Arm and chest problems

[peavalu]

Heya doc!

I've got some irritating thingies going on with my right arm. The lower part om my biceps hurts when I'm boxing and when I'm sitting by the computer. It all started about a month ago when I was to do some weightlifting, and warmed up a little by boxing in the air. The other thing is that my elbow is clicking each time I move the arm in a certain way (kind of irritating when I practice taiji and I'm really concentrated). It's been like that for quite a long time. Also have this thing going on with my chest - it hurts (not very much, but it still hurts) in several places when I'm out running, and the pain got almost unbearable once as I tried some kind of Indian active meditation thing where you were supposed to jump a lot. I think it started after another weightlifting session after doing a lot of flyes, an excercise for the inner part of the chest. Why is it and what should I do? I've not been doing any weightlifting since it all started.

One more thing - I broke my right collar bone a couple of years ago and after it healed I've had some problems with my right shoulder. It's like clicking and stuff and sometimes it hurts. You can see that it's a bit deformed when you compare it to the left collar bone. I guess there's nothing I can do about it?

[doc]

You're sneaking too many questions into one post. That's cheating, lol.

The arm thing. The pain that you describe could be a few things, including some damage to the elbow joint, but, as a guy who lifts every once in a great while, I'd put my money on the strained biceps tendon concept. Doing curls not only tears at the biceps, but also its tendon, which is where you pretty much describe. It's a fairly common injury with weightlifting, and it heals with time, if you give it a rest. Beware, that overuse of the biceps and its tendon with heavy curls, especially with improper warmup, can lead to biceps tendon rupture, which requires surgery to repair. If I were you, at this time, I'd take it easy with the training. Let it rest, let it heal.

Clicking noises around the elbow joint at your age usually signify tendons "snapping" over bony ridges during movement of the joint. It's generally nothing to worry about. Also, and I can't explain this, sometimes movement of a joint will cause compression of the synovial fluid within the joint (it doesn't "compress", it just is subject to increased pressure); expansion of that joint has some sort of an effect on that fluid (it's a physics thing) that can cause a cracking or popping noise. People that "crack" their knuckles are doing this very thing. Clicking noises around a joint, if not accompanied by pain, generally should not be causing you to lose too much sleep.

Chest pain. Regardless of your age, any person complaining of chest pain needs to be properly evaluated for heart disease. That said and out of the way, other causes are costochondritis (inflammation of the costochondral cartilage, between the ribs and the sternum, sometimes idiosyncratic, sometimes because of trauma, infection, etc), and muscle strain. Lifting weights can cause both; heavy bench pressing can not only cause damage to the insertion of the pectoral muscles, but can cause "separation" of the costochondral cartilage from either the sternum or the ribs. This can result in pain localized in the center of the chest. In fact, sometimes the pain can mimic that of a heart attack. The thing to do with this type of injury, is again, rest the offended part. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, such as Advil, if you're not allergic to any of the components, will help. Lay off the lifting and let it heal. Oh, and get a medical check up to make sure you're heart is ok.

Clavicle fractures usually heal as they lie. They generally never come out the way they started, but, they heal strongly, if not slightly deformed. The shoulder is a complicated region (I still have to talk about it in another post), any sort of deformity in the way the clavicle, or any other part of it, heals, can lead to muscles and tendons sliding over things that they weren't designed to slide over. Generally, if there is no pain associated with it, there shouldn't be much trouble with it. With time, sometimes bone remodels itself, and these clicking things might go away. Generally, again, things of this nature usually don't cause much trouble.

[peavalu]

I don't think it's some kind of heart disease causing my chest pain, since it's concentrated to the inner parts of my pectorals. And it's not that intense, really.