Anterior inferior rib pain doing deadlifts

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
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Howdy,

I’m not quite sure what to do with this injury. I know no one can diagnose what happened, but any guesses as to what happened and also how to proceed would be appreciated!

I was doing conventional deadlifts (with a lifting belt), and really focusing on bracing with the stomach b/c I had a mild twinge of L low back pain. While doing some back off sets, I felt a sharp pain at my R anterior inferior ribs (costal margin). It’s tender to the touch, and can hurt with abdominal bracing/posterior pelvic tilt. I was able to still do the rest of the back off sets of deadlifts (405x3 @6-7 RPE). Paused bench press was fine, but feel like if I tried to chin ups it would hurt. I’m thinking maybe an anterior or inferior oblique strain. I plan to continue exercising, and modifying my resistance/reps/sets as to not make the pain worse. Any other ideas?

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Sorry to hear about this fluke event.

“I plan to continue exercising, and modifying my resistance/reps/sets as to not make the pain worse. Any other ideas?”

This sounds like the right course of action; I would expect this to improve on its own with activity modification based on your tolerance, and a bit of time.

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Thank you, Dr. Baraki for the quick response! I think I just needed someone to keep me from spinning into the “what if” spiral.