Concept II and chest pain, anyone?

[ven...@sis.bms.com]

Dear rowers,

I am hoping that someone can advise me.

I am a 40 year old male who weighs 155 pounds.

I have been working out at the fitness center at work for the past 10 years
and consider myself in above average shape for someone my age and occupation
(computer geek).

For many years I have used the Concept II indoor rowing machine as part of my
workout. However in the past six months or so I have turned more and more to
the Concept II as my primary workout, mixed in with one or two days of either
light jogging or heavy-bag work.

Typically, I would do three, sometimes four, days per week at 10,000 meters.
My usual time for that distance is between 40 and 41 minutes. I don't bother
with recording my times, but I do try to keep them under 41 minutes. On a
couple of occassions recently I had times under 40 minutes.

One day about six weeks ago I had severe pain in my upper left side the day
after my rowing workout. It felt like I had been punched really hard in the
left ribs. It took about three weeks for the pain to gradually subside. During
that time I was still able to row three or four times per week at my usual
distance and pace. Eventually the pain was all gone.

This past Monday, I rowed my usual 10,000, no problems. Then yesterday,
Tuesday, the minute I got on the machine I noticed a dull ache in the same
upper left side. As I continued through the workout it kept getting worse. I
was able to finish the 10,000 meters but it took me over 43 minutes. Now, 24
hours later, the pain is still with me.

My question, is it possible that I have been overdoing it with the rowing? Has
anyone else ever experienced similar symptoms with the Concept II?

At the website for the Birmingham (UK) Rowing Club,
(www.fiftysix.demon.co.uk/brc/ovid.htm#three) I found the following abstract
from an article in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In rowing, stress fractures are rare. However, the intensity of training has
increased in terms of more specific rowing movements throughout the year.
Simultaneously, new equipment has been developed resulting in faster rowing
over the racing distance with increased risk of injuries on bones, muscles and
ligaments. We report five cases of chest pain and one case of pain in the
shoulder in national elite rowers, diagnosed as stress fractures of the ribs
employing 99mTechnetium-MDP bone scan. In all cases, an increase or alteration
in physical activity in the weeks prior to the injury and an increase in
specific rowing movements with special emphasis on the new equipment, combined
with increased biomechanical stress applied to the thoratic skeleton in the
catch and the early part of the drive phase of the stroke, most probably
caused the injuries.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But, by no means to I consider myself an "elite rower" so how could the above
apply to me? I only use the Concept II model C, and my style and distance are
always the same.

Any helpful insights would be appreciated.

-- Robert

[jack]

Dear Robert,

Sounds like you have pulled your intercostal--does your chest or the sides
of your chest hurt when you breath deeply with your head turned to the left
or the right? Take some time off and bike or jog, then you might try to
build up your torso in an effort to strengthen the surrounding muscle tissue
and ligaments.

I am not a doctor, I play one on TV.

Best Regards,

Rich
wolf00...@gte.net

>I am a 40 year old male who weighs 155 pounds.
>
>

[edgar cove]

In article <717f1l$qj3$1...@ganglia.bms.com>, ven...@sis.bms.com writes
<snip>

>
>One day about six weeks ago I had severe pain in my upper left side the day
>after my rowing workout. It felt like I had been punched really hard in the

>left ribs. It took about three weeks for the pain to gradually subside. During
>that time I was still able to row three or four times per week at my usual
>distance and pace. Eventually the pain was all gone.
>
>This past Monday, I rowed my usual 10,000, no problems. Then yesterday,
>Tuesday, the minute I got on the machine I noticed a dull ache in the same
>upper left side. As I continued through the workout it kept getting worse. I
>was able to finish the 10,000 meters but it took me over 43 minutes. Now, 24
>hours later, the pain is still with me.
>
>My question, is it possible that I have been overdoing it with the rowing? Has
>anyone else ever experienced similar symptoms with the Concept II?

<more snip>
You should not have continued the workout if you were experiencing pain
and you should not guess what might be the problem. GO AND TALK TO YOUR
DOCTOR
--
edgar-(remove nospam from return address for e-mail)

[M.W. Ottow]

This sounds like the typical problem that may occur with ergs such as
the Concept II.
The only solution is: a Row Perfect rowing simulator!

Why?

In fact with a Concept II you are pulling "against Mother Earth" and
because the Row Perfect has a sliding flywheel-assembly it much better
simulates a real rowing shell and it is healthier for your body.

Greetings
Martin Ottow

ven...@sis.bms.com wrote:
>
> Dear rowers,
>
> I am hoping that someone can advise me.
>

> I am a 40 year old male who weighs 155 pounds.
>

> I have been working out at the fitness center at work for the past 10 years
> and consider myself in above average shape for someone my age and occupation
> (computer geek).
>
> For many years I have used the Concept II indoor rowing machine as part of my
> workout. However in the past six months or so I have turned more and more to
> the Concept II as my primary workout, mixed in with one or two days of either
> light jogging or heavy-bag work.
>
>

> One day about six weeks ago I had severe pain in my upper left side the day
> after my rowing workout. It felt like I had been punched really hard in the
> left ribs. It took about three weeks for the pain to gradually subside. During
> that time I was still able to row three or four times per week at my usual
> distance and pace. Eventually the pain was all gone.
>
> This past Monday, I rowed my usual 10,000, no problems. Then yesterday,
> Tuesday, the minute I got on the machine I noticed a dull ache in the same
> upper left side. As I continued through the workout it kept getting worse. I
> was able to finish the 10,000 meters but it took me over 43 minutes. Now, 24
> hours later, the pain is still with me.
>
> My question, is it possible that I have been overdoing it with the rowing? Has
> anyone else ever experienced similar symptoms with the Concept II?
>

[POWER10]

You have received some good info via "post"--possible intercostal strain and go
ck it out with your primary care doc for safety sake. Since the pain subside
after rest and use of alternative activities, it sounds like you were
"overtraining." There is nothing holy about doing multiple 10K pieces, and the
fact is that doing that much that often can be destructive and defeat your
training goals, or worse, hurt you.

Have you ever logged on to Concept IIs website? They post the workout of the
day and have a list of various workouts that will keep you in excellent shape,
along with providing good variation--choice of "diet" so you won't get bored.

Have fun and don't hurt yourself.

Gordon L. Pizor
Head Coach and Associate Director
Wilmington Youth Rowing Association
WYRA
Gordon L. Pizor
power10

[ven...@sis.bms.com]

Many thanks to all who responded regarding my possible rowing injury.

Yes, the sides of my chest hurt when I breath deeply, regardless of the
position of my head. And forget about sneezing, sheer torture! Regarding
building up my torso to strengthen the muscle and ligaments surrounding the
intercostal ... Isn't the intercostal a muscle between ribs? I figured that
since I can do sets of 50 pushups and 10 pullups that my upper-body strength
was okay. What else should I be doing for those areas? How does one strengthen
the muscles between the ribs?? What kind of cross training do rowers do?
Perhaps being so fanatical about having to do 10,000 meters every time was not
necessary. And I guess I should have stopped as soon as the pain appeared, but
I didn't want to wimp-out. My reward was that now I will have to cease rowing
altogether until I recover. I had thought that the body would be invulnerable
to injury using the Concept II, but I guess I was wrong. Regarding visiting my
primary care physician ... what's that? I haven't had a physical in 10 years!

When recovered, I will try out the suggested workouts from the Concept II
website, as Mr. Pizor recommended.

-- Robert

[J. Michaels]

There are old macho types,
and bold bold macho types,
but there are no old, bold, macho types.

There is nothing wimpy about stopping when it hurts and being checked out every
now & then. If you see a doctor about your condition you may find out alot more
about yourself then trying to figure it all out on your own.
Just my .02
Jim

[S]

I recently pulled an intercostal muscle.

My doctor (a sports medicine specialist) told me that there's NOTHING I could do to
strengthen these muscles, as all they do is allow one to breathe. There's no motion
that would stress them in order to strengthen. Six weeks to heal.

[POWER10]

Hi, Robert,
It sounds like your doc is saying that you overtrained and that you need to
rest those intercostals. Your training regimen sounded so brutal, I got a pain
just reading about it. Hope you are feeling better so you can continue putting
some of us to shame. Now I feel guilty about that delicious chocolate milk
shake I had last night!

Cordially,

Gordon