Costochondritis - happen to anyone else?

[tmor6]

So I noticed some pain in my chest right near my heart - I couldn't determine if it was skeletal pain or something within my chest so I went to the doc to have it checked out (usually don't visit the doc, but didn't want to take a chance on heart issues which run in my family). Turns out it is costochrondritis - basically just inflammation in the cartilage that connects the ribs to the sternum. The doc suggested it was caused by a recent increase in my weight lifting routine (been hitting the gym hard the last two months to prepare for an amateur event here in DE). Evidently, it's pretty common and, like most things, eventually goes away.

Anyone else encounter this before? I can't figure out what movement might have caused it beyond increasing the frequency/intensity in the routine.

[Tom Mutaffis]

I have not previously heard of that specific term... what type of event are you currently preparing for and what does your typical training consist of?

[chevelle2291]

dips are supposed to be culprit for that a lot of time.

[bkoman]

I had costochondritis about 3 years ago, and it can be quite annoying. The pain wasn't to severe but definitely noticeable and got in the way at times. If I took about a week off it would subside for a few weeks but would eventually return. I noticed it went away completely after I got a summer job working construction and I wasn't able to lift for almost 2 months because the ammount of hours I was working.

As far as movements that seemed to stir up the the injury it always seemed to be any fly like movement involving the chest. Unfortunately I believe the only rememedy for this type of injury is rest and NSAID's (atleast thats all that worked for me).

Good luck

[joey54]

My ex had suffered trough this for quite some time. Her pain tolerance was minimal and she hadn't really lifted much before.

[tmor6]

Thanks for all the responses:

I have not previously heard of that specific term... what type of event are you currently preparing for and what does your typical training consist of?

I was preparing for an amateur competition in Delaware - basic Squat/Bench/Deadlift comp - it's organized by locals and is just fun competition. My training has been fairly intensive as I'm trying to shed 10 pounds; training's been like this.

Day 1: Chest/Tri
Day 2: Back/Bi
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: HIIT
Day 5: Cardio
Day 6: Chest/Tri
Day 7: HITT

No off days - yeah I know "muscles grow outside of the gym and all" but it's relaxing for me and my goal is more to drop a bit of weight than to grow muscles - I just don't want to loose much of my current muscle development. This injury, however, has put an end to this plan.

dips are supposed to be culprit for that a lot of time.

Yeah, I wonder about that - I noticed some slight pain about 5 or 6 days before I went to the doc and it hurt only when I did dips. Funny, though, I've never had problems before.