Causes of rib pain when running

Running is good for your health, and exercising every day can help improve your physical fitness. Some people lose weight by running, but they do not pay attention to exercising in moderation. Excessive exercise can cause rib pain when running. Maybe for some people it is caused by running, but for others it is not. So below is an introduction to the causes of rib pain when running and some things you should pay attention to when running.

Generally, healthy people who experience abdominal pain during long-distance running usually do so due to improper breathing. One is breathing too quickly. During long-distance running, the body's metabolism is enhanced and the oxygen demand increases. In order to breathe in more oxygen, your breathing not only needs to be faster, but also deeper.

Some people do not pay attention to deepening their breathing when running, but only speed up their breathing rate. This makes the respiratory contraction too frequent and over-tense, causing spasms in the respiratory muscles, stimulating the receptors in the respiratory muscles and causing pain. The main respiratory muscles in the human body are the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm.

When the intercostal muscles spasm, pain may occur on both sides of the chest. When the diaphragm spasms, pain occurs below the ribs. Another possibility is that when running long distances in cold weather, you breathe with your mouth wide open, causing the air you inhale to be too cold. When cold air is inhaled into the lungs, it stimulates the blood vessels in the lungs to constrict, thereby hindering blood circulation and causing chest pain and tightness. This kind of chest pain that occurs during long-distance running is not a disease, and it can be completely prevented and stopped.

The solution is:

(1) Pay attention to deepening your breathing, making it slow and deep. When chest pain occurs, adjust your breathing in time and exhale forcefully. This allows you to inhale a large amount of air to meet the needs of long-distance running, and it also relaxes your respiratory muscles and eliminates pain.

(2) Pay attention to your breathing rhythm, and coordinate your breathing rhythm with the rhythm of your running movements. Exhale after two steps, inhale after two steps (or exhale after three steps, inhale after three steps). This also makes it easier to breathe deeply and slowly.

(3) When running long distances in cold weather, do not breathe through your mouth wide open. Instead, breathe through your nose, or use both your mouth and nose (with your mouth slightly open and your teeth lightly clenched). In this way, the air enters through the nose and teeth, which can warm the cold air.