That is super frustrating. I hope that it is a quick fix and turnaround for you.
You’ll push past this man.
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Hugs cyber brother !! You’ll pull through!
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Thanks everyone. Means a lot.
I scheduled an appointment this Sunday with a very reputable sports doctor/therapist. I think this is out of my grasp to treat on my own. I’ll keep updates for sure. I’ll likely resume training Monday in some form if I get a green light.
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Sheesh. I didn’t think I had that kind of influence. Did not expect to hear that, but it means tons. Thank you for that.
Training alone has definitely made me feel a bit isolated at times like these but you all really make me feel like I’ve got a good team behind me. Much love guys.
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Hey, are you still in Denver, NC?
I work with Clinical Athlete Dr. Zach Long of Carolina Sports Clinic out of their Blakeney practice.
https://carolinasportsclinic.com/team-showcase/zachary-long/
His website:
He gets it. He is a powerlifter, crossfitter, and rehab specialist. Highly recommend.
Heal quick,
Scott
@IronOne Hey. I still am here in the Charlotte area. Thanks for the hook up, I will certainly check him out in the future sometime.
A little update for ya’ll. I went and saw Ken Smith at The Fix last Sunday. Some of you have probably seen him on Jujimufu’s youtube. If not, he works with athletes (anyone really) in improving performance, lowering risk of injury, and deep tissue massage/fixing fucked up people like me. Juji and Tom were there the day I went to see him which was a funny coincidence. Jon lives like 15 minutes from me. How niiiiice.
Anyway, my fucking rib. Given my leg length problem, my hips are not only tilted vertically on one side (my left side) but also twisted in some way. So my spine is crooked, which I knew, but moreover I was constantly leaning so far on my left leg that it put a huge amount of torque into a few ribs, which essentially caused them to be dislodged or effectively dislocated completely and jutting into my vertebrae. I was also recently sitting like an idiot for prolonged periods of time for nights in a row (watching movies, etc.) and in picking up a chair with my right arm extended, the stabilizers (left side of my back/rib) just exploded. This caused nerve impingement which felt like a disk problem, but was in fact a horribly contorted rib.
The main problems were as followed: My left QL is extremely overworked and riddled with heavy scar tissue. My psoas is responsible for most of the rib problem due to it being heavily imbalanced and agitated from my posture and hips. My entire left leg is super tight, overly muscular compared to my right, and I need to stop using it. I am crunching so hard on my left side that my ribs become squished together and the muscles of my trunk on the left become tonic and useless. This is why I have problems bracing my left side. I have a hard time inflating that area.
He adjusted my ribs which instantly felt better, and then did some horrifying deep tissue work on my psoas, QL, hip flexors and calves. Definitely my most problem areas. He actually didn’t ask me about any of those things, he just kind of navigated my left side, found bad spots and worked on them.
The good things to take away, were that my lumbar spine looks good. Given the disk injuries I’ve had, there’s no noticeable problems aside from minor asymmetry of the vertebrae. He also isn’t convinced I need a lift on my shoe, which is a shocker because a chiro told me years ago I needed one or I was screwed. The only way it would be necessary is if I had a certain bone length problem, but that’s rare and didn’t see that to be my issue. Granted, it was one visit.
I actually felt way worse the day after his treatment, which is why I didn’t log anything here, because I basically wanted to crawl up and die. I was sore, could hardly breathe, and my left calf (one that tore) was flared up badly. Day after, I felt almost 100%, minus some minor nerve pain and rib soreness. Today, I feel good to resume training. It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve trained. Might be the longest I’ve ever taken off. Baha.
Gonna train later. Thank you all. 
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Do you know what your discrepancy is? I’m sitting at 3/8th of an inch which is a bit bigger than average. Luckily, no lifting related injuries yet but had some as a runner due to it
3/4 inch give or take.
5/17/19
Did about 4 rounds of 120 per hand farmers carries with a turn. On the fourth round, during the turn, I heard a loud pop and there goes my rib again. Instant pain and could not even bend over to deadlift one of the handles alone. Strange…
I felt great. There was no indication. It just feels as though something inside of my torso is attached with scotch tape or cheap glue and it just popped out.
Figured two weeks of rest and some light farmers with walking speed would be fine. Back to square one. This is gonna be an ordeal ugh.
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Damnit, that must be frustrating. Stay vigilant, you’ll get past it with time.
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5/20/19 - Decided to train today. Feeling better but obviously I have to be careful or my rib will literally fucking explode…
Seated Log Incline
110x15
160x5
160x5
180x5
210x5
210x8 surprisingly easy, had probably 10-11
BTH tricep extensions
45x15
45x15
45x15
Band Pull Apart
x15
x15
x15
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5/24/19 - bw 216
Pause Front Squat
45x10
95x10
135x5
135x5
185x5
185x5
235x3
275x3
325x3
Stiff Leg Deads
135x10
135x10
135x10
Pull Ups
x12
x12
+50lbs x 8
+50lbs x 8
x11
Decent workout. Rib bothers me more in daily life than any of the lifting I did today. Unfortunately dynamic exercises like farmers carries that involve twisting my trunk just seem to pop my rib out of place (or so it feels like).
Not bad for almost 3 weeks of zero training. Feel pretty good to get blood flowing especially in 95 degree heat.
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I was genuinely happy for you while reading this post!
Then you went and ripped that happiness out from under me.
Glad to hear that you got it looked at and that it isn’t a spinal issue. Hopefully now that you kinda/sorta know the issues, you can work your way back through the necessary recovery.
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Now that is a serious understatement. Good sesh mate.
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I didn’t know paused front squats were a thing , have you noticed them being beneficial??
Yes they are invaluable.
I think because the weight is being held in the front rack, it becomes exponentially harder, if you will, to hold integrity with your upper back and trunk stability, whereas with paused back squats you can just kinda chill indefinitely with the weight since it’s effectively over the center of your base of support.
Also, it’s generally very effective to remove the rebound of a movement to make it stronger. It has worked for me.
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Yeah it was rough. It seems to be triggered by heavy (40-50+lbs) in front of my center of mass; for example, holding a 45lb barbell in front of my body with arms straight out causes the rib to hurt. It just kind of loads the entire mid-left lateral back and torso with immense pain, and if I do it too excessively it pops out.
During my farmers carries a few weeks ago during the turn with only 120 per hand, I heard this super loud pop and felt my torso just kind of lose all tightness and I just put down the handles, stood in one spot and just lamented in pain. Could not even bend over to DEADLIFT 120lbs.
Funny enough, not even a week later I’m doing easy SLDL’s with 135 and pause front squatting 325lbs without much issue. This is very peculiar and I’m just hoping with consistent physio therapy and good practice I can beat this.
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5/27/19
Pull Ups
x5
x5
x5
Incline Log
110x5,5,5,5,5,5
160x5
160x5
160x8
180x5
Strict Overhead Press
135x6
135x6
135x6
Band Pull Apart
x15
x15
x15
Pull Ups
x12
x12
x12
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5/30/19 - bw 217
Beltless Pause FS
135x8,5
225x3,3
275x3
275x3
275x3 honestly felt heavy but I kept my feet closer in for some reason so hitting depth and being strong in that position was hard.
Incline Seal Row
40x15
40x15
40x10
40x10
Tons of arm stuff. Called it here.
Saw Ken today and worked on some stuff. My rib is essentially dislocating due my body being all messed up and it’s gonna take some time in healing to get it to stay in place under certain loads.
The main culprit is twisting under load, albeit twisting in general can be aggravating. So things like dumbbell rows and banded ab things probably attributed to the issue. Also, bending over and reaching on my left leg causes overrotation of my spine and jams my ribs up into eachother more. My scapula and ribs were basically grinding into eachother so he adjusted that.
Also, my right ankle has is FUBAR. My talus bone is so out of place that I have awful ROM of the ankle, so when I squat my right foot has to point out massively to accommodate for this. The only thing I can do is try my best to work on mobilizing it by lunging, pressing down on my heel with one hand, and blocking my tibia from falling inward so it can properly travel forward in the motion.
Now that my rib is in place I’m in minimal pain and I’m able to lift and exist normally, but at any moment it can go out again, and it all starts over. The plan is to be ready for it to happen again, but try to limit how often it happens over time by limiting the risk factors.
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You’re a tough sumbitch Vin. You’ll be back to stasis in no time. Great news to hear.
I agree with oldbean, you’re a tough bastard, best wishes brother.
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