Recovering form an injured sternum.

About 6 weeks ago I stopped training as I had started getting a pain in my sternum which built up to a point where it was painful to do any form of training at all. It was my own fault for trying to do too much too soon and I've learnt a hard lesson because of it.

Now, after 6 weeks without training I felt as if the pain was almost completely gone, so I tried some basic static work after warming up today (60s plank, reverse plank, hollow and arch hold). I was able to get through them without pain but a few minutes after I had finished I could feel it again, not painful like before but just uncomfortable.

My question is, is there anything I can do to speed up the recovery process or get rid of this pain altogether other than just not training and waiting for it to heal? 6 weeks is a really long time for me to go without training and I am desperate to get back into it.

Not training is the worst thing you can do.

Training too hard is the second worst thing you can do.

As long as there is no pain the next day, and your statics produce no increase in pain, you are doing an appropriate volume, but movement is what enhances healing.

For your sternum, you will want to do either assisted hollow body dips (band or machine assisted) or even attaching two bands to something or using a cable machine (preferably a freemotion, but it doesn't really matter too much) to progressively do higher rep training. I'm talking about sets that take a minimum of 50s and up to 2 minutes to complete. You have to have primarily lighter training right now, but the tissue NEEDS the mechanical stress of exercise to heal properly.

You should understand that you have a ~6 month road to being able to train the way you probably want to, and even then you need to just stay on the path that I am suggesting you start.

2-3 sets to failure, good nutrition, and light stretching are what you need. I will suggest that for your chest you move somewhat slowly, 3-4s up and down.

While doing that for your chest you should focus on core (hollow hold, curl ups as per BtGB, arch hold), pulling (foot supported rows to failure with good form for horizontal, and pull up/chin up work as well for vertical), wall handstand, and shoulder external rotation work with 30-60s to failure.

Do 2-3 sets of these 3x per week.

If push ups don't bother you do them too, but be careful and move slowly. Same tempo for everything right now, with no explosive pulls or presses. Constant tension is your goal, don't relax for a split second between reps. It will not be comfortable, but that will be what makes you stronger and helps you heal. Rest times should be 1-3 minutes, whatever feels right.

I finally helped me getting rid of my sternum strain was actually ring push-ups controlled where i squeeze my chest together at the top of each repetition. Maybe it can be for some help when you get to the point you are able do ring push-ups again. Try it if you feel like it.

I really appreciate your replies guys. I've been following Joshua's advice quite closely and have now got to a stage where I'm able to perform a standard push up again without any pain, still a long way to go but I'm getting there. Thanks again for your help

Hawky said:

I really appreciate your replies guys. I've been following Joshua's advice quite closely and have now got to a stage where I'm able to perform a standard push up again without any pain, still a long way to go but I'm getting there. Thanks again for your help

Once those push ups have felt good for some reasonable volume, you should certainly try to transition slowly into some ring push ups.

My preferred method for this would be to literally do just one rep each workout the first week, and if everything is ok then do two reps the second week, and so on until you are doing 10 xr push ups in a row with no pain. At that point you should be ok adding in a second set with 3-4 reps, and then add 1-2 reps per week. When you've got 2 sets of 10 reps I'd go for three. From there it's really just BtGB as usual!

Keep up the good work!