hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and handsome Bear, and today we're gonna show you
stretches and exercises for costochondritis, which is the
inflammation of the cartilage between your ribs. so let's get started.
so the first thing that you want to do is some deep
breathing exercises. so with the deep breathing, this is not that diaphragmatic
breathing that sometimes we do in the videos. this is really to open up your
chest, so you're breathing up in your chest area, not down in your stomach. so you
really want to kind of open up that chest area to kind of stretch out those
spots in between the ribs that cartilage. this is causing that costochondritis.
so what you want to do is just take a deep breath and really try and
open up your chest while you do it. so so if you can see, you can kind of see that
my chest opens up and comes back down out. depending on how much pain you have,
this might be pretty uncomfortable, so you might not want to go as much
breathing in as you possibly can, but just go to that you feel just a little
bit of that you know a little bit of pain a little bit of tension in there.
hold it if you can for maybe two to three seconds and then and then release
it. so you're just going to come in and then let it out. so again that's just
kind of opening up and closing that chest just to stretch out that cartilage
in between a little bit to help get that irritation that inflammation out of
there. so I would just start off with maybe
three to five of these. you don't want to go overboard because it's already
inflamed, so you don't want to irritate it. so the more you breathe in doesn't
make it better, you want this to be comfortable. so then the next one you can
add on to the deep breathing by kind of bringing your hands up behind your head.
and as you can see what this kind of does is this opens up my chest and then
itself so you it kind of expands it as I bring up my hands this way. so once I do
that, then I'm going to do that deep breathing again. so just kind of holding
it this way. some people kind of like to pull their
elbows back to open up the chest even more. I would say the first couple times
you do it, don't do that because you want to see how much if you're gonna have any
pain. how much pain you have while you're doing it. so just kind of hands behind
head. nice deep breath and then let it out. so you can see as I breathe that in,
my elbows did go back a little bit and so you can enhance that a little bit if
the first couple feel okay. then you can bring those elbows back more while you
breathe in. so you're gonna go in and then come back out, so just that nice
breathing in and breathing out. and that just again kind of helps open up that
chest a little bit. so the next thing we're gonna do is just kind of lie down
and do a trunk rotation motion, and then use our arms a little bit to help open
up that chest. so with the trunk rotation, if you've seen some of my videos you can
see is it's a pretty easy thing. you're gonna prop up your knees and you're
gonna keep them together. so while you keep them together, you're just gonna
rotate. it's just like it sounds you're rotating that trunk side to side, but
with this one you want to kind of add in your arms to help open up the chest
while you do it. so you can do it two different ways. the first one you can
just kind of have your arms out to the side and that kind of helps open up that
chest. and then just drop your legs so I'm feeling it a lot on the top here on
the on the side of my rib. so it's opening up that rib cage stretching out
that cartilage in between just to get that inflammation out of there. now with
this one you again you probably want to start off with not a full thirty second
stretch maybe ten to fifteen seconds and then come back up. and then stretch the
other side. so then now I'm stretching the top on this side and this is
actually a really nice stretch even though I don't have costochondritis I
feel a nice stretch in there especially my arms out to the side. you can also
kind of bring your arms up above your head this way and then go over and so
it's a slightly different stretch but it's still the same concept where I'm
feeling that nice stretch through here. so you can try either way or you can do
both and just see which one gives you the best stretch. and one might be a
better stretch than the other. so again maybe just start off with 10 to 15
seconds three times on each side. try and work your way up to 30 seconds doing
three on each side. so then after that if you want to do some
strengthening to kind of help get that area a little bit stronger, usually if
the the ribs up front are inflamed here you want to kind of get that thoracic
area in the back strengthened. because sometimes if it's weak then you kind of
come forward like this and that can cause that inflammation in the rib cage
there. so doing something like you might have seen my Is Ts Ys and I just
doing the t's and the Y's. really kind of help get that thoracic area some
strengthening in there. so what you want to do is roll over onto your stomach.
I like usually having a pillow just to place my forehead on. you don't have to
you can just have your head all the way down. I just usually feel like I can
breathe a little bit easier when I do this. so just kind of placing my forehead
right here so my nose isn't just getting forced into the floor, and then so for
the t's your arms are going to be completely out to the side and your
thumbs are going to be up. so you can see my thumbs up and you're just going to
come up this way trying to squeeze those shoulder blades together and then coming
back down. so just nice and slow and controlled. you don't really have to hold
it if you don't want to, you can hold it for maybe like two to three seconds if
you want to and then come back down. and you should also feel your chest opening
up when you're doing this because as I bring my arms back, I'm opening up that
chest. so maybe just start off with about ten. you can maybe try two sets of ten
and then slowly work your way up from there, and then you can also go into the
Ys. so the Y's are the arms are out in front of you but slightly at an angle. so
if somebody was looking up over you it would look like a Y. so now you're just
going to come up this way with your thumbs up and then bring them, you can
see they're not going very high. it doesn't have to go very high, but you
really just want to get that nice kind of squeeze at the end. and then slowly
coming back down. so again just start off with ten, two
sets of ten a couple times a day. and then you can kind of slowly work your
way up from there. that's pretty easy. so then the next one is opening up the
chest again so doing a PEC stretch or this pectoralis muscles because up in
here again if though tight and that's pulling everything
together. that inflammation is just going to hang out in that rib cage. so you can
stretch out your pecs a bunch of different ways, I have a video for that
if you want to check that out, but one of the ones I really like because you can
just really completely relax is using a foam roller. if you happen to have one if
you don't have a foam roller maybe if you have a yoga mat you can roll up the
yoga mat and use it like a foam roller. or you can even use a big beach towel to
do it because a lot of times if you've got that costochondritis it's a
irritation in there. you don't really need a huge roll. so just a rolled-up
beach towel might be enough for you. and then you're just gonna have it
vertically and you're gonna lie down on it. so it's going to just kind of be
along your spine. now this was a shorter one. some people have longer ones so make
sure and support your head. so if you if it's not long enough to have your head
placed on it, maybe bring your pillow in so you can just kind of support that
head a little bit, and then you're just going to come bring your arms up to
start off with and then bend your elbows and come down. your elbows don't have to
touch the floor like mine are, but you just go until you feel a really good
stretch. and you should feel that stretch right in that PEC area right there and
so this one's going to be a full 30 second stretch. again if you feel like
you can't hold it for 30 seconds is probably too much of a stretch and you
might want to even try this without the foam roller. if that's too much you can
also change your arm position. so you can straighten out your elbows a little bit
and come down and you'll get just a slightly different stretch in those pecs.
and so you can kind of move around a little bit and see which one's the best
stretch for you. but again holding that for 30 seconds and doing that 3 times. if
you don't have a foam roller you can also go into a doorway put your hands in
the doorway lean forward go in a corner or you can use like a stick or something.
this is just a PVC pipe. if you have maybe a cane or a broomstick you can
just take your hand and then put it out and push back that way. so again I'm
getting that PEC stretch just by pushing out this way and that's that's a pretty
good stretch in there. and then again you can kind of change
the position. so if I want to go up just a little bit, I'm still stretching those
PEC muscles I'm getting a really good stretch but just in a slightly different
way. so again holding that stretch for 30 seconds, but then make sure you're
switching sides because usually with the costochondritis you're gonna feel
it on both sides. sometimes people just feel it on one side, but usually it's
both sides. so again 30 seconds three times on each side.
getting that nice stretch. so then another one is just doing scapular
squeezes. that I like this because you can do it anywhere, especially if you
have a desk job. you don't have to get down on the floor or you know you don't
have to have any equipment for it. so scapular squeezes or shoulder squeezes
is just like it sounds. you're just kind of squeezing everything back. the key is
that you want to use those muscles in your back, those rhomboid muscles, those
little trap muscles, to squeeze the muscles back. so you're not just bringing
your elbows back even though that will help open up your chest, you're squeezing
those muscles. imagine that somebody's hand is right on your spine and you're
trying to squish their hands with your shoulder blades. so I'm going to show you
it. okay you want to also keep your shoulders down. so it's not coming up
like this and going back, it's really keeping them down and squeezing back. I
like to use my elbows to help kind of guide the shoulder blades back, but if
you feel like you're not really squeezing and you're just taking the
shoulder blades back with your elbow, you can squeeze back without using your
elbows as well. but sometimes it's just a little bit harder if you haven't done
these before. so little squeeze back maybe hold it three to five seconds and
then do five to ten of those. and you can do those several times throughout the
day. so then the last one is after you're kind of getting everything stretched out
doing the scapular squeezes, then you can use a resistive band to do it kind of a
row exercise. so with the rows if you use a resistive band, make sure you're
starting off with the lightest one. this is not the lightest one this is theraband.
resistive bands different colors mean different things, so make sure
you're starting off with the lightest one because again without inflammation
you don't want to cause more inflammation. so start off with a little
bit if it feels good the next day, you can add a little bit more. so just take
the band, you can do this sitting in a chair
you don't have to be on the floor or you can even do it in your bed, but you're
just going to wrap the band around your feet. you can also wrap it in a door
as well if you want to do it standing. I just like it because you have your feet
wherever you go. so you can wrap it around your feet and it's the same thing
as that scapular squeeze, but now you're using the band. you want your thumbs to
be in an upward position. you want your elbows to stay pretty close to your side.
and again you want to keep those shoulders down. so it's not coming up
like this, but it's really coming back and squeezing. I also have a lot of
people sometimes the first time they do it they're like you know almost like
you're really rowing a boat, but it's not quite like that.
it's coming back squeezing where my back staying in one spot, but I'm getting that
nice squeeze and then I'm coming back forward. but it's also some people will
do this, but that's not what it is. it's not moving at your elbows bringing your
hands up, it's pulling them back, squeezing those shoulder blades and then
coming back in. so again start off with the lightest resistive band, ten reps to
says a couple times a day. again if that feels pretty good, you can increase the
reps. if you get to twenty to twenty-five and it's easy then you can increase your
resisted band. so those were your stretches and exercises for
costochondritis. if you'd like to help support my channel, make sure and click
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remember, be safe right Bear? have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.