I run ! I've been upping my water and working on breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth because I am naturally a mouth breather and a previous smoker

Replies

  • shagerty777
    shagerty777 Posts: 185 Member
    I read an article that said it was caused by your diaphragm muscle cramping up. The short term fix was to land harder on you off side foot. So if your left side is stitching, come down hard on your right foot. Their long term solution was to keep running and you'll gradually get to where you don't get them anywhere. I tend to get them if I eat before I run so i don't eat and run.
  • MTDDS18
    MTDDS18 Posts: 62 Member
    In my anatomy class my first year of dental school, our professor told us that it's your liver "bouncing" around, hence why a large majority of side stitches are on the right side. He said the solution to this is to coordinate your exhale with a right foot strike. Exhaling tenses up your abdominal muscles more, thus surrounding the liver when your right foot hits the ground.

    How much of this is scientific and how much is just my professor talking? I don't know, but it conceptually makes sense
  • Holly_Wood_888
    Holly_Wood_888 Posts: 268 Member
    Thanks guys !
  • JodehFoster
    JodehFoster Posts: 419 Member
    I was always under the impression that it was having excess food/liquids in your stomach (just like a mom saying no swimming for 1/2 hour after eating). It has remedied it for myself by doing my cardio on an empty stomach, particularly no liquids, or very little.


    Science? dunno...I could be wrong...probably am...meh
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Do you eat before running? If I eat within 1-2 hours of running, I virtually always get a side stitch.
  • Noelani1503
    Noelani1503 Posts: 378 Member
    I was taught that the theories mostly point to the diaphragm as the cause. Irritation of the phrenic nerve due to a full stomach, liver portal hypertension resulting in transient hypoxia of the diaphragm, weaker core muscles allowing organ movement that could irritate the phrenic nerve, etc. Some people feel them in the right shoulder too due to the phrenic nerve pathway (same as gallbladder pain being felt sometimes in the right shoulder).

    I've heard strengthening your whole core can help, and not exercising with a full stomach.
  • WickedPineapple
    WickedPineapple Posts: 698 Member
    I tend to get them if I eat (or have coffee) within 2-3 hours or drink within an hour or so of running. I also don't drink anything while running because I'll get a stitch almost immediately.
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