- 34 yo male
- ~218 lb, 24% body fat (per globo-gym electronic measurement about 10 months ago)
- 38" waist
- Been strength training for ~3 years, 6 years in Army prior to that with all the associated running
Dating back at least into my teens, I’ve occasionally (2-3 times per year?) had a sharp chest pain in the center-right or my chest. No numbness or anything I’d associate with a heart attack. Activity that would elevate heart rate typically does not cause it to intensify, but coughing does (briefly).
This morning was the first time I’ve experienced it during a training session. I’d already completed paused DL’s and paused presses, and it seemed to come on during rows. It did seem to moderately intensify at the end of a set (hr ~120bpm), which was the first time I’d noticed any change in pain intensity that I associated with heartrate (or possibly breathing rate?), and it’s now lasted longer than I can ever recall before.
Given my age, history of the issue, and that I’ve been training as long as I have, is this cause for immediate concern? My worry is that by the time I get in to see a doc, the symptom will be gone, they’ll run a bunch of lab tests and find nothing wrong, and I’ll have nothing to show for it but the bill.
May or may not be relevant: ~8 months ago I experienced this chest pain in the evening, and it seemed to last several hours (typically only lasted 30 minutes or so). But by the next morning it was gone and I warmed up and matched a previous squat PR with no chest pain whatsoever.
~4 months ago my wife was massaging a stiff neck when I passed out. Went in to Urgent Care, and the doc ultimately determined that it was a combination of a low resting heartrate (38bpm), and that my wife happened to have had hit my vagel nerve. It had been quite a while since I’d had the chest pain at this point, so it didn’t even cross my mind to mention to the doc.
Thank you!