***CAN WE GET UP AND LET’S EXPLODE THE LINE? OR SOMETHING SIMILAR? What if I couldn’t breathe because of the pain or something?
If you’re a yoga studio regular, you’re no stranger to poses that have you contorting your body and tying you into pretzels.
And although yoga is a great form of exercise, some yogis report shooting chest pain after exercising that can be so intense that they mistake it for a heart attack and rush them to the hospital.
Acute pain, which affects both men and women, can last from minutes to hours after a strenuous workout, a period of heavy lifting, or muscle strain.
But despite its resemblance to a heart attack, if other common symptoms do not occur: pain that radiates to the shoulders, neck, arms and jaw; difficulty breathing; perspiration; nausea; and dizziness – you may actually have costochondritis,
This benign condition occurs when the cartilage that connects the rib to the breastbone (sternum) becomes inflamed.
The condition is common: About 200,000 Americans experience it each year, although this is likely an undercount as many people let the pain pass without reporting it.
Erin, from New York City, told DailyMail.com that she once experienced such intense pain for 14 hours that she felt she had to go to the hospital to rule out a heart attack or blood clot.
“The pain was so bad I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t do anything. I had to bend forward just to get air,” he said.
Inflamed cartilage that connects the breastbone to the ribs causes costochondritis. The inflammation causes pain that radiates from the front of the chest down the back and into the neck.
The pain of costochondritis may increase with deep breathing as the chest wall expands and contracts, and people may also experience pain when coughing or pressing on the area where the ribs meet the breastbone.
The pain is caused by inflammation of the protective tissue called cartilage that connects the ribs to the breastbone.
When that cartilage becomes inflamed due to overly strenuous physical exercise or excessive coughing, regular movements of the rib cage can cause pressure and pain in those areas.
From there, the pain can radiate back, reach the spine and descend.
Costochondritis is a diagnosis of exclusion.
When people seek medical care believing they are in the early stages of a heart attack, doctors first try to rule out as many potentially serious conditions as possible, including a heart attack, a blood clot in the lungs, broken ribs, pneumonia, and a collapse. lung, before reaching the diagnosis of costochondritis.
People who suffer from this condition describe it as a stabbing pain in the center of the chest, which may radiate back and down to the torso.
A TikToker named Melissa described the radiating pain as “a horrible cycle.”
She said: ‘Then you have pain in your chest and also in your back because your rib is always connected.
‘I had also seen a chiropractor before and they thought maybe it was a rib problem and not costochondritis, so I had some adjustments, maybe it helped a little.
‘And since it’s stuck here (points to his chest) and leaves, your arm hurts too. I always have shoulder and neck pain, so when this intensifies, my arm gets really bad, going up to my neck and everything.
“Then when I feel all those things, I get anxiety and feel nauseous.”
One Reddit user with this condition said: ‘My case of Costo (or what I assume is Costo) mainly manifests as pain/tightness in my back that comes and goes, but is generally quite persistent. No chest pain.
‘Sometimes it’s on my right back ribcage and I feel like I can’t breathe properly, now it’s between my shoulder blades. However, the only consistent symptom is the crackling or clicking sound in my back and chest when breathing, and this is the one that bothers me the most. It happens all day with every other deep breath I take.’
Another described the pain as feeling “like someone was rubbing sandpaper on specific spots.”
‘It was easier to bear while moving; The worst thing was lying at a 45 degree angle or just lying down – it felt like something was going to explode there.
‘It comes and goes, it’s not constant. When I breathe, it feels like someone has poured acid on my chest.’
Two women told DailyMail.com they believe they suffered the damage because of their yoga practice.
Erin from New York attributed it to the chaturanga dandasana posture which requires the yogi to remain suspended in a low plank, keeping the elbows at a 90-degree angle along the body.
It is a more advanced pose that requires the yogi to keep his or her body parallel to the ground while lowering to the stomach and pushing the chest up and forward in a pose called upward dog or cobra.
When the body is in a low plank position, the weight of the body presses down through the chest, putting pressure on the rib cage and costal cartilage.
The lowering movement in the posture can also exacerbate the painful condition because it compresses the rib cage, putting additional pressure on the inflamed areas.
At this point, the yogi could injure himself if he does not isolate his body parts to ensure that one muscle does not overcompensate for the others.
The chaturanga pose involves placing significant pressure on the chest and ribcage. It involves the muscles of the upper body, specifically the chest and shoulders, and can strain the cartilage that connects the ribs to the breastbone.
A New Jersey yoga instructor warned that while training is good for flexibility and strength, if you don’t flow correctly from one pose to the next, you can cause or inflame an injury.
“What I see a lot of times is that when people go down, their elbows straighten out and that puts too much pressure on the shoulders, so all the attention is focused on stabilizing the shoulders and not the rest of the body,” Cathy Narchese. , a yoga instructor and owner of Thrive Yoga in Towaco, New Jersey, told DailyMail.com.
She said often people think they just need to go through the motions or are working to imitate their neighbors, so they force themselves into a posture they’re not prepared for, and that’s when injuries occur.
In chaturanga, you need to engage your chest, core, glutes, thighs, shoulders and biceps, “because that chain of flow is what allows and the chain of engagement allows you to lift yourself up into your Up Dog or Cobra,” Narchese said.
“So if you don’t engage properly, if they don’t engage their core, it can definitely be that 100 percent.”
Heavy lifting, exercises that use the body for resistance, such as yoga, and repetitive movements that use the chest, such as swimming, twisting, coughing, and sneezing, can also cause pain and may be confused with a broken rib.
Costochondritis is more common in women than men, and of the 62 million people who visit the doctor each year, 18.5 million may have it.
A 2019 report from the American Rib Pain Institute revealed that of all people diagnosed, 80 percent of those Those who suffer the injury are women and the majority do not receive the correct diagnosis or treatment.
Some people experience pain for only a short period of time after strenuous movements, but others may experience pain for months, and the discomfort becomes so severe that people rush to the emergency department for answers.
Those suffering from costochondritis have described undergoing a series of tests only to come back negative for any problems, including x-rays, CT scans, and echocardiograms.
No laboratory or imaging test can detect inflamed cartilage.
Several other conditions can mimic costochondritis, including arthritis, nerve pain caused by fibromyalgia, neck or shoulder injuries, or a chest wall infection.
Treatment of costochondritis focuses on reducing inflammation of the connective cartilage in the chest.
It is recommended that people take over-the-counter pain relievers, such as ibuprofen, aspirin, or acetaminophen. It may also be helpful to place a heating pad on your chest several times a day.
TikTok user Ezzy Ayala saying He is undergoing physical therapy to alleviate what doctors have diagnosed as acute costochondritis, but they constantly recommend that he take ibuprofen. Now he is worried about the possible damage this has caused to his liver.
In rare cases, a doctor may suggest lidocaine or corticosteroid injections to relieve pain and inflammation.
Costochondritis usually resolves on its own within three to four weeks, but may recur several times after resolving for a period. When it occurs, it is recommended to opt for an easier workout or more downtime.