Pulled rib muscle

[3lowdown]

Last week i pulled one of my rib muscles on my right side. I have been icing and taking ibuprofen but still playing tennis. Im assuming im going to need to take a couple days off of tennis but is there anything else i am not doing or a specific system to get me healthy again?

 

[LeeD]

Rest is the only cure.
If you keep moving and playing tennis, it might never heal or take multiple years, because you never let it heal....it can be easily reinjured or the supporting muscles can get injured.
Nominally 2-5 weeks of rest.

 

[circusmouse]

I had a strained rib muscle last year and it only took a week or two to heal. In addition to tennis, also avoid heavy cardio. I don't know how I initially caused the injury, but deep breathing from bike sprints up a big hill is what made it a real problem.

 

[3lowdown]

ugh, why does this stuff happen when im playing the best tennis of my life!!!! :evil:

 

[plum]

If it an internal oblique like I had injured; it took 6 weeks to heal fully. Playing was OK except on overheads and hard serve. Mine pulled while serving on a windy day. I must have reached into a bad position. Actually now that I remember I had played Ping Pong that day and and been jerking around too much!

 

[3lowdown]

well i got alot of pain when i hit both serves and overheads. I hope you werent trying to heal it quick, as it took 6 WEEKS!!!!

Question: Should i be stretching or applying heat ever? What kind of stretches?

 

[ser_renely]

I always say ice, but there are so many trains of thought.

I have done permanent damage and prologued so many injuries to continual playing, but I know I have such a hard time stopping till I have to be carried to the doctors. I recently pulled my groin, a small pull, but kept doing sports. It got so bad I could not walk, and 10 weeks later I am just not able to jog almost a mile. If I took 2 weeks off, I would be fine. I also may have permanent scar tissue damage.

 

[conditionZero]

If it an internal oblique like I had injured; it took 6 weeks to heal fully. Playing was OK except on overheads and hard serve. Mine pulled while serving on a windy day. I must have reached into a bad position. Actually now that I remember I had played Ping Pong that day and and been jerking around too much!

Are you saying that you were injured playing ping pong? You might want to keep that to yourself.

 

[gasquetfan]

i had the exact same thing a couple months ago..i just basically wrapped it..and hitting groundstrokes and volleys didnt seem to hurt so i just rallied alot.

 

[3lowdown]

i had the exact same thing a couple months ago..i just basically wrapped it..and hitting groundstrokes and volleys didnt seem to hurt so i just rallied alot.

yeah im still hitting just not doing the things that hurt it (serving/voleying/overhead). How long did it take for you to get over it, and what did you wrap it with?

 

[StringingIrvine]

i pulled a rib muscle pretty hard while i was surfing a few years back, i did a huge number because it took me about 3 months to recover, it hurt so bad i couldn't take full deep breaths because my chest expanding would hurt so bad.

I was getting to the end of a 3 hour sessions talking with my buds and a huge set rolls in, i'm facing out to sea, i grab my board jerk it around to start paddling and immediate pain, didn't catch the wave cause i was too busy crying =p (not really but it hurt). I'd recommend taking a break until it fully heals, might be hard to do now, but you wouldn't want to risk injuring it more.

 

[ser_renely]

maybe a compression shirt would help?

 

[3lowdown]

yeah ive heard of those ill try and pick one up. Well it hasnt healed up yet (obviously) so im going to have to withdraw from my tournament this weekend now.