Muscle tightness in chest

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EasygoinGuy - 20 Oct 2004 00:56 GMT

My Asthma doctor recently told me tightness in my chest when I exert myself is
being caused by inflamation of the Costal muscle in the center of my chest. (he
called it Costal chondritis) Albuteriol before exercise does not prevent this
tightness, and in fact the tighness lasts for hours sometimes after I exercise.

He stated when I exert myself (since I do have exercise induced Asthma), this
muscle gets fatigued and tightens making it feel like my lungs are closing more
than they really are, when in fact it is the muscle tightening making it feel
like my airways are closing. (btw, stress test says heart is fine.)

Question is, does anyone know of any exercises I can do to strenghen this
muscle?

thank you in advance for any help on this...

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PENMART01 - 20 Oct 2004 01:13 GMT

>(EasygoinGuy)
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>Question is, does anyone know of any exercises I can do to strenghen this
>muscle?

Your intercostal muscles don't need strenghtening, they're not weak, obviously.
Your doctor should have prescribed a muscle relaxer.

---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
````````````

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00doc - 20 Oct 2004 01:57 GMT

> Question is, does anyone know of any exercises I can do to
> strenghen
> this muscle?

Once again Sheldon proves that he can be killfiled with no
risk of missing anything worthwhile.

I think you misunderstood his explanation. Costochondritis
refers to inflammation of the cartilage that connects the
ribs to the sternum (breast bone) . It is not a muscle so
there is nothing you can do to strengthen it and muscle
relaxers will have no effect. It is common in young adults
and seems to be more common in people with asthma and COPD.
Nobody is completely sure of the cause but it probably has
something to do with irritation from the muscles having to
pull up on the rib cage more forcefully in order to breath
in poorly controlled asthmatics.

The treatment is mostly anti-inflammatories like
Motrin/Advil/Aleve. It generally does not lead to any long
term problems. It should pass.

Signature

00doc

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PENMART01 - 20 Oct 2004 02:25 GMT

>> Question is, does anyone know of any exercises I can do to
>> strenghen
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
>I think you misunderstood his explanation.

You have no intercostal musculature, obviously it all migrated to that dried
lychee you call your cranium... smarmy pinhead.

---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
````````````

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Tim Hunter - 20 Oct 2004 05:25 GMT

> You have no intercostal musculature, obviously it all migrated to that
> dried
> lychee you call your cranium... smarmy pinhead.

Why the ugliness? Don't we have enough of that while we commute?

Tim

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Steve Freides - 25 Oct 2004 02:19 GMT

> My Asthma doctor recently told me tightness in my chest when I exert
> myself is
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> this
> muscle?

Not a direct answer to your question, but Serevent make be worth trying
in your case.

-S-

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