How I Trained with Cracked Ribs

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<< Hey Bill, We've got another friend - at the top of his training, wouldn't you know it? - cracked ribs.... If you get a chance, will you write a note about your experience, how long in pain, how long out of the gym, what you were able to do when you got back, and how long to full on back?>>

Well first, let's hope there are no "future rib crackers." It's a truly annoying injury that seems to poke its little head into your life at the worst times: training, sleeping, walking, playing, sitting, standing, ... You get the idea. If you move, it hurts. Simple. Sometimes even when you don't move - like when you are lying on it in bed trying to sleep. As far as the pain goes, at the start it's like a knife in the ribcage. *Very* sharp pain. The odd thing is that the pain tends to move or gravitate along the ribcage as it heals. Almost like the broken tissue is slowly being carried out and away from the injury. For me, because I've been through it before more times than I care to recollect, I knew it would last about 6-8 weeks until it was completely healed.

How long did I stay away from the gym? I missed two workouts. Thereafter, what I did do was cut back on upper body work. Taking a cue from Dave's excellent shoulder re-hab articles, I stayed light for a while. What I consider light, anyway. Essentially a maintenance routine. I played it very much by instinct, allowing the pain level to tell me where to stop.

We each have our own level of tolerance, and mine is quite high, but when it felt like I was possible doing more damage to the rib, I stopped. At the time of the injury, I was very much on an up curve as far as strength, but that had to be set aside for a while. The image of Dave off by himself doing shoulder work with 5 lb dumbbells as he was coming back from his shoulder injury helped me greatly.

Around 4 weeks, although the pain was still there, it was far less significant. More of an annoyance. At that point, I picked up the pace (as well as the weights) in the gym. I believe very strongly that by continuing to workout through it, not only did I help it heal faster, but was able to more quickly resume my training at a level where it would otherwise have been anyway. In the end, not that much of a loss. But not something I ever want to repeat, either.

Bill

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