The dangers of taking your workout too far- after elite athlete fractures rib from bouncing 120lb barbell on her chest

A simple change in an exercise routine resulted in an elite athlete suffering a dangerous injury.

A 24-year-old sprinter modified her bench press technique slightly to include bouncing a barbell off her ribcage.

But when she started experiencing persistent chest pain, she visited a doctor and underwent a body scan to diagnose the cause of her pain.

The scan revealed stress fractures in one of his ribs, a result of the repetitive impact of the 120-pound weight on his chest.

While stress fractures (small cracks that occur in a bone) are common among athletes, rib fractures do not occur as frequently, but can cause damage to nearby organs, decreased lung function, and chronic pain.

Up to 4.4 percent of athletes report suffering from the injury.

Traumatic rib fractures caused by weight training exercises have been reported before, said researchers who detailed the woman’s case report, but only a few occurred from bench pressing exercises.

A bench press, sometimes called a chest press, is a training movement that involves a person lying horizontally on a bench and pressing a barbell with heavy plates directly on their chest.

The anonymous woman in the case. report He was rehabbing for Achilles tendon pain from a previous injury and had increased his upper body training as a result.

He bench-pressed three times a week instead of the usual once a week and lifted up to 120 pounds, the equivalent of his body weight. But he started bouncing the bar on his ribcage to make it easier to lift.

However, two weeks after making this change, he began to feel increasing pain in his chest, which became worse when he sneezed.

He went to his primary care doctor, who found nothing abnormal on a chest X-ray or an ECG, a test that records electrical signals in the heart to detect heart problems.

As a result, he continued bench pressing for several more weeks.

The pain continued and became more intense and he went to the hospital. A CT scan revealed a fracture in the fifth rib on the right side, exactly the place where The bar made an impact during his workouts.

Her injury forced her to stop bench pressing and turned to walking, riding a stationary bike, and performing lower-body strength training exercises.

After healing her rib for six weeks, the athlete slowly began increasing the intensity of her workouts and returned to full training six weeks later and experienced no further symptoms.

Typically, not much can be done for an injured rib unless the fracture is so severe that it causes the bone to move out of its normal position and alignment, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Treatment is usually limited to providing adequate pain control, avoiding strenuous activities, and letting it heal on its own.

The researchers concluded that when athletes complain of chest pain, a rib fracture should be considered a possible injury, especially if they have been doing bench press exercises.

They also warned that using bouncing movements during the bench press may raise safety concerns and increase the risk of stress fracture of the ribs.

While non-displaced rib fractures heal within six weeks, more serious rib injuries can lead to a number of serious health problems, including damage to nearby organs, reduced lung capacity, chest infections, chronic pain, and flail chest, one of The most serious side effects that can occur if multiple ribs are fractured.

It occurs when a portion of the chest wall becomes destabilized, usually from severe trauma, and has a high mortality rate.

The patient was documented in SAGE Open Medical Case Reports.