My chest hurts

[Dillman]

- Age, Gender, current training status: 31, male, been training consistently since October 2011

- Chief Complaint: My chest hurts, just to my right of my sternum

- Narrative describing the mechanism of injury: I was training last night, it was the light day on TM. squatting was fine, benching was fine (205 pounds). I progressed between bench work sets quickly (1.5-2 minutes rest due to the light weight). I then typically do BW dips and BB rows, alternated. I got the first set of 15 dips fine after the set my chest hurt a bit. The second set was successful, had to push through the pain at first then it went away as the set progressed. The third set sucked. The pain was more intense and I missed my goal by a few reps. My chest hurt pretty good at this point. I thought I'd try a few reps to feel out what part of the movement was causing the pain. Just holding the top position was very painful (6-7 on the pain scale). I then descended and thankfully I was able to stop at the bottom and put my legs down, it hurt pretty bad. I was able to do my last set of rows then I went home. I woke up several times throughout the night

- Pain at rest lying on my back or standing up it is a 2-3, if I expand my chest or move around it jumps up to a 5-7
- Describe the pain aching, deep,
- What makes it better? lying down on my back, or being still.
- What makes it worse? rotating my torso, expanding my chest, collapsing my chest, palpation near my sternum elicits minimal pain (almost none sometimes).
- How do your symptoms behave throughout the day? I'll let you know.

- Signs and Symptoms no swelling, no hematoma, just hurts. I was able to do two push-ups just now, painful but not unbearable. I raised my chest, as in the starting position of the press and I quickly stopped doing that (it hurt).

Let me know if you have any ideas or have any questions that will help me describe the situation better.

Thanks for your time.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Sounds like a sterno-costal inflammation -- rib head at the sternum. Dips can do that, especially if you're too ballistic at the bottom. It will heal. Stop doing dips for a while.

[Dillman]

Thanks. I feel like a bit of a jerk because I posted this question before searching the site for similar problems. After my search it was evident that dips have done this before (many times). Hopefully some other folks will view this post and realize they haven't significantly injured themselves even though it hurts pretty bad at times.

I suppose some high ibuprofen doses for a few days ought to help speed things along.

Thanks again.