some soreness in middle of chest, sternum?

[mrpringle]

For about 3 weeks I've had this soreness right between the chest muscles, which I guess is around the sternum. It's not very painful - just a bit uncomfortable and usually is worse when I first wake up (some mornings) and then eases off during the day and then disappears by the end of the day. Some days I'm not even sore at all, so I suppose it has to do with the way I'm sleeping as well. The pain is triggered by certain movements such as reaching in a certain direction, or turning a certain way. If I stretch my arms out parallel to the ground and rotate my upper body counter clock-wise that seems to trigger the pain; doing the same in the clock-wise direction is fine.

The soreness first started after a set of chest presses and no - I don't bounce the bar off my chest. Since the first time I experienced this soreness it hasn't been nearly as bad when I do chest presses, but seems to get worse a morning or two after the chest exercises. One of the exercises I do is parallel bar dips and I seem to get sore right after I finish the last repetition and get off the parallel bar.

I'll go to a doctor next week to get some advice, but I would like to get some insight into the problem before I go. Has anyone encountered something similar? How long did you stop training for? Can I still train everything else except chest and shoulders, or should I stop training completely?


Thanks in advance.

[J_Bo]

probably tendonitis.

I got tendonitis there, and my Chirpopractor did some ultrasound therapy on it, and that seemed to help, but it's neve gotten comletely better.

[NIguy]

For about 3 weeks I've had this soreness right between the chest muscles, which I guess is around the sternum. It's not very painful - just a bit uncomfortable and usually is worse when I first wake up (some mornings) and then eases off during the day and then disappears by the end of the day. Some days I'm not even sore at all, so I suppose it has to do with the way I'm sleeping as well. The pain is triggered by certain movements such as reaching in a certain direction, or turning a certain way. If I stretch my arms out parallel to the ground and rotate my upper body counter clock-wise that seems to trigger the pain; doing the same in the clock-wise direction is fine.

The soreness first started after a set of chest presses and no - I don't bounce the bar off my chest. Since the first time I experienced this soreness it hasn't been nearly as bad when I do chest presses, but seems to get worse a morning or two after the chest exercises. One of the exercises I do is parallel bar dips and I seem to get sore right after I finish the last repetition and get off the parallel bar.

I'll go to a doctor next week to get some advice, but I would like to get some insight into the problem before I go. Has anyone encountered something similar? How long did you stop training for? Can I still train everything else except chest and shoulders, or should I stop training completely?


Thanks in advance.

Three reasons make me think that it might be the sterum bone itself;
-the location of the pain is between the two chest muscles
-sore after a period of inactivity
-sore after dips

Reasons that make me think that it is not the sterum;
-it hurts when you twist counter clockwise but not clockwise, doesn't make sense?

Alot of people have an uncomfortable feelining between their chest muscles after dips for the chest - exact reasons for this are unknown. It has been apparant to me that dips for the chest put strain on my sterum moreso than any other exercise. Very often there will be like you described - an uncomfortable feeling in the middle of my chest and I will try to crack it our stretch it out whenever I can. It also appears to be sorest after a period of inactivity, such as watching tv for a while or indeed after sleeping as you descibed. I have never had any problems with the pain though, I could always identifiy a cause for that pain i.e. dips from the day previous and therefore I knew that it would go away with time - and it always did.

But for this reason 'it hurts when you twist counter clockwise but not clockwise, doesn't make sense?' I would get it checked out

Edit; on reading it is apparant that there is alot of cartilidge where the ribs converge on the sterum, your pain might well be related to these

[mrpringle]

Three reasons make me think that it might be the sterum bone itself;
-the location of the pain is between the two chest muscles
-sore after a period of inactivity
-sore after dips

Reasons that make me think that it is not the sterum;
-it hurts when you twist counter clockwise but not clockwise, doesn't make sense?

Alot of people have an uncomfortable feelining between their chest muscles after dips for the chest - exact reasons for this are unknown. It has been apparant to me that dips for the chest put strain on my sterum moreso than any other exercise. Very often there will be like you described - an uncomfortable feeling in the middle of my chest and I will try to crack it our stretch it out whenever I can. It also appears to be sorest after a period of inactivity, such as watching tv for a while or indeed after sleeping as you descibed. I have never had any problems with the pain though, I could always identifiy a cause for that pain i.e. dips from the day previous and therefore I knew that it would go away with time - and it always did.

But for this reason 'it hurts when you twist counter clockwise but not clockwise, doesn't make sense?' I would get it checked out

Edit; on reading it is apparant that there is alot of cartilidge where the ribs converge on the sterum, your pain might well be related to these

Thanks for the detailed reply. I definitely plan to get it checked out this week, but I'm not overly concerned. While I mentioned I get pain when I twist in one direction, I didn't mention the pain is very mild. In fact I only noticed it today when I was trying to find certain movements which trigger the uncomfortable feeling so I could describe them in this post. It may have not even existed several days ago and could be unrelated, but I'm not sure.

I'll give the gym a miss next week until I visit a doctor. Once I get to the bottom of the problem I will reply to this post.

Thanks again for the replies.

[mrpringle]

To follow up on my post the doctor said to take a rest from the gym for a few weeks and see how it goes, and it's very gradually getting better.
It almost seems to be gone completely now. I'm no longer sore when I wake up and very rarely have any soreness when I stretch or make certain movements. My membership restarts in two weeks time, so hopefully I can start going back then. I might avoid dips completely and start very slowly on chest exercises.

[perfektion]

just an idea...upper ab soreness.

[bit]

there have been other threads on here in the past about similar things, just search under sternum and you'll probably find them. i had a similar thing, which was most likely brought on from dipping too low. docs said it was an inflammation of the cartilidge between the sternum and ribs. once i had the pain it would come and go, but mostly i felt it after i woke up and if i stretched certain ways. i also somehow started to be able to crack my chest?, which even happened when i sneezed, that would also bring on the pain. when the pain flamed up i gave it a couple days and then hit the gym again. i stopped dips for awhile and then when i went back i made sure not to go to low. eventually (~6 months) the pain was totally gone and i've never had the problem since.

[mrpringle]

there have been other threads on here in the past about similar things, just search under sternum and you'll probably find them. i had a similar thing, which was most likely brought on from dipping too low. docs said it was an inflammation of the cartilidge between the sternum and ribs. once i had the pain it would come and go, but mostly i felt it after i woke up and if i stretched certain ways. i also somehow started to be able to crack my chest?, which even happened when i sneezed, that would also bring on the pain. when the pain flamed up i gave it a couple days and then hit the gym again. i stopped dips for awhile and then when i went back i made sure not to go to low. eventually (~6 months) the pain was totally gone and i've never had the problem since.

That's good to hear it went. Sounds very similar to what I am experiencing.
I think as long as I avoid dips I should be able to return to the gym soon.

[grumble1]

I'm going to guess tendonosis. It's actually kind of common, I got it too once. Had to take a little time off for it to heal up, and it still flares up if I'm not careful.

[mrpringle]

I'm going to guess tendonosis. It's actually kind of common, I got it too once. Had to take a little time off for it to heal up, and it still flares up if I'm not careful.

How long did you take off? Now I'm not sure whether or not I should go back until it's completely gone.

[jjstokes1]

Costochondritis --is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. Pain caused by costochondritis may mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions.


but i would go see a real doc.