I’ve had severe pain in my sternum for at least 6 months now. Lately it’s been fine whilst relaxed and the only time I feel pain is if I attempt to do dips. About 3 months ago I went to the doctor, as my sternum would click (move) when I sneezed. He reckons there is nothing broken/out of place and that it will heal eventually?
I really want to start dipping again. My doctor obviously can’t help, so what would you guys recommmend to assist recovery? Some light chest stretching or just leave it alone for another few months?
You ever thought of a chiropractor?
I had a similar problem recently that happened while doing a day of heavy benching. As it turned out my doctor said that I had damaged my chest wall. In particular, I damaged the cartilage that joined my ribs to my sternum. Some time off helped it heal although it still hurts now about a month later.
Antiliberal - My doctor seemed to think it wouldn’t help.
Kinetix - your injury sounds identical to mine. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly yours heals in comparison to mine. Thanks for the info.
Sounds like what I’ve got. The last time I did dips I was in AGONY; it felt like I had an alien trying to burst out of my chest. Sneezing or coughing was painful. Got to the stage where twisting my upper body was really painful too. At its worst I couldn’t even bench either.
My physio was stumped. Started to see a chiropractor and making decent but slow progress. Sneezing doesn’t always trigger it now, rarely get pain with that twist. Flat bench gets a little uncomfortable but incline and close grip are 100% pain free.
Scared to try dips though - it’s all Pavlov’s fault 
Lifer,
Sorry to hear about your injury. “Normal” people don’t get it! When we get an injury it effects us on a deep basis as we can no longer use our bodies the way we usually do.
Here is what I do when I get an injury: Putting it simply, train around it. Take a complete 30 day rest from all chest movements (hard to do I know).
Put the focus on your legs or any other part of the body. use this time to improve a lagging area. Don’t look at it as bad. Look at it as an opportunity to improve something that might have been lagging.
I have no idea the full extent of your injury, but I have seen some dramitic results from the worst of injuries with 30 days of rest for the specific body part.
Good luck man!
I’ve had sternum problems too. Doctors don’t help at all, in fact, from my experience, they can’t help with any muscle, tendon, or ligament injuries (even though they think they can!). And you probably have a ligament injury. I don’t see how a chiropractor could help either. In the future, see a physical therapist.
Does your sternum ever “crack”, the way you would crack your knuckles?
Hey ZEB - thanks for the constructive comments. I can train the rest of the chest with no pain mostly, but a break might be a good idea. It’s going to be hard to resist training chest with summer coming up! The chest seems to impress the ladies at the beach more than a well developed lower back or set of hammies 
Patman - yeah it makes a clicking noise only when i sneeze. It’s a bloody wierd feeling, but is better than a buggered knee or shoulder injury i guess (those seem to finish some trainers for good).
“Doctors don’t help at all, in fact, from my experience, they can’t help with any muscle, tendon, or ligament injuries (even though they think they can!).”
Wow. Harsh. This Doc, worked as a Physical therapy Tech for 2.5 years before medical school, and has been trying to take the ART courses for a while, but can’t seem to match timing with vacation or locations.
Well at least I’m giving it an effort. I would like to think that I have helped a few people with their injuries. I have gotten a few of the High School Football Players that I was team dr. for last year back on the field.
I feel bad that someone in my profesion has made you feel the way you do enough to make sterotypic statements regarding all doctors in general.
Anyone ever had a problem with their inner clavicle socket(below the chin)?
I’m sure mines damaged in some way, dunno why. It makes like a “cartligey” (ha if thats a word) grinding noise if I rotate my shoulder in a full circle.
My sternum used to crack. Sometimes it hurt sometimes not. However I would heed ZEB’s advice and rest it!!! I had tendon or ligament injury in my neck that took forever to heal. Complete rest from certain activities was essential. Try some alternative chest routines if you just can’t stay away. Pullovers might not hurt.
Apprentice…I have a similar problem where my clavical joins the manubrium. My makes an odd squeshing sound. Heheh. Doesn’t really hurt. However I get cracking from other parts of my shoulder because it is unstable. Still working on fixing it. I don’t know if your problem is caused by it being unstable or not. However ask Eric Cressy. He should have some good theories. 
Eric: Hope you don’t mind the advertising.
I think such comments are only stereotypic if they’re unfair and in this case I don’t think that’s the case.
Yes, they are generalisations, and there will be exceptions (congrats on being one of them) but most GPs are pretty much clueless in most areas (as in jack-of-all-trades; master of none)
Some are a lot worse than others though - one of my “favourites” was one who tried to tell me that the triceps was the muscle working during the eccentric part of a biceps curl. He offered this as an example to prove to me that muscle imbalances are impossible.
Anyway, to those struggling with sternum issues, I’d really suggest you try a chiropractor - working for me at least.
humanator -
Your PT experience and ART training make you a good doctor for these types of injuries. Most doctors (that I’ve seen) don’t have this type of training. Maybe it’s because I live in North Dakota and the hospitals aren’t big enough to have specialists fot these injuries.
Last year I went to the doctor twice for a lower leg injury which I think turned out to be inflamed Peroneus Brevis, Flexor Hallucis Longus, and Soleus (not exactly sure). First doctor gave a diagnosis of “calf tear” and gave me some pills that were supposed to heal it. Second doctor gave a diagnosis of Achilles Tendonitis, but was smart enough to prescribe a Physical Therapist. The PT figured out what was really going on and things cleared right up.
Two years ago I saw the doctor for my sternum pain, and he told me to stop doing low reps/high weight, and start doing high reps/low weight.
Anyway, Humanator, I’m sure you’re a great doctor, and perhaps my generalization was a bit harsh; but from my experiences, physical therapists are better trained for athletic injuries - doctors are better trained for infectious disease and surgery.
Here’s a good one as to the ineptitude of one doctor I visited for an injury:
I had severe medial and lateral tendonitis in both elbows. It was so painful that I could barely twist a door knob or brush my teeth. I made an appointment with a Dr. who is a team physician for the Detroit Tigers Baseball club (I know, big mistake given their record!). I figure if ANYBODY knows about arms, this guy will.
What a frigin joke the visit was. He concurs with ME, that I have tendonitis and starts saying stuff like…“Well, you are over 40 ya know…” and …“I think your bodybuilding days are over…ever consider power walking?” Then the dickhead sends me for x-rays!!! I tell him, “What are you looking for? Soft tissue doesn’t show up on an x-ray…only bone.” He says, “I just want to make sure nothing else is gong on.”
He check the x-rays, finds nothing (of course), then sends me on my way without any pain killer, treatment, or otherwise. He just tells me to “lay off the weights.”
Wanna know who cured me and had me back in the gym in less than six (6) weeks? A nutritionist and a chiropractor.
Most doctors are poorly trained in soft tissue injuries. Vern Mooney,M.D. was an early researcher in ART. He was trained in it, but correctly stated it was very difficult to do. Most M.D.s also realize they could make more money easier doing other things.
I do commend any physician that wants to learn ART. At one of my courses the team doctor, an orthopedic surgeon, was taking the work. Very good to see.
ART is plain difficult to learn. However the insights you gain from the work is amazing. I did some and explained to some of the M.D.s at the Arnold this year. They were impressed, but don’t know what to make of it. These fellows were excellent emergency physicians from OSU, but you have to look at things different to treat soft tissue correctly. Most physicians don’t even understand how effective ART could be. It’s a different ball game than serious life threatening injuries or infections.
MookJong -
“Jack of all trades, master of none.”
Those are exactly the words I was looking for. Very true.
Anyway, here’s my sternum experience.
A few months after I started lifting, I noticed that by retracting my scapulae and arching my back, I could “crack” my sternum, just like cracking the back or the knuckles. I thought it was kind of cool, and it never gave me a problem, but people always told me that I should stop doing that, it’s not healthy, it will lead to arthritis, and all that…
So I decided to quit. The less I cracked it, the harder it was to crack, and the louder the cracks became. Then one day, when I hadn’t cracked it for a month or so, it felt like it needed to be cracked. So I arched back and spread out my arms and, after pulling pretty hard for a few seconds, POP!, it cracked. Over the next few minutes it became painful, and it hurt for over a week. During that week, I felt a horrible pain every time I contracted my abs, whether I was just sitting up, or twisting, or even sneezing. I thought, “That was dumb. I’m never cracking my sternum again.”
A few months later I was doing a hanging-pike-type movement in the gym, and as my legs swung up, POP! It hurt for about 2 weeks that time, and I didn’t even do it on purpose.
I came to realize that it would crack occasionally whether I wanted it to or not. I realized that the less often I crack it, the more it hurts when I do. So I decided to start cracking it again. At first I could only do it a couple times a week, and it hurt pretty bad every time. But eventually I was able to do it every day, and then multiple times a day, pain-free. I’ve been cracking it regularly for over a year now and have not had any problems.
I find that if I stop arching back and retracting my scapulae (cracking the sternum) I lose the flexibility (use it or lose it) in that ligament in the sternal joint just below the level of the clavicle. But sometimes your body needs that flexibility (contracting abs, sneezing). If I don’t crack it regularly, the pressure or tension or whatever it is builds up and when it is released, lots of pain is the result.
I never had too much pain doing dips, it was mostly abdominal movements, and when anything touched the chest, like the bar at the bottom of a bench press. But anyway, that’s the only advice I can give - crack it regularly. It works for me, it may not work for everyone.
long time no see big guy!
i got the same thing the other week. it sucks eh, mine seemed to go after a couple of days but yeah still suck.
p.s i hit 225lb the other day… big fat koon…
see ya in the perve room, i mean the gym
Whetu - I see the Guiness post workout drinks has been paying off! I’ve been training in the mornings a bit, to avoid the lycra brigade…
Patman - that’s a pretty funny story:-) I never thought of cracking that sucker intentionally! I will try cutting back on the chest for a while (train it once a week with benches and no flyes or other deep stretches). Will do some regular and moderate chest stretches to improve my ROM, unless it gets sore again. If that doesn’t work, I guess I give cracking a try!
Patman: I agree that PT’s are better trained than MOST doctors for sports-type injuries; and I myself refer to chiropractors and PT’s all the time, they deal with those issues more often, and have more time to spend with each patient.
Sorry I jumped to take offense at the earlier comment.