Dips: Causing a pain in my sternum

[Anomynous]

Whenever I go down too far doing dips, or sometimes not even that far, I get a pain in my sternum. I can't tell if it is my actual sternum or the muscle fibers in the sternum area where they connect to the bone. Anyone know what the problem is?

[paul0616]

don't go too far down. You might need to build up over time, and then you can do more dips, lower, without sternum pain.

[tony_mid]

don't go too far down. You might need to build up over time, and then you can do more dips, lower, without sternum pain.

yep I had the same thing happen when I firs started doing dips, if I remember correctly it felt like my chest wanted to split apart...much like the feeling you get when doing L-pullups, dont worry it should get better.

[Anomynous]

don't go too far down. You might need to build up over time, and then you can do more dips, lower, without sternum pain.

yep I had the same thing happen when I firs started doing dips, if I remember correctly it felt like my chest wanted to split apart...much like the feeling you get when doing L-pullups, dont worry it should get better.

Yup that's how I would describe it. I don't get the pain when I do chest flys, or any other chest exercise, which I thought was odd.


So the solution is to just keep doing dips? That seems kind of counterintuitive, but I hadn't planned on stopping anyways unless I was at risk of tearing muscle or fracturing my sternum.

[khajja]

anonymous, i think it is likely you are allowing your chest to cave in--don't. keep your lungs full of air and chest puffed out at the bottom

[Anomynous]

anonymous, i think it is likely you are allowing your chest to cave in--don't. keep your lungs full of air and chest puffed out at the bottom

Ok, I will try that. Thanks.

[gjohnson5]

How bad is it
I'm thinking it's sternum / rib cartlidge inflammation

If so IMHO just suck it up
You don't have an injury , it's just lack of experience doing exercise and hence the tissues around the sternum will need to adjust to your workload

[Anomynous]

It's painful when doing dips, and sometimes when I raise my left arm a certain way. I've been doing dips for about 4 months now and I have had the pain almost the whole time. I remember when it started, I went down too far and it started to hurt.

[gjohnson5]

It's painful when doing dips, and sometimes when I raise my left arm a certain way. I've been doing dips for about 4 months now and I have had the pain almost the whole time. I remember when it started, I went down too far and it started to hurt.

Has it gotten worse?? I would think after 4 months , you body should be making adjustments to your workouts. Anyway you look like you should be able to do dips all day long....

[Anomynous]

Has it gotten worse?? I would think after 4 months , you body should be making adjustments to your workouts. Anyway you look like you should be able to do dips all day long....

It hasn't gotten worse. It is even possible that it has gotten a little bit better, but the pain is still apparent. I tried different things like keeping my arms tucked in and not leaning forward as much, but it didn't really seem to help. BTW thanks for the compliment.

My main concern is that the muscle fibers in my chest will tear from the bone and become deformed. I'm not sure if that is even possible, which is why I made this thread, to find out what the problem is.

[gjohnson5]

It hasn't gotten worse. It is even possible that it has gotten a little bit better, but the pain is still apparent. I tried different things like keeping my arms tucked in and not leaning forward as much, but it didn't really seem to help. BTW thanks for the compliment.

My main concern is that the muscle fibers in my chest will tear from the bone and become deformed. I'm not sure if that is even possible, which is why I made this thread, to find out what the problem is.

That shouldn't be an issue. Pec tears are generally from benching. I could see if one were doing dips with an extra 200lb then maybe there might be an issue there. The person would develop shoulder / rotator cuff problems long before a pec tear from doing dips.

However inflammation in the cartlidge that connects the sterum to the ribs is however common

[Anomynous]

That shouldn't be an issue. Pec tears are generally from benching. I could see if one were doing dips with an extra 200lb then maybe there might be an issue there. The person would develop shoulder / rotator cuff problems long before a pec tear from doing dips.

However inflammation in the cartlidge that connects the sterum to the ribs is however common

How serious is that? I'm doing dips twice a week at the moment so I doubt it will have time to heal.

[gjohnson5]

How serious is that? I'm doing dips twice a week at the moment so I doubt it will have time to heal.

Inflammation generally involves popping advil , Tylenol , aspirin, or something like that
Weight lifters don't like anti-inflammatories because those pain relievers may hurt your workout (which is generally true in high dosages)

I, on the other hand, feel that if you have to take them to get through the workout , then that 'sbetter then skipping those exercises.

Workouts cause inflammation. That inflammation over time is a good thing , not a bad thing. It helps muscles, bones and and connective tissue to become stronger if anything. I guess that's what they call repeat bout effect.

[soccerballtux]

yep I had the same thing happen when I firs started doing dips, if I remember correctly it felt like my chest wanted to split apart...much like the feeling you get when doing L-pullups, dont worry it should get better.

Me too, it didn't get better for me so I stopped.

[paul0616]

my gym has a weight assisted dip machine, so you could do 50% of your bodyweight, then 60%, etc. until you can do 100% without sternum pain.

[tony_mid]

Me too, it didn't get better for me so I stopped.

really try them again because I stopped for a short time too because of shoulder pain and when I returned to doing them I still had some shoulder pain but the sternum stretching didn't happen nemore.

[gjohnson5]

If the pain gets worse , I can understand stopping. However training can get painful. That's just the nature of the beast.

With all seriousness, it sounds to me like this is just a pain tolerance issue for the folks who have experienced this. I dunno what the "approved" or "studied" methods for increasing pain tolerance. My own theory is training to failure can help. Volume training to failure sounds brutal.
Infact I can feel those squats alreaady....
I've punked out on more then one squat day, so I'm in the same boat. I regret skipping those days now that I look back

[khajja]

ignoring pain in bodybuilding is a surefire way to injure yourself. discomfort from overstretching is one thing, pain is another beast entirely...

OP, if its just dips and no other chest exercises then def. try keeping chest expanded like i said earlier.
if its any chest exercise, you might want to look at the chest supported exercises you do. when i did high decline situps with weight on my chest at a rapid pace, i would feel sternum pain as well. same when i do heavy chest-supported rows

[gjohnson5]

ignoring pain in bodybuilding is a surefire way to injure yourself.

However if someone has invented a "pain free" way to effectively body build , then I would like to hear it

[khajja]

i would not say bodybuilding results in "pain" if executed properly. high rep calf raises cause soreness, not pain. low rep deadlifts result in difficulty/stress, but not pain...

[gjohnson5]

i would not say bodybuilding results in "pain" if executed properly.

Well I would
I disagree with the notion that muscular exertion from exercise is not painful. That is exactly what it is.
There is a differentiation in pain response from a torn acl and "a pump". But they both are definitely characterized as pain

[Chicago1287]

Kinda in a hurry so I didn't read all the posts on here.

But did you just start doing them? When I take time off of dips and start back on them, my sternum feels like it's about to snap. But after a few weeks, up to a month, I stop feeling any pain. Don't know why that is but that's how it's been since I started lifting.

[tony_mid]

Well I would
I disagree with the notion that muscular exertion from exercise is not painful. That is exactly what it is.
There is a differentiation in pain response from a torn acl and "a pump". But they both are definitely characterized as pain

I cant see classifying the moderate burning sensation from lifting as pain. To me it feels relatively good. Also, the feeling he's getting from doing dips is in no way close to it. There are many different kinds of pain and everyone should be able to distinguish between a pain thats dangerous to them and one thats not.

[gjohnson5]

I cant see classifying the moderate burning sensation from lifting as pain. To me it feels relatively good. Also, the feeling he's getting from doing dips is in no way close to it. There are many different kinds of pain and everyone should be able to distinguish between a pain thats dangerous to them and one thats not.

I don't know how "official" you want this but that is exactly how John's Hopkins (and everything I've read on this subject) describes pain.

http://www.hopkinsortho.org/pain.html

[GivenToFly55]

Any way to get a more narrow grip?
I would think that would take pressure off your sternum at the bottom.

[khajja]

gjohnson, get real. sciolism is uncalled for in this case. if a bodybuilder says "i feel pain in my chest doing dips", they're not talking about the muscle burn from effectively exercising the intended muscle, they're talking about something more.

maybe the OP should have clarified by saying, "i feel bad pain (as opposed to good pain) in my chest doing dips".

*rolls eyes*

[Brrcats]

I had the same issue when doing weighted dips. I found that I was leaning forward more than maybe I should have been. When I thought about keeping my body mroe vertical while doing them the pain went away.

Give that a try

[gjohnson5]

maybe the OP should have clarified by saying, "i feel bad pain (as opposed to good pain) in my chest doing dips".

Or maybe you should stop trolling
We already know his pain is not an "good pain" such as muscle burn. However others have posted that this goes away with time. That is all I'm saying and have ever said. The "good pain" "bad pain" argument aside. The OP already said that the pain is getting better. IMHO there is no need to skip these exercises until this pain gets worse or becomes unmanageable. The forms changes and the assisted machine can help.

If you have a valid point to make why not make it? At this time you have not done so

[tony_mid]

gjohnson, get real. sciolism is uncalled for in this case. if a bodybuilder says "i feel pain in my chest doing dips", they're not talking about the muscle burn from effectively exercising the intended muscle, they're talking about something more.

maybe the OP should have clarified by saying, "i feel bad pain (as opposed to good pain) in my chest doing dips".

*rolls eyes*

thanks your proving to me that not all people on this site are as painfully ignorant as it appears.

[khajja]

gjohnson, thanks for the neg. learn what the rep system is for (hint: its not for negging people who provide advice contrary to your opinion) are you that upset that i made you reach for a dictionary? i have made valid points, multiple times. your only contribution has been to essentially call him a p*ssy and say he needs to deal with it.


p.s. learn what a troll is before you throw that word about.