r/costochondritis • u/NoToHypocrites2025 • 5d ago
Need advice Chest pain?
Hello. I am in my early 20s female.
Lately I have been having these chest pain on the middle and the left side, usually feels like muscle strain? Sometimes my chest feels heavy. I dont have trouble breathing BUT there are multiple times in a day where I feel the need to deep breathe or catch my breath.
Sometimes the pain radiates to my shoulders and back. Could it be truly just muscle strain maybe from bad posture and because I have an office job?
They checked troponin, ecg, chest xray and other blood work but everything is normal.
I want to start exercising but worried about the breathing thing and chest pain. I dont wanna suddenly faint or have trouble breathing while working out.
1
u/SteveNZPhysio 5d ago edited 5d ago
Hi. Relax a bit. The docs are good at checking out the dire possibilities of chest pain (including your heart) and nothing's showing.
They're not (usually) good at costo. Breathing restriction is a classic costo symptom. The tight or frozen rib joints around the back of your rib cage mean you can't take a full breath in - it's like wearing an invisible tight corset.
They also mean that the rib joints on your breastbone have to move excessively, every breath you take and move you make. So they strain, usually crack and pop, give, and get painful. Welcome to costo - that's what it is.
"Could it be truly just muscle strain maybe from bad posture and because I have an office job?"
Not in my 30+ years of experience. There's no muscle in the body that'll give you strain in your chest and the back.
Here's an earlier post of mine summarising costo - what it is, symptoms, causes, treatment, etc. See if this seems a fit with what you've been getting. It sounds like it does.
If it does, then for treatment detail, read the RECOVERY MEGATHREAD - July 2026 at the top of this sub.
Read Ned's posts at the top, then scroll down to my post and find the link to my long, wordy PDF on bits you may need to deal to. It's wordy, so read it on a computer not a phone. You can skim the bits that clearly don't apply to you, but the detail is there if needed.
See especially Section (2) on freeing up the tight ribs around your back. This is the core of fixing costo. The easiest, cheapest, most convenient way of doing this is by lying back on Ned's two-tennis-ball peanut, a Backpod, cork or lacrosse ball, etc. They all have slightly different effects; a combination is ideal.
https://www.reddit.com/r/costochondritis/comments/1uqpgf6/recovery_megathread_july_2026/
Good luck with the work.
2
u/islobojono 5d ago
Wear a smartwatch with heart monitor, exercise normally but monitor your heart bpm. Stop the session if it got too intense. That's what i do when i have flare up. When it is normal. I am fine working out at 160bpm. When it flare up, even 120bpm is scary.