pain across bottom of rib cage

[rdp]

For the past few days I've had a pain in the muscles across the bottom of my rib cage. This has never happened before. Perhaps from tensing things for squats or other lifts? Some other cause?

The present plan is to ignore it and hope it goes away, but I would appreciate any other ideas.

[Phil Stevens]

pain or soreness?

there is a big difference.

Pain dont ignore it soreness deal with it

[MazdaMatt]

If you simply can't squat and/or deadlift due to horrible pain in that area, I'd suspect a torn intercostal. Mine occured on the bottom edge of my ribs about 2 inches down/left of my sternum. Working through it was a terrible idea. Stopping anything that caused it any pain for 3 weeks worked wonderfully.

[Phil Stevens]

exactly Matt mine as well funny enough I could squat without heavy internal pressure but DLing was OUT!

[rdp]

It's more than soreness and less than serious pain. I usually think of soreness as spread over a large area while more localized issues can be more serious.

This started a few days ago. It was noticeable when I squated today, but didn't stop me from finishing. The feeling is localized to an relatively small area just below the bottom of my ribs, about halfway from middle on my right side.

If it gets worse or feels acute while squatting or deadlifting, I'll give it a rest.

Aren't the intercostals between the ribs? This seems just below.

[Beltshumeltz]

Describe your belt, your height and weight for us. Also, do you have a lever belt that requires a screwdriver to adjust, and therefore you gained weight and the belt got tighter without you adjusting it?

Also, do a an air squat with your belt. Do your tights push it upward at the bottom?

Also, do the knee-to-elbow ab movement (bicycle abs) and experiment with the range of motion, intensity and speed. Does anything feel weird or painful?

If your belt is 4 inches, 13mm thick, and any of your answers above are positive, you may be running into the type of injury that will take you a few weeks to heal once it becomes acute. And if it's like mine, you will have trouble pressing especially, and you won't be able to squat with a belt for a month or so.

I had that problem as well as others here. I think MazdaMatt or someone with a name with similar letters (LOL).

Anyway, in my case, I just started squatting belt-less again. I still pressed through my injury but that delayed healing a bit, perhaps.

I wrote Justin at 70sBig.com and after describing my problem, he recommended I get a 10mm thick belt instead. I will also try using a 3 inch belt since my tights push the belt upward into my ribs otherwise. That is only very apparent now that I am injured since it actually hurts when this happens - before that, I never felt pain although I had the bicycle-abs symptom which I could not figure out the cause for. My lower-left-rib area was painful during this movement.

--And just a reminder, people sometimes break ribs squatting with a belt, bust cartilage or strain an intercoastal muscle (no idea what I got). I think you may be heading there so you need to figure this problem ASAP.

Also some people get this pain from deadlifting, others from squatting. Personally, I had no trouble deadlifting with a belt even after my injury. Who knows which it is for you though.

[rdp]

Describe your belt

I'm not using a belt.

[Beltshumeltz]

Are you confident that you always shove your knees out?

When they aren't shoved out, they can get in the way and hurt your ribs as well.

You could try to pay attention to this factor during your sets and see if it hurts at all when you successfully go through a set without hurting.

This may or may not additionally be affected by letting the chest cave in at the bottom.

I hope something here helps you find the cause!

[Beltshumeltz]

By the way, even if my earlier post barely applies to you, please try the bicycle ab test. It could help finding out your problem and the cause.

[rdp]

By the way, even if my earlier post barely applies to you, please try the bicycle ab test. It could help finding out your problem and the cause.

No issues with the bicycle ab test. Oddly, it hurt more lying on the ground than when doing bicycles or crunches.

The area is rather localized - a couple of inches by a couple of inches.

Tender to the touch and deep breathing or laughing can be quite noticeable. Maybe the diaphragm rather than the insertion point for the rectus abs?

It's not terrible, but I worry about localized pain in odd places. I'm much more curious than worried.

We'll see how the next lifting session goes.