chest injury

[cdstrong]

I was hitting the gym very hard over the course of a month, working out 5-6 times a week, alternating days between different parts of my body, staying extremely hydrated, and consuming a proper diet and protein. One day, after having a rather heavy day doing tricep extensions and bicep curls, I was messing around and tried to fall on my face and catch myself in a push up, and then push myself back up to standing. I did so. However, afterwards I had an extreme pain that hurt to move my chest, and turn my neck. the pain has been isolated to the extreme left of my right pectoral muscle (pretty much feels like its touching my sternum) and it is hard to manipulate it to make it hurt. However, it is very sensitive when it does hurt and it has been almost three weeks since the injury. I haven't touched a weight on my upperbody since the incident, when I wake up in the morning it hurts in particular just from moving around during sleep. It gets better and is not made worse by running or light activity.

What is this and how do I stretch it, work it, make it feel better.  

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hi there!

This sounds more like a severe muscle strain though muscular injury is another possibility. This may take a few weeks/ months to heal depending on the severity. To promote healing it is advised to take rest for a few days and then start mild exercises putting little strain on the muscles. Exercises should be continued at a lower level till the injury completely heals. You may also alternate between hot-compresses and ice-packs and try some OTC tylenol/ NSAIDS to relieve the inflammation. It may also be beneficial to see a physiotherapist for an exercise schedule.
Hope this was useful.

Take care!

[CuteNsweeT]

Muscle can take ages to heal if the damage is severe, and you really DO need to let it heal before trying to build back up to resume your previous activities, or you'll just be adding more injury on top of the damage already done...
Try sleeping semi-propped up on supportive cushions (about 3 decent sized ones) to see if that helps; it should ease your morning pain, which in turn should enable faster healing as inflammation will be lessened. It might be an idea to stop running and try an activity with less impact (elliptical trainer perhaps) until your chest is healed properly, as every stride whilst running is imparting a jolt, and even though it's not hurting it may still be retarding the healing process. As for stretching, I'd try the same action that caused it, in a way-downsized version, i.e. instead of doing the falling-push-up-back-to-standing, use the same muscles by trying a lying-down dumb-bell press without the dumb-bells, and slowly add in really light weights til you feel a slight stretch (but no pulling or pain obviously).
I'm no physical therapist though; I recommend you go see one if you can afford it.