Hey everyone,
I’ve been dealing with what was diagnosed as costochondritis since December, and I wanted to share my experience in case it resonates with anyone-or to get some perspective from those further along.
Background:
I’m very active. I’ve run PRs in the half marathon and marathon, and training is a big part of my identity. Believe it or not, I ran my PRS with this condition-so I'm assuming it's only a minor case of costo...This all started pretty suddenly one morning in December, and I had a flare-up again in late February. Honestly, I had a horrible habit of cracking my sternum. Overtime, the urge to pop my sternum has subsided after working on my thoracic mobility-at least I believe this to be the caes. The pain has shifted to my left side.
What I’ve done so far:
- Saw an orthopedic (told 3–6 months recovery). 3 Month recovery will be exactly May 20, 2026. Honestly I think this will be longer considering I finally feel I'm targeting the route issue.
- Did physical therapy
- Improved posture and workstation setup
- Started using the Backpod about 3–4 weeks ago. For some reason, my sternum has felt much more aware and sharp ever since using the back pod...any thoughts on this?
- Adjusted my training (less aggressive, more controlled). I am following the orthos advice-I have not done any chest exercises since February of 2026. The only push exercise I am doing is strict dumbbell overhead press (50%) of my previous weight. I don't even do pull ups anymore-just lat pull downs. Very light weight. I keep reps in reserve for all exercises.
Current situation:
- I can run and bike with minimal to zero awareness. In this recovery period, I've only kept these sessions at an easy effort (previously I was doing hard speed sessions with little to no issue but transitioned to easy efforts in optimism that this sternum pain would subside).
- No pain at rest
- Symptoms are mostly:
- mild “awareness” or tugging in certain positions
- occasional discomfort with deep breaths, overhead movements, or bending
- some painless clicking/cracking in the chest (especially left side)
- During workouts, sometimes I feel it on the first rep or at deep stretch, but it often settles as I continue...
- After workouts, I usually feel fine again
What’s confusing me:
Some days I feel like I’m clearly improving. Other days (like today), I feel more aware during workouts or even on deep breaths, and it makes me question everything that I'm doing. It's like I'm walking on egg shells.
I also went down a bit of a Reddit rabbit hole and saw a lot of advice saying to stop all exercise completely, which honestly scared me. But my ortho and PT both said I could keep running and biking as tolerated. But is this the truth?!!!
Where I’m stuck mentally:
- I don’t know if I’m actually healing or just managing it
- I’m worried I’m “training through it” and slowing recovery
- I’ve considered taking months off entirely, but that feels extreme (and honestly tough mentally)
One thing I realized:
A lot of my corrective work (posture, Backpod, smarter training) only really started about a month ago. So maybe my “true recovery” timeline is shorter than I think.
Questions:
- Did anyone else have this phase where symptoms were inconsistent but overall function was good?
- Did you continue training, or did you fully stop?
- How long did the “awareness” minor discomfort and pain in certain positions phase last for you?
Appreciate any insight. This has been as much a mental challenge as a physical one.
Thanks 🙏