I don't know exactly how I managed to do this, gardening of all things I think, but have managed to tear at least three of the attachments for my (internal) intercostal muscles just below the sternum. Was assessed as a grade 2 tear - partial mini tears but nothing cleanly seperated.

Been in serious pain for two days and just got it diagnosed. Hurts like hell to raise my arms, lie down, twist my trunk, side bend, breathe deeply and a range of other movements. The pain radiates into my back and spine too and is even throwing off my balance when I walk right now. Got some nice swelling and extreme tenderness around the edge of my ribcage and around the upper two abs. Weirdly coughing or laughing is not too bad.

Anyway this is gonna mean 3-6 months with no weights which absolutely sucks as for the first time in ages I've been consistent and really progressing. Am just hoping that the diagnosis for time out is excessive.

The prescription pain relief is strong NSAIDs, but I want to avoid chronic use of those so am gonna see how I go without for most of the time and maybe only use them at night to help get to sleep (as lying down is when this hurts most).

Anyone had a similar injury?

best thing for any injury or layoff is alcohol
must say it has helped me tremendously over the past 4 yrs

nsaids are pretty grim mate, cox1, cox2 inhibitors- etodolac is useful if long term admin.

thats pretty hardcore dude- could be time to experiment with various amino's for efficacy? i wonder if electromag stim would be beneficial?

how the hell did you manage that gardening?? Must have been some hardcore garden work!

When i say gardening it involved moving around paving slabs. I didn't feel anything snap/pop/hurt at the time, but did feel far more out of breath than I should have, and thinking that is where I hurt myself. After that I went back inside, ate, and fell asleep. Woke up late evening, had a drink and some food then went straight to bed. Was a little achy but felt nothing like the agony when I woke up with in the morning.

Took me more then ten mins to get up from my bed this morning - and it hurt so much I was almost in tears. This seriously sucks. I just hope it's not as severe as diagnosed. Have to be real careful though as if i damage the intercostal membrane further, i could get a hiatal hernia on top of the muscle injury.

I may well look into the amino acids thing - ornithine and glutamine (peptides) look interesting for healing, and DL phenylalanine can have an analgesic pain killing effect at the right dose. Probably take some tyrosine and tryptophan to help keep my mood up.

Otherwise, am not a good drinker - have tried many times to abuse alcohol but I just can't seem to get the hang of it. Perhaps some hardcore class A drugs. Any suggestions?

I think a large part of the reason the intercostals are so slow to heal is that their bloody supply is crap, so anything to improve that side of things would be worth a look. I'm sure you'll know more than I about appropriate supps, but acupuncture also springs to mind for more localised treatment, I think that would be my first port of call.

Get the curcumin in you for pain relief. Need to take a good amount though; prob 6+ 500mg a day. Take on an empty stomach with coconut oil and why not sling in a Vit D3 at the same time to aid absorption.

Intercostal muscles are a biatch to damage; sorry to hear it mate.

Cheers for comments and advice. Am still pretty sore with reduced mobility, but the pain has either reduced or I've just gotten used to it. Part of the issue as well was that I started gettign acid reflux and some pain directly below the sturnum - hiatus hernia. I poked and massaged the area and felt something suddenly move, and now that's now been gone and normal for about five days - think I actually managed to pop it back down manually.

Am actually fairly optimistic this might heal more quickly than at first thought - although still tender it is feeling better, so hopefully just a month or so out will be it.

Is freaking difficult not to exercise though... so tempted to go and have a light arms workout or something that isn't going to put too much stress through my core.

come down to mine!

Craig wrote:come down to mine!

Probably shall in a couple of weeks - keep putting it off as WSM is full of old people and chavs, lol. You'll recognise me instantly when i walk in - i'll be the skinniest guy in there

How's it all going btw?

The bank holidays didn't help at all but still good.