Heart uncomfortable after exercise

[ian910]

I am a 28 year old male. 2 months ago, I had a strenous exercise and my heart started to feel uncomfortable and strained. During sleep, the heart pain was so intense that I woke up from sleep. I went to see a doctor, who did an ECG for me and he say my heart is normal. I took a few days to recover from this heart pain.

After I recover from this incident, I started to exercise but whenever I exercise for about 30 mins of jogging or playing soccer, my heart will feel uncomfortable and strained. And I will need a few hours to feel better. After an hour of exercise, I have a heart beat per minute of 96. Is this normal?

Thank you for your advice

[bobad]

A small tear to rib or sternum cartilage can be painful, and can be difficult to locate. Exercise with a heaving chest can cause it to hurt, and the source of the pain can be vague. When you have the pain, you have to poke hard with your fingertips until you find it. I'm surprised your doc didn't do some hard poking to try and find a sore spot.

Sometimes issues with the upper respiratory system can produce pain, and it can mimic heart pain. Smoking, asthma, allergies, recent flu or bronchitis, tumors, lesions, and cancers can be the source. If your heart and bones check out OK, you may want to have a good thoracic workup.

A HR of 96 after 1 hour of exercise is normal, depending on your age and how vigorous the exercise.

[ian910]

Thank you for your advice, I will see a doctor about my problem and the appointment is in a week time.

Normally I feel alright during exercise, but my heart starts to feel uncomfortable after my exercise. How do I tell the difference between a musuclar pain or heart pain? Does massaging on the chest area helps to ease the pain, if the problem is of muscular one?

The heart rate of 96 bpm was measured one hour after my exercise, and I was still not feeling comfortable that time. I have a blood pressure monitor. Will measuring blood pressure be able to indicate anomaly in the heart during my heart discomfort?

[madjlp]

Tough to say exactly from the info you provided but the good news is that your ekg looks good and you're able to do fairly extensive, strenuous exercise despite the fact that you feel strained towards the end.  Pain while lying in bed, or for hours on end, is also more likely to be skeletal or muscular.  For your own piece of mind you can request a treadmill stress test which would look at your heart during exercise or, alternatively, and maybe more effectively, you could get a holter monitor for 24 hr and do your usual exercise with the monitor on - that way you could get a read of exactly what your heart is doing during the periods of discomfort.  As far as the heart rate of 96 bpm, was that your rate immediately after exercise or much later?  Immediately after exercise that would most likely be a good sign for your cardio health not a bad one.  Good luck.