Advice on rib or muscle pull? Not sure what I did

[KDHunter]

Possibly intercostal pull. I speak only from personal experience. Working around the house once I twisted to get into a tight space. The pain in my rib was so bad I could hardly breathe. Chiro said intercostal. Find a good chiro and explain what happened. It will take time to heal if that's what it is.

First thing that went through my mind as well. Could be the rib itself, but sounds more like a muscle thing

[pharmamarketer]

I had the exact same thing happen to me doing deads. I stopped them for 3 weeks and went light on back day. So far things have been better.

[vooper]

Dang! I just had the exact same thing happen to me on the leg press (which I was using mainly because of a deadlift injury 3 weeks ago!!). I was making special efforts to tighten my ab muscles to make sure my "core" was doing it's part. Next thing I know is there's a little pop in my lower left rib area. I finished my weights and did 30 minutes of cardio. Not painful at all unless I apply pressure to it, but I'll take it easy on things that involve ribs/legs in the coming weeks (which is almost everything - gah!).

So, as a follow up, I stopped doing leg press for almost 2 years, using instead squats and calve raises for legs. Due to wanting to let my knees and waist take a break from squatting, I worked in leg press 3 weeks ago. Second day doing it, like 610 lbs on it (not much for my legs, but a lot of my body apparently), I feel a pain on my RIGHT side under my rib. Fool me twice, leg press. Here's my reason for posting. The first time I had this injury two years ago, I took off 2 weeks completely and started back slowly and it was fine. This time, I was feeling pretty good after 3 days (felt like it was healing very fast), so I did non weighted dips, calve raises, lateral raises and I made it much worse (reinjuring myself, PLUS more it felt like). Almost 3 weeks to the day after my injury, I am still a little sore on my right side. Yesterday I finally felt comfortable doing push ups. The point is, if you get an intercostal injury, just take off a couple weeks or you risk messing yourself up worse. You've been warned!

[Marshfield]

I was doing SLDL after squats last night when I felt pressure under my lowest rib on my left side front. The weight was fairly heavy. (7reps)

It did not feel too uncomfortable and I have felt it before when squatting, combined with the fact that I still felt I had a lot in me, I kept going.

....

The pain is not horrible but I will definetly taking it easy for a few days.

I dont think it is bad enough to go see a doc, but if it does not feel better in a few days or if it gets worse, I will definetly seek medical attention. Anyway, any ideas?.....pulled muscle...muscle / cartilage popping over a rib?

I have only been back in the gym for about 3 months and over this time I have felt this nagging pressure in this area several times. I think I my have pulled something because of a relatively weak supporting muscle, while my strength has come back up relatively fast. It was not a ton of weight, but I was using 325 for 7 and on my second set when it happened and I had just finished 4 sets of heavy squats.

I've had something similar happen after pull-ups but it is important to note: I HAVE NO PAIN IN MY RIBS OR A RECOGNIZABLE MUSCLE. That and that alone is the reason why I was worried that the heart itself may be showing a weakness of some sort. I feel like the heart has gone weak as I have a dull pain there.

A lot of the answers seem to say "No it's not your heart if a muscle is sore". But there is no muscle or rib pain going on here.

How can I rule out heart trouble?

[Polypower]

I have been out of the gym for the better part of 15yrs, so I started back up 4mbths ago. Last week on the leg press had the exact same thing happen. Brought the weight down and pop. Me being me figured I just broke my rib with my 15yr old gut. The weird thing was it didn't hurt terribly bad so I finished my workout. That night was probably the worst night of sleep I can remember couldn't lay on either side and breathing was a little painful. Next morning and next couple days were painful as hell. 7 days late though and feels a little better. Sore but not painful. Long story short I'm glad I read this thread. Gonna stick to extensions curls add and abductees and seated calves for a while before getting back on press. Thanks for info.

[jaeburd]

Sounds like a rib out of alignment and a Chiro has fixed this for me each time.

[Karl_Hungus]

Sounds like a rib out of alignment and a Chiro has fixed this for me each time.

My guess is that after 4+ years, ID has solved the issue by now.

[nelrak]

Thanks for the thread. Happened to me today on way down "POP". At least I have some good ideas of what to do for it and work arounds. Sucks getting old.

[Shugoshi]

This just happened to me a few days ago. While working the leg press, on the way down there was a large "pop" feeling in my left lower rib area. I was only pressing 630 lbs as a cool down from my leg routine, nothin crazy. I've had several fractured ribs in the past from a motorcycle accident, so I knew it wasn't the same feeling. I immediately assumed I tore cartilage and possibly some muscle. I can't do any exercises that put pressure in that area. I can do a lot of work around lifting. Went to my chiro to see if it was just dislocated, torn, bruised, or whatever. He said it was an intercostal cartilage tear and after it heals up for a few weeks he will be able to adjust me which should help me heal a little faster. Otherwise he said to put some anti inflammatory ointment on it, and keep it wrapped. He advised me to keep going to the gym but to take it real easy and obviously not to do any exercises that aggravate it.