Intercostal excercise.

never heard of them let alone injured them, how do you damage those?

Hi Aqua,

I was like that too - Is it only on one side? - i think you just need to push through and keep going out - I was suffering the same thing and now it never hurts my ribs...

I have been swimming alot of laps as well but I'm not sure that would have any effect...

Do you wear a wettie?

Big Lifty whats the go here ?

Maybe its just that normal bruising of ribs if you don't surf much, and then suddenly surf, especially as mentioned without a wetty. Or like going from a 4/3 to suddenly no wetty for long sessions.

But to strengthen intercostals, in my experience, hanging knee raises, and chinups, still work best. Pullovers used to be, and still are popular, because of the stretch, contraction of the rib cage, but hanging knee raises and chins do the same thing when performed properly, in concert with correct breathing, and the whole abdominal region gets worked at the same time, simultaneosly decompressing the spine.

If you look at the photos of this lady, you can see clearly what I have described. Because she was entering a fitness model competition, her first one ever, she would panic, and beg me to add a zillion angles and abdominal region exercises to her program, to 'bring those areas out'. However, as she discovered, when she got truly strong, capable of genuinely intense efforts in the movements I mentioned, far stronger than most 'fit' men, she had the accompanying, awesome all round development, and fitness in those regions. A bit like the comical debacles of 'functional' glute and quad training of inexperienced trainers, who 'hit them from every angle' and work the 'hidden, deep stabilizers' performing and learning ludicrous 'functional' balancing tricks, whilst fooling themselves they are developing structure and muscle. Which somehow don't get worked by world champion sprinters, weight lifters etc, who are ridiculously fitter, stronger and more developed by simply working at maximum intensity... take note, maximum intensity, in simple movements. Easily demonstrated by dumping a hundred and fifty kilos or so on the back of a 'functionally' fit and developed person, and watching them buckle and crumble under the load, 'hidden stabilizers' balancing skills and all.

She placed 3rd, first contest, against the top in the country and was offered a chance to compete in the US.

The same sort of development can be seen in these two. Same simple exercises, tweaked to suit fitness levels. Again, genuine, maximum intensity is the trigger that promotes development. Most people inadvertantly train at intensity levels along the lines of marathon runners etc, which are far too low to trigger real structural change re development, growth and strength. If you can do a lot of something, its not intense. Again, easily demonstratable.

I posted it before, but here's the link showing how to do hanging knee raises if anyone is interested.

My son does some demos. For some reason, despite living in Port Lincoln, he suddenly announced that he was interested in rugby league, won a scholarship, made a state rep team, and was approached by Melbourne Storm, and Brisbane Broncos. He signed a contract with Melbourne, played in their feeder team, but quickly missed his cruisey lifestyle here. His fitness, particularly sprinting speed, power and strength, which impressed them enough to want him, is pretty legendary here, and based on minimum rest, super intense training efforts, and developing genuine balanced strength, resiliance and endurance, in basic movements. He is different to me, and I had to laugh, when I pleaded with him to stay there, citing all sorts of benefits towards his life and future, and he said, 'relaxe dad, its no big deal, its just a game'.