How concerned should I be about inner chest pain with weight training?

g2renew wrote: »

OK- breathe and remember it is always better to be safe than sorry. Any medical advice from anyone on this thread should be to 'see your doctor and get this checked'. Everyone's heart (and other organs) are not always in the textbook spot. Heart attacks are not always 'textbook', either. So, first--- check with a medical professional. That being said, costochondritis is a rather common thing that can cause pain in the region you mention. Sometimes it is quite a severe pain. An inflammation of the muscles holding the ribs to sternum, Costochondritis can be caused by several things-including muscle strain. But it can also be caused by an infection and be quite difficult to get over without proper meds and treatment. So, my two cent's worth is 'see your doctor and get it checked'. Or visit the nearest ER since it is after hours. Best wishes!

Speakeasy76 wrote: »

g2renew wrote: »

OK- breathe and remember it is always better to be safe than sorry. Any medical advice from anyone on this thread should be to 'see your doctor and get this checked'. Everyone's heart (and other organs) are not always in the textbook spot. Heart attacks are not always 'textbook', either. So, first--- check with a medical professional. That being said, costochondritis is a rather common thing that can cause pain in the region you mention. Sometimes it is quite a severe pain. An inflammation of the muscles holding the ribs to sternum, Costochondritis can be caused by several things-including muscle strain. But it can also be caused by an infection and be quite difficult to get over without proper meds and treatment. So, my two cent's worth is 'see your doctor and get it checked'. Or visit the nearest ER since it is after hours. Best wishes!

I have this and it affects my left side pretty much where you describe. If I push on the spot it feels tender and is a bit painful, which is a tell-tale sign. I've had it for at least 2-3 years, and interestingly if I'm getting sick it comes on. I actually felt it both times I got my COVID vaccine. It's always in the same spot. It can also be brought on by exercise, too.

Having said all that, when this first started happening I saw my doctor. My otherwise perfectly healthy dad passed away from an aortic dissection at age 66, so I don't mess around with pain there. I would definitely get it checked to be on the safe side, but those exercises you described doing can definitely bring it on.

My muscle strain often originates from my mid-scapular area and radiates to the front. So, I make sure to foam roll the tight spots and do my thoracic stretches. I'll take my prescription Naproxen Sodium when it gets bad. I also have relatively weak small back muscles for which I just completed PT, so I'm sure I was compensating for those weaknesses and my form wasn't 100% spot on, which exacerbated it. It's perfectly fine right now, but when it happens, it is quite annoying, if not painful.

hipari wrote: »

Spadesheart wrote: »

g2renew wrote: »

OK- breathe and remember it is always better to be safe than sorry. Any medical advice from anyone on this thread should be to 'see your doctor and get this checked'. Everyone's heart (and other organs) are not always in the textbook spot. Heart attacks are not always 'textbook', either. So, first--- check with a medical professional. That being said, costochondritis is a rather common thing that can cause pain in the region you mention. Sometimes it is quite a severe pain. An inflammation of the muscles holding the ribs to sternum, Costochondritis can be caused by several things-including muscle strain. But it can also be caused by an infection and be quite difficult to get over without proper meds and treatment. So, my two cent's worth is 'see your doctor and get it checked'. Or visit the nearest ER since it is after hours. Best wishes!

I'm afraid actually seeing a doctor is out of the question right now unless it were an emergency. Covid and hospitals at capacity, and all that. All doctor appointments nowadays are also over the telephone here.

It's definitely on the outside of the ribs, in the muscle, I'm not concerned it's anything to do with internal organs. Chest has also historically been my weakest muscle group, so I wonder if just enough of it is being used in all these free weight exercises that it's not getting rest.

Do people generally just tough out this particular pain? I'll have to look up costochondritus. I'd rather not have to be thrown off my momentum again if I don't have tl. It's getting kind of old.

I know someone who’s dad died because they thought their chest pain wasn’t an emergency. Even a telephone appointment with a licensed doctor could give you better guidance than internet strangers, and they would likely be able to tell you whether to go in for more examination. Both you and the healthcare system are better off if you get things taken care of with a single appointment or two before you need an ICU bed.

The symptoms you describe remind me of the time I had a really bad cough and caused some hairline fractures in my ribs. Any chance of that?

owieprone wrote: »

I'd get yourself checked with a doctor, but it sounds like what I get, short sharp pains in the heart area of my chest, like a muscle spasm. There's a few things it could be that are most likely caused by the weights and intensity you're doing. You don't need to worry about it really if it's a diaphragm spasm, pinched nerve, or strained muscle/ligament, or if you're unlucky abit of everything - it just means you're doing too much and need to ease off to heal, then get back to where you're now at at a much slower pace to allow your body to adjust - if you don't you'll continue to get the pain.

It doesn't sound like a pulled intercostal btw, for me that was a constant very sore ache and much pain when I moved so much so I struggle to breathe, couldn't move my left arm much due to the pain, and had to roll out of bed onto all 4s to get up, and doesn't go away for weeks.

HAVING SAID THAT, I'd discuss the issue with a doctor over the phone if they aren't doing physical visits to make sure he doesn't think it's something more sinister.
IF doc thinks it's the above he will probably tell you to ease up and lower the weights/intensity until it heals, then slowly up to where you were.
Just be aware that it's very difficult to diagnose something over the phone, keep an eye on your HRM if you have one, check the times you have 'spasms' against what your HRM records and see if there's a correlation, there will be some spikes cos it's pain but it shouldn't be a massive difference to whatever the reading was before. It's not fool-proof as heart issues are contrary wee sods.
Just keep an eye on yourself and look out for other symptoms that could point to it not being something benign like the pinched nerve, such as: dizziness and/or loss of balance (lurching, swaying, etc), sudden fatigue, pins and needles, etc.

Chieflrg wrote: »

Spadesheart wrote: »

So, we've been back into lockdown where I live for a few weeks now. I had been vaccinated, so I was comfortable going to the gym and had been again quite religiously for a couple months before the closure. As I transitioned to working out at home again, I tried to emulate my new gym program I had adapted to for speed, which was full body, with the free weights I had at home.

It would seem that every time I change programs, especially if the program includes a lot of free weights, that I play this fun little game called "Am I causing an injury, or am I just working a muscle in a way I haven't before?"

This time, this game seems to be focused on my inner chest, specifically on the right side. It seems to be in the muscle. I'm doing 4 days of weight training right now, about 3.5 weeks into the new program, in a somewhat intense weekly calorie deficit. There are a lot of overhead motions, but I don't think those are effecting this muscle. There's pull-ups, weighted bench dips, floor presses, nothing too too crazy I think. There is heavier stuff for legs, but it there's any upper body involved there, it's back.

Anyways, should I be concerned about this? Should I back off for a bit, or work through it. It's definitely not a sharp pain in rest, but it is there.

Impossible to say without knowing your training history and programming.

How do you regulate your load management?