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dcolum23

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  1. Hello All, I read this entire thread and appreciate that you all were so descriptive with your symptoms and issues. I joined this site so I could contribute my personal experience: I started playing golf last year at 39. I would go to the range 3 or 4 times a weeks, took lessons and my volume never decreased. I was being taught to "rotate" as much as possible, which was a huge stretch in the back and ribs. I would spend an hour just swinging out of my shoes and rotating as much as possible, trying to get my trail shoulder ahead of the body (see attached photo of Tiger's sequence). Then, one day during practice I felt a sharp pain in my left pec. At first I thought I tore my pec, certainly strained the muscle. But as days went by in excruciating pain over my heart, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't breathe. I honestly thought I was having a heart attack, so I went to the hospital to get everything checked out. There were no issues with my heart, but the doctor confirmed my suspicions that I had either strained or fractured my ribs. It turned out that I had developed intercostal strain issues, but also costochondritis (see attached photo of the chest / ribs / cartilage). This was immensely painful and extremely uncomfortable. Breathing, sneezing, coughing and sleeping were all difficult. A sneeze would send me to my knees in pain. The thing about a lot of rib pain and irritation is that it often stems from the back, where the ribs wrap around and connect. If your back is tight, your ribs can't move as they should and you will eventually get irritation and inflammation at the front of your ribs, and in my case an irritation of the cartilage. The only real solution is rest. Eventually after a few weeks, I went to see a massage therapist and she was able to isolate several spots along my spine that were tender and work on some pressure point releases. That helped a ton. What was wild was that as she worked down the left side of my spine, the pain would radiate up and into my shoulder. She also dug in between my ribs along my left side and my left pec. It was uncomfortable but also a relief. A few sessions with her decreased my overall pain and increased my mobility. I also bought the Back Pod, which is essentially a large pill bug shaped device that you lay directly on with your spine for 30-60 seconds and I found that my back and ribs would crack and pop and give even more relief. But it's not at all easy to do ... it's very uncomfortable, you just have to allow your body to settle down on it hold until your muscles release. I did this twice a day for weeks, and still do it. After 6 weeks of this routine I finally got back to swinging full and have a few range sessions and rounds, while still feeling somewhat weak in the intercostal area. Then ... a few days ago, my right lat and side (feels like obliques, but it's likely a combination of lats and ribs) exploded during a range session. I think this is due to an imbalanced caused by so much attention to the left side of my body. I'm currently in pain again, but on the right side. Sleeping sucks, but I am honestly glad it's not costochondritis again, because that was horrible. The moral of this story is: stretch properly, strength train, do mobility. And don't push yourself unless you want to extend the recovery time period.
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