This happened in 2017.

I was driving back from Baltimore after an afternoon meeting.  It was 94 degrees out (Fahrenheit).  Lucky me, the drive put me straight into traffic for the entire trip back.  After driving for about an hour, I was crossing into Virginia from Maryland when my rental car was nearly side-swiped by a big white van.

Perhaps it was the heat.  Or maybe the almost being side-swiped.  Either way the stress seemed to be building.  And then it appeared.  That familiar chest pain.  Ten years ago I would have just submitted to the pain and began planning for a crappy rest of my day (maybe week).

First instinct was the same thing that most people with costochondritis jump to:  extend the chest out.  But I knew that was not want I wanted to do.  I’ve grown wiser over time, and this wasn’t 10 years prior.  So, I immediately launched into my rib cage relief exercises I had spent a decade teaching myself:

1)     1. I imagine my thorax (upper body) as an exercise ball.   In that way, it expands in all directions.  So, I expand back through my spine and up through my neck…not just forward through my chest (for my particular situation I avoid almost any chest expansion).

2)     2.  Don’t chest breath.  Breath through the belly.  Again, expand out through my back and pay particular attention to pushing my lower back and middle back out as well as rolling my shoulders back and out.

3)     3.  If the pain has started, then inflammation has already begun to set it.  Ice helps.  So, does immediately doing what I know I should do.

a.      Eating anti-inflammatory foods

b.      Removing stressors

c.      Hydrate

d.      Getting rest and a good night’s sleep

e.      Getting some good exercise

4)     4.  Walk.  Avoid being sedentary.

The last few were, of course, not available options since I was behind the wheel.  Of course, I want to be clear that my system worked successfully.  It’s why I’ve been doing it for over a decade.  It’s nothing crazy.  Just counterintuitive movements towards thoracic stability.

Hopefully this helps you.  It has helped me to relieve what I once thought was a permanent and random condition.  Over the years, I’ve come to realize that costochondritis is neither random nor permanent.  I can control it and nowadays I can prevent it.  The key is to understand your body, understand your environment, and understand how to have a stable relationship between the two.