Pulled chest muscle? (Still hurts after a few months!?)

[tricky]

I suffered a similar injury last thusday playing football (soccer for those of you in the USA). A heavy tackle led me to take the weight of my fall (and I'm a big guy, so it was a lot of weight) on the left side of my ribcage. There was a crushing/tearing sound/sensation and I have pain around my left breast. I've broken ribs before, and this doesn't feel as severe as that, so I suspect soft tissue damage. The unfortunate part of the timing was that I had purchased a new set of clubs with stiffer shafts the day before - these subsequently arrived. I'm swinging slower as a result of the injury, and have lost significant distance. Making a proper swing propels the little white stone well, but hurts me. I'm hoping its a question of recovery and rehabilitation that will allow me to swing properly and justify the new stiff shafted clubs. Having said that, the clubs are allowing me better control (although reduced distance) and I put up better numbers in the one round I tried them than i have recently.

In my mind its like any aspect of golf. If you know your current game, you can play to it. Don't make a full swing, take more club, look for control rather than forcing it.

Hopefully you all, and I, will return to full health and a full swing soon.

[johnny_14424]

this type of strain is the worst! it's going on two weeks since I been able to swing a club.

[Floger]

I pulled the intercostal muscles years ago doing dips at the gym. It nagged me for years, so bad at times it felt like a heart attack since mine was where the ribs attach to the sternum. I had steroid injections in my sternum area and it helped a ton. I still get flare ups if I play too much in one day or tweak it hitting out of rough or a severe chunk where the grass yanks everything outta place.

[PingGKEN]

Ahhh! Funny to see my post brought back to life. I guess I can take this opportunity to update my status. I basically had to deal with the pain for a while and it healed itself. Took a good 4 or 5 months.

[acegolfer]

I think most golfers have experience muscle pain at least once.

My question is are these symptoms due to bad swing technique or just an effect of playing golf?

As you get better with golf, do these symptoms occur less or more?

[PingGKEN]

I'm pretty sure I pulled my chest muscle from hitting fat shot after fat shot after fat shot at the range. So, I would say that my injury came as a result of bad swing technique. Lol

[johnny_14424]

I actually can't remember if my strain was on a bad shot or a good shot, most likely a bad shot! On friday, my PCP percribed me with 600mg Ibuprofen and Vicodin. I been using a heating pad during bedtime. Anyway, today is actually the first day that I have noticed an improvement. I am able to breath deeply/sneeze/cough without as much pain. I have wider range of motion.

Tomorrow will be two weeks since the injury. I hope its not much longer that I can get back on the course. PingGKEN i think can relate, living in upstate NY it sucks to miss anytime because our season is so short!

[Stretch]

As already mentioned, these chest wall injuries take a long time to heal up. I pulled or tore an intercostal muscle (between the ribs) almost two months ago and was only recently able to start swinging a club again. Do still have some discomfort, but now it only hurts after the round and I'll just deal with that.

[Ranger]

I just started playing again after a 12 year pause. And right away I got this same injury. A sharp pain that is centered right below and to the left of my left nipple. I can't even cough it hurts so bad. Feels like broken ribs, but I know it's injured muscles from swinging the clubs. I am pretty sure it is because I was using mostly my arms to drive. There is no way I am going to stop playing for a few months. I am going to give it some rest for 10 days or so and then go to the range and concentrate on using my body instead of my arms to drive the ball. Hoping for the best, as this thing is killing me. How much Ibuprofen can I take without risking problems?  Help!!!  I got the golf jones's real bad!!

[PingGKEN]

OP here..(thread is pushing 3 years old!!)  I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't played golf at all this year.  I went out for the first time last week and chunked a few good ones out there.  After I was finished I had that same slight pain in the same spot!  After 3 years?  I am very active playing all sorts of volleyball, softball, etc.  It must be a muscle that is only triggered via a (bad) golf swing.

[threejack]

where in your chest is the pain?

[PingGKEN]

I am a righty swing and the pain is just south of my right nipple.

[Ranger]

This very painful injury may be a real blessing in disguise. My pain was under my left pectoral muscle and hurt like hell. When I coughed it felt like I injured it all over again Don't even mention sneezing. I did a lot of research into this injury. It's the muscle tissue between the ribs and takes a long time to heal because just about anything we do flexes those small tender muscles,...like breathing. I suspected I got the injury because of a faulty swing. I am trying to learn this game at age 58. Been a hacker in past years but now I am trying to learn the way it's suppose to be played, and I may have stumbled (injured myself) into a very good lesson. I am a big strong guy and naturally I was depending on arm strength to do the job in my swing. This is what caused my injury. My upper body strength actually was what hurt me, in my opinion. It hurt so bad that I had to take some time off until I felt like I could risk it again. Today I went back to the driving range realizing I could not repeat what I was doing before. I really concentrated this time on proper shoulder turn keeping my left arm close in to my rib area, and using a good hip turn to lead my shoulders through the swing with my arms following along instead of doing the leading. All the posts on this web site and videos were a great help in getting me to realize what I was doing wrong. But it took this injury to make me attempt to really put it in practice. I simply did't have a choice anymore. I had to change the way I used my arms. I have to say the results are great. I used to shank a lot of balls, and was way too short on distance before. (even though I thought I was really smacking it...ha ha..)  Anyway, this time using proper technique ( at least more proper than before) and not really using my arms at all,.. I not only did not shank anything, but was hitting the ball about 30 yards further. But the best part!! I did not re-injure my chest wall. Some tips that I kept in mind were the one about keeping a glove pinned under your left armpit throughout the swing, and one video where the instructor taught to think of slinging a heavy medicine ball out in front of you, with the idea that you would never use just your arms for this, but would utilize your whole body beginning with your hips and using the arms/hands only to grasp the ball slinging in out. There was a lot more I looked at the related to shoulder and hip turn etc,.. and it all helped tremendously. I think I am finally on the right track...(the hard way)

[BoyBlue]

The injury some of you guys are describing is pretty much what I have been experiencing over the last few weeks.

The funny thing is I don't remember feeling any pain on the course and it doesn't really hurt paying golf. The pain is a bit vague but seems to be below right nipple to the left and I can only feel it when I twist my body. Coughing is quite painful and sneezing is really bad.  I have convinced myself that I have something seriously wrong with me and going to see a heart specialist tomorrow (I don't thinks its my heart but doc referred me)

I have changed my swing this year and managed to change a ridiculous slice into a fairly decent straight hit. I  probably swing too much with my arms and I also try and hit the ball far too hard. I am just wondering if the change in my swing has caused this problem.

I am really glad I found this thread because I now think that the pain is more likely to be caused by the golf and not something more sinister.

Has anyone else had a similar experience where they are not getting any symptoms whilst on the course?