I am currently doing the Beginner program, and just started Week 8 of the template, however I am in week 12 overall of the program. This program has been amazing thus far, and delivered outstanding results. Two weeks ago when doing chest supported rows I had a really sharp pain on the right side of my ribs, they remained tender for the next week but I had no issues in running the program, until I got to the same workout on the following week. Thinking I would alter the movement to ensure I didn’t cause further damage I switched to one arm rows and subsequently made the injury much worst and have been in various levels of discomfort ever since. I was still able to train the rest of the last week, and pulled my heavy deadlifts with very little discomfort on Saturday.
Yesterday I started week 8, and was able to squat with no issues, carry out RDL with no issues. But incline bench press was painful during the un-racking of the bar from the bench, but the lift was not very painful during the workout. However the hours after the workout were very uncomfortable with high pain in the affected area. This morning I went to the doctor and he thinks I have a muscle strain in the rib area and gave me the usual rest up, no strenuous activity prescription, which I need to find a work around for.
The affected area seems to be reacting negatively to the bench press, incline bench press, and any type of pull like one arm row, lat pulldown and such. So my question is what do I do with my training. Do I keep running the program, and remove the chest presses and supplement with something else, or do I stop the program and run a temporary program to focus on resting the rib area but keeping my general conditioning in place while it recovers. I’m really at a lost on this, and am super bummed out as every week I’ve been just getting stronger on this program with great gains. Any guidance would be truly appreciated.
Darrell