ANYBODY PLEASE HELP ME WITH MY STERNUM PAIN!!!!!!!! :[

Had such bad sternum pain just a few days ago, I thought I was having a heart attack. Never felt anything like it before. I went to the hospital and got checked out. They also checked for heart conditions immediatly, but it turned out to be costochondritis. The doctor took tests to rule out heart attack and then I was told to take antiinflammatories for 5 to 7 days. It can come from lifting too heavy or a blow to the chest etc. Anyhow the best thing to do is see your doctor to make sure you get a proper diagnosis. I am already feeling better after 2 days of meds.

I've had similar pain. I just looked up sternum pain and found the term 'Costochondritis'. It's inflamation of or injury to cartilage. You should try to google it. It seemed to answer all my questions and concerns. I believe it's from an awkward position of watching television one day.

My problem is as follows. I don't remember exactly when I started feeling pain in my chest (benethe the sternum). I'm training tae-kwon do and I was doing push-ups for 3 years every day non-stop. But I remember that my pain in chest (mild at first I think) started 10 months ago. i continued training (cause I was feeling pain all over my body anyways, was nothing special). But then I had to do slower push-ups so the pain wasn't present. The pain was worsening with every week and then on the last day of training we had realy huge exercise program which was putting enormous pressure on my sternum and it hurt realy bad but I continued (so I wouldn't look like I can't take the exercise).
The pain was so big, that when I was at sea with the club (we were doning little exercises that woulčd put pressure on my sternum) when I was doing simple things like kicks for some time and running, I felt like my heart was hurting in the center beneth the sternum. But it clearly wasn't the heart, but it felt like so. I stopped with all the push-ups and everything that put pressure on my sternum for months now. No training. I've lost all my muscless cause of this sacrifice. But the pain was getting better at very slow rate. It Almost dissapeared (I could be doing slow push-ups no problem). but after time it would come back again. Yesterday I finnaly lost it. Did 100 push-ups in 3 sets and at the end I could feel no pain anymore (it dissapeared during training). But when I went to sleep I oculdn't lie on my back or front or sideways cause the pain was so bad. When I coughed it almost teared my sternum out.
Why can't my body heal when I give it all the time to do so and 3 times too much. I have same thing with my tibia (after 3 years still it hasn't healed with all doctors help, it heals to the point when it hurts no more, but as soon as I start jumping it gets back in matter of days).
Could it be that I have bad DNA structure? :-(

Ok so I went to a heavy metal show and ended up in the mosh pit for a lot longer than I figured i would be....I shoulda just stayed out....but when I did finally take a break I stoped to look at the stage and guy a bit larger than me gave me an elbow to the chest this is the first time i have ever felt this amount of pain after doing something this stupd I dont have insurance so a doc. is on the expensive and only necessary i did a lil research on the net and came up with either i broke my or some like chomoamokoko i dont know a long word that starts with C but nothing i see says anything about actually needing to go seek medical help....all i know is it hurts aroung my sternum when i move,twist,take a deep breath or cough it hurts really bad ...I picked up a box at work and it almost felt like a hot pain but hurts anytime i move or breath deep...Should I go see a doctor? cuz this Sucks!

alright, so ive been weightlifting for about two years now, and just recently when i started significantly increasing the weights on the ' seated overhead twohanded tricep extension' excerise (about 75 lbs for 6 reps, three sets) i started getting a very sharp pain on the left side of my mid pectoral, but only as i brought the weight back down after finishing the set. after experimenting with the pain, i realised it wasnt really the exercise that was doing the damage, but only the motion of bringing my arms from a fully extended position above my head to back in front of my chest. the pain was extreamly sharp stinging that basically stopped me from extending my arms in any way for fear that it would damage my chest.
after a while though, as i started taking it easy on the weights, the pain ebbed away, only to return any time that i resumed the exercise, even with light weight.
i finally went to a doctor and got it checked out, but all i got was a painkiller and the advise to not workout anymore
like that helped anything
so, here i am, i need of help, cause i really dont want to stop workking out, and i want the pain to go
does anyone know what to do?

Use Google..thats probably how you ended up here in the first place. Some key things to remember...1. have you had any strenuous activity lately? 2. Do you smoke? (Coughing from smoking can cause sternum pain) 3. Any stretching lately? (Stretching improperly or not stretching enough before excersice can also be a factor for the pain) Apart from all the options that COULD be the problem, there are really only 3 types...Physical, Viral, and Hereditary. If you havent performed much physically demanding work then time for a doctors visit so they can check you out for any infections or hereditary conditions.
To the guy lifting weights, decrease your weights bro. Don't push to hard, and give it some time, also try moving your hand position in on your bar more, I love holding the bar wide, but it puts SO MUCH more stress on the sternum, its not worth the added damage, when u can close your grip and decrease the weights. Good luck.

Hiya all, wish I'd known about this forum Earlie. I've founf thi

Sorry i hit the wrong button!!!
so heres my reply again.....
Hiya all, wish I'd known about this forum Earlie. I've found this topic interesting as i also have this pain in the chest. In Oct 2009 i had an heart attack which I'm very happy to say is now in the past ( A blip In my life) But this left me with a pain in the my chest, my doctor and hospital consultant told me this was probable cause of the pressure a heart attack can put on the rib cage. reading the replies in this topic we all seem to be getting the same type of pain, plus the pain starts as others. like if i lift anything heavy, have anything on my chest but theres also one or two reasons that haven't been said, My rip / chest pain also come if i Sneeze hard or Cough to much but more when i Sneeze. the Doctors tryreassuresure me its nothing to worry about havingeing had an heattackteck i do still worry sometimes, now reading ystory'sorys i know this is a pain mpeopleople have, I'md im not alone and helpedlped a great dealreassuringring me peopleople hconfirmedrmed what the experts have been telling me ........ Thank you all ...!

just seen my last post ... what wan't wrong there i shell never know ! so here it is again !

  Hiya all, wish I'd known about this forum Earlier. I've found this topic interesting as I also have this pain in the chest. In Oct 2009 I had an heart attack which I'm very happy to say is now in the past ( A blip In my life) But this left me with a pain in the my chest, my doctor and hospital consultant told me this was probable cause of the pressure a heart attack can put on the rib cage. reading the replies in this topic we all seem to be getting the same type of pain, plus the pain starts as others. like if I lift anything heavy, have anything on my chest but there's also one or two reasons that haven't been said, My rip / chest pain also come if I Sneeze hard or Cough to much but more when I Sneeze. the Doctors try reassuring me its nothing to worry about having had an heart attack I do still worry sometimes, now reading your story's I know this is a pain Many people have, and I'm not alone and helped a great deal reassuring me people have confirmed what the experts have been telling me ........ Thank you all ...!

i also feel a lot of pain in my sternum as well. I am a gymnast, so when i was doing a backwalkover one day, i heard a crack in sternum. Ever since then, it hurts to breath, laugh, or do anything that requires endurances. Arching my back also hurts too. What shall i do?

my sternum hurts when i lean forward or lean side to side. It also hurts when i sneeze. Im 17 years old and often worry about things like cancer, i dont know what this is but its the first time ive experienced this pain. i have a strange lump where my top two ribs meet the sternum. Can someone help me with this please? 

I am also a gymnast (not a very good one!). What this may be is costochondritis. The symptoms mimic a heart attack, what happens is the cartilage that holds your sternum to your ribs gets inflamed for some reason (strain), and that inflammation then causes deferred pain in the area (the same way a heart attack does since you can't directly feel your heart really).

So the first thing for anyone with this is to go to a doctor and ensure that you don't have serious problems. they have tests that are very definitive for the troubling problem. I went to a chest pain center when mine first struck, so I left with a full cardiac and pulmonary workup and a clean bill of health from those perspectives for the next 5 years or so.

They can't test directly for costo, sometimes it can be seen on an MRI, but they basically test for everything else, and when it's all that's left they call it. So I would clear the dangerous stuff (just tell your doctor you have chest pains and they'll do the rest) and then do a few quick tests yourself. The quickest test is to take some anti-inflammatories when it's bothering you (a strong dose, I am an adult male and I took two Aleve [Naproxen]) and see if that helps. If an anti-inflammatory like naproxen helps, then that's a good bit of evidence that you have this.

Once you are confident you have it, the only thing to do is to try and avoid anything that aggravates it (and at its worst everything aggravated mine) and just wait. It takes forever to 'heal', its really not healing, just the inflammatory response needs to go down. There's almost no vascularity or blood flow to cartilage, so it takes FOREVER. the biggest thing is to be patient, very patient, very very patient, and when you decide to go back to activity go back in with very low intensity, and give it 2-5 days after you do activity before you call it good. For me it would take 2-3 days before i would see symptoms.

I did the rings for about 3 years, and was working on perfecting my front support and working toward my cross. That's what got mine aggravated. Unfortunately, it took me 3 months before I put the exercise together with the pain, so I really aggravated it. I have been off the rings, and all strength training for a year and three months. I am now symptom free in normal life, but have not been able to start any real training again. I have been able to do slow pushups, but that's it without causing it to flare up again.

What helped my the most when it was at its worst was moving slowly and very carefully, naproxen, glucomsomine (helped with pain, I have no idea why), and orange juice (it's an anti-inflammatory).

Good luck, be very patient, and it will get better!

Please get checked for scoliosis. I didn't learn I had it until I was 18. I was at a carnival on a ride the spun around extremely fast and when it stopped I was in severe pain nor could I stand. A friend took me to an E.R. Where I learned not only did I have scoliosis I had two hemi vertabres L1 and L5. I'm 38 now and much worse. My L1 is practically gone causing more pain and problems. I wish you luck. Yes it will cause sternum and rib pain that feels similar to a heart attack.

I got a bear hug from behind. My chest and shoulders went forward. Immediately I heard my sternum and immediate pain accompanied by horrible pain across my shoulders down my arms. Could this be serious or will it go away?