About five years ago, I developed a dull ache in my chest. At that time, I was farming and doing overly intense workouts. I figured the discomfort would go away in time. But instead, the pain went from dull to an inflamed sensation that worsened at night. It became so painful that I couldn’t take deep breaths. I (stupidly) didn’t seek help, and kept telling myself it would get better on its own.
And while the pain would lessen in the winter, as soon as a new farm season rolled around in March, it came back in full force. It took me two seasons to finally tell Jason. (For me, telling someone meant having to admit to myself that I had a problem.) When I finally did come clean, he felt terrible and immediately sought answers.
What I was experiencing was costochondritis. It’s an inflammation of the cartilage that connects the ribs to the breastbone. Pain caused by costochondritis can mimic a heart attack or other heart problems. Medical websites say it has no apparent direct cause, and treatment focuses on easing the pain while you wait to get better. It’s more common in women. Some medical websites classify costochondritis as “relatively harmless,” but while it may not be dangerous, it sure makes a person miserable. Even when I wasn’t having a total flare up, the dull pain remained and my breaths were shallow. When it was really bad, it felt like I was suffocating and made me panicky.
All of our research wasn’t turning up any relief. Since everything we read focused on costochondritis being a chest issue, I focused on my chest, doing chest-opening yoga and stretches. But none of this helped, actually it made it way worse. Visits to the chiropractor helped with other issues, but did nothing for my chest.
Then, Jason found two online physical therapists: Bob and Brad (Bob Shrupp and Brad Heineck). One of them has costochondritis. To explain the problem, they compared the ribs to rusty bucket handles — that rust needs to be worked off. They also confirmed that chest-opening exercises seemed to do more harm than good. Two of their videos turned my situation around entirely.
Here they are:
And this one, which truly unlocked relief for me:
Around the 10:50 mark there’s an exercise that gave me my breath back. You stand with your feet about hip-width apart, and raise up your elbows — fist pressed to palm — and swivel. I did this every morning, and noticed improvement after just a few days! After all this time? This was what I needed to do? Thirty seconds of simple motion!
I’ve been doing this exercise regularly for about three years now, especially after a day of weeding or heavy lifting. The pain still flares up now and then, but the swivel motion eases it, and lets me breathe normally.
~ Stella
