Sternum pops when I sneeze

Hello All,

I was not gonna post anything but after reading my people's pain and misery (myself included) i decided to leave a reply in hopes of others might benefit from this.

I am 26 male, used to exercise regularly until 24. 

But past 2 years ive developed this problem with my sternum popping when i streth backwards. 

It turns out it is not natural for our body to be crouching behind a table reading or on a pc. 

The best advice i've gotten were, when u r on a pc. have ur pc eye level so you are forced to sit up straight.

Also sleep on ur back, not on ur side or belly. (or buy temperpudic matress)

Thanks for the advice. I'll try looking up a chiropractor and hopefully get rid of the problem for good :)

its called costochondritis.

My wife has the same problem for 3 months now. Also occasional headaches and alot of burning in chest.

To anybody interested, I have had this problem for many many years and around 8 months ago the clicking was accompanied by immense pain lasting sometimes hours after a sneeze. Upon seeing a comment on this article, I sought the help of a chiropractor and also went for weekly deep tissue massages and started doing yoga.

Symptoms

Tight chest muscles, clicking/ popping when sneezing or stretching my arms straight out or behind me. Later I started to feel sharp pain when I sneezed followed by a dull ache for a number of hours.

Total period suffering from clicking/ popping 10+ years.

Total period suffering from pain when sneezing=  2 months

Causes

The chiropractor told me that my particular problem stemmed from a couple of causes:

1. I am a boxer and spend a lot of my time with my shoulders rounded forward as part of my boxers guard. This has caused the muscles in my chest to shorten, whilst the back muscles have lengthened without growing strong enough to pull my shoulders back.

2. I have bad posture on account of my height. I am 6'3" and quite slim for my height so lean forward, stretching the muscles in my mid and lower back as well as my neck.

3. I have had issues with various back injuries which have caused scaring in my back muscles.

4. I have not taken good care of my back and had over a dozen separate knots (trigger points) which had become very tough and painful.

All of these issues together meant that I had extremely short chest muscles that pocketed tension between the join across along the sternum, between the pectorals. When I would stretch them out or sneeze, the gap between them would expand and they would 'pop'. The tension would build and build and when that very sudden, violent expansion of a sneeze occurred, it would use that as a chance to expel itself. It became painful because as the problem worsened, I had started to tear muscle fibre and the more I sneezed, the more it popped, the bigger the tear would become.

Recovery

What I did. As I said, I saw a Chiropractor, who not only worked on my back and posture, he also used electrical acupuncture to get rid of my trigger points (6 months of weekly consultations). He also had me doing deep breathing exercises to get my chest used to being expanded. He said ideally I would be breathing deeply all of the time but whenever I could remember to would do.

My Chiropractor also advised me to go Running/ jogging to help my deep breathing but I have always been running 4 times a week even before the problem occured.

I also have weekly head, neck and back Deep Tissue Massages. These were ongoing together with the chiropractor and Yoga. They keep the knots under control. The masseuse has advised that along with the knots and scar tissue in my back muscles, I had a big cause of pain in my hips (where the back muscles start).

I have also been doing Yoga to help with strengthening my hips and back, as well as correcting my posture.

Lastly I upped my exercise regime to include as many Press Ups as I can fit into my day. The press ups have been strengthening my chest and shoulders as well as helping my pectorals protect against future tears when I go deep by making my press ups go as close to the ground as I possibly can, very slowly.

All in all it has been a long road but I feel in much better shape than I did 6 months ago. If you cannot afford the chiropractor, massage or yoga my advise would be to look up correct posture and change your posture. Go running or jogging for at least an hour, 3-4 times a week. Also stretch out your chest regularly by doing press ups and deep breathing.

For deep breathing inhale to a count of 2 seconds, hold for 2, exhale for 2. Then do the same for 4, then 6 and then 8. No problem if you cannot do 6 or 8 right away. Just work up to it. After a couple of weeks I found my standard breathing went from 1.5 seconds per inhalation to 6-8 seconds. That is standard, unconscious breathing. Aim for doing the deep breathing whenever you can, imagine 100 times a day, sitting at your desk, driving, watching tv, whenever you can remember to do it. A big key is to breathe slowly. Don't huff and puff fast and violently. That will only worsen the problem. Stay Slow and relaxed.

If I had to advise one thing over the others for those of you that can afford just one specialist, it would be the chiropractor.

As I am not a doctor, I am a boxer, I cannot say that what caused my sternum to 'pop' is what is causing yours to. That is why I advise seeing a professional. But if you really can't afford it, (in my opinion, health is the number one priority when it comes to money) try correcting your posture, deep breathing exercises, press ups, and stretching out your chest whenever you can. My recovery took over 6 months, so if you don't see a medical professional yours will take a lot longer. If the problem stays the same or gets worse see your doctor or a chiropractor immediately. Pain does not repair itself or get better on its own.

Good luck

I'm 21 now but when i was a 13 years old i in a jujitsu fight when the opponent kicked me in the chest. I felt a pop and was winded pretty badly. After the fight my chest hurt for about 2-3 weeks cracking when i moved, breathed and sneezed. As the time went by i got used to the popping and the pain got gradually less and less, now i occasionally find it feels uncomfortable and abit achey after i have popped it but most the time it just makes a loud pop. I'm a bit concerned about the effects it may have on my chest at a later age.  if anyone has a sure way to stop the popping, I would love to kow. 

Have the same problem and got it the same way by doing chest flys. After going to the docs what did they tell you.

this is exactly whats going on with me. weird!!

Well it seems like this is a very common injury. I only get worried when the pain gets intolerable and i can't pop my sternum but the sneezes REALLY help. It can't be my poster or weak back because my back is the strongest part of my body right now(i work out every day) and i know i used to slightly bounce the bar off my chest when bench pressing(i stopped doing) but no matter what it will not heal. It feels the best 2-5 days after my chest day but as chest day comes around again the pain becomes unbearable. Honestly the pain subsides quite a bit after i work chest and it doesnt hurt after the first set but it is really annoying. I can push down on a certain part of my sternum with 2 fingers and recreate the pain i feel if i stretch to far or when its just simply hurting for no reason but its been 2 years since this started. Ive even gone a few months in that period of time without working out. Wish i could give some sort of tip or help but all i do is suck it up and keep on moving. I

***this post is edited by moderator *** *** private phone numbers  not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use

Hi guys I have had this problem for a year now. I am 2r years old. Have had back and sternum x-Rays and they have come back as normal. The chiropractor is working on my posture and tells me that sitting up straight is an absolute must. Will have to see how it goes from here

I have had this pain for about 6 months. I think I was working out and it happened shortly after. Don't recall a popping while I was working out, but started hurting shortly after. When I press on my upper sternum, it is very tender and hurts. That never goes away. My sternum pops when I sneeze always. It's just very annoying and I have gone to the doctor and they said something about costochondritis, but all they were going to do was send me to a pain doctor for like cortisone shots in my chest? I have had X-rays and it showed nothing. I am really wanting this to be resolved i just have no clue about how to resolve it. Any suggestions or certain doctors, Pulmonary Doctor ?? Thanks for the insight!

It sounds like a lot of you have not seen a doctor about your issues. I highly recommend you do. You will be much happier with less uncertainty as to the treatment of your issues, even if there is nothing that can be done. They will probably start you off on some NSAIDs, which didn't accomplish anything for me, and then eventually they'll refer you to an orthopedic specialist. I'd probably skip directly to the specialist if I were you because the anti-inflammatory regimen was not effective, at least in my case.

My symptoms:
* pain, level around 3/10, and only under certain activities, typically those in which I pull my arms up and back
* usually some popping coming from the sternum area when I sneeze, often with some acute pain

I'm a recreational weight-lifter, and the following exercises I find to be particularly pain-inducing:
* squat
* lat pull-down
* military press
The common element here is that the arms go up and back for these exercises.

I recommend that if you go to a doctor (and you should), you should be prepared to communicate your issues as effectively as possible. I highly recommend you experiment on yourself and try to locate as accurately as possible where the pain comes from. Look up a drawing of the sternum and its joints and draw it and show where you feel the pain. You should probably even keep a diary of your issues and note what kinds of activities and observations you have in regards to your issues. Depending where the issues are, doctors may be able to do something. My issues were around my left 2nd sternocostal joint which is located right between the manubrium and gladiolus bones of the sternum. My doctor says if my issues were at the sternoclavicular joint (junction of manubrium and clavicle), then perhaps a cortisone shot or a PRP shot could be performed. However, since my issues were located lower, those kinds of shots were deemed entirely too risky because of all the important blood vessels and organs and such there. So in my case, I was just prescribed rest...

The underlying cause and issue was probably that stresses in the aforementioned weight-lifting exercises caused a minor slip of the bones in that sternocostal joint (the initial pop to begin all pops), which caused some micro-tears in the tissue surrounding that joint. As a result of this damage, the joint has more flexibility than it should and thus bone touches tissue it normally shouldn't and causes some pain. Then there is probably some inflammation at the joint that exacerbates the pain. I think this is likely to be an injury that takes a while to heal because it is difficult to rest these joints since they get used so much. You probably just need to evaluate all of your activities including posture and sleeping and adjust accordingly to give the joint time to heal. It will require some patience. But I'm not a doctor! Go see one.

I found this post very compelling, this is exactly how this unusual pain began for me. i was doing fairly heavy dumbbell presses, nothing i hadnt done before but a fair amount of load. nothing happened at the gym, but that night when i went to turn off the lamp next to my bed i rotated my right arm across my body and felt this unreal pain in my sternum. ever since that night if i stretch my chest too much or dont warm up my chest fairly extensively prior to a workout it will cause very painful discomfort in my sternum for days following the lift. also, sneezing causes it to pop every time and it hurts a bit, but then aches afterward. ive spoken to several doctors about it who all seem to shrug. ive taken months off of lifting in the past to attempt to let it heal but to no avail.

I've been feeling costochrondritis for a while. I also work at a computer on a desk. I would work out maybe too excessively and ride a bike excessively too. I think this all strained my sternum. It's been maybe two months since I felt it.

I definitely noticed more pain after nights of laying on my stomach or my side. I sleep with a big pillow and I haven't tried this, but I guarantee your head posture while you sleep plays a role here. If it's propped up, it probably puts pressure on your sternum. And even worse, if you curl up on your side, that will give it more pressure. So I'm going to try sleeping on my back with a small pillow.

I have noticed improvement after taking inflammatories, indicating that it IS inflammation. And I am taking omega 3 fish oil tablets, although I don't know if that is helping.

The pain isn't really there when I breathe deeply anymore or even when I stretch my arms up. But sometimes it'll come back if I sneeze. So that gives me hope that it's slowly healing / fading away.

MY THEORY is that this ailment is in a place that is very difficult to repair because we constantly tweak it over and over. As soon as I took it easy, stopped working out, stopped raising my arms, stood while working at my computer, etc, I noticed huge improvements.

My question to all you: has anyone been healed from this or is this a problem that will perpetuate til we die, preventing us from ever working out? I notice a lot of people complaining about it popping up a month to a year ago, but only rare people are saying it's chronic. I'm assuming that a lot of the people here don't feel it and then move on with their lives, forgetting to update this message board.

I’m 20 years old and about 6-6’1. Went to the doctor about something else and they said I’m still growing. Also, my abs and chest are without a doubt stronger proportionatly than my back. So this makes sense and gives me hope.