I have been experiencing pain and now recently popping in my sternoclavical joint which is where the collarbone connects to the sternum. The pain is more of a nagging pain but becomes a sharp pain when the joint pops. It only pops when doing pushups and not on every pushup but about once per workout. I would just stop doing pushups but I am currently in a pre-academy police training workout regiment. It includes running pushups etc. for one hour a day 5 days a week. So I can’t exactly take time off because the actual academy srats in a little over a week.
If anyone has any idea what might cause this problem and how to treat it quickly that would be greatly appreciated. I am currently icing the joint and taking ibprofen. Thanks again.
Just thought I’d write to confirm the other reply to this thread.
I started to experience a dull pain in my left shoulder a few hours after a chest/biceps workout. In my case the pain was most noticeable either sleeping on my left side or when my arm was held above my head vertically.
At the time I wasn;t entirely sure exactly where the source was i.e. shoulder joint/muscles itself or collarbone. Wehn I first went to the doc she said that it was probably rotator cuff. I suspected that she;d say this: shoulder pain = rotator cuff injury.
After a couple of weeks rest and no improvement I went to a different doc at the same practice adn he reckoned it was very unusual but possibly a partially dislocated sternoclav joint. Subsequent xrays confirmed this.
the consultant did suggest that it was possible (but by no means definite) that surgery could help but that it was probably not worth doing. I had a total of 4 months out of triaing (back to square one) beofre I started again.
The good news is that although I am still aware of the injury - there is still some pain and some movement around the joint I am able to train at full intensity again. It has certianly made me much more aware of using good form for chest/shoulder movements.
Take some rest - as much time as you can to see if it stabilises like my did and then ease back into it. If your experience is anyhting like mine you WILL be able to train properly despite this set-back…
I went through another workout yesterday and did my pushups with my hands closer together so it put more stress onto the triceps instead of the chest. That seemed to do the trick, although I can’t do as many pushups. I figure if I can continue with this form while the joint heals then I should be ok. I finally don’t have any pain in the joint so things are looking up. Thanks for everyones replies and the time it took to write them. It was greatly appreciated.