u/capnugly2

So I had costochondritis from january 2025 to basically january 2026 and through trial and error I healed myself. I remember watching this guy on youtube who had costochondritis and made a series of returning to dips and on one video he was doing some crazy weighted dips. I thought to myself, man its impossible, how can this be real if I cannot do a single push up or basic movements without crazy pain. But little by little, flare up after flare up and with progressive overload I got much much stronger from this injury in all the aspects, Physical and Mental. If I was going to give one word of advice to all the people who are going through this its this. What you are going through is only temporary and if you dont give up and endlessly search for a solution you will make it, its impossible not to make it if you just dont give up. The core problems in costochondritis lie in the Back Stabilizer Muscles like the lower traps and rhomboids, its actually not the stiffness of your rib joints after a couple months. Because all of us kept laying down on the backpod endlessly trying to free up the joints in the back AND we did. But after some time you need to start strengthening these stabilizer muscles because your ligaments in the back became basically “loose”. When they become loose your back stiffens up and thats why you always feel that knot on one side of the spine either left or right which you constantly try to crack but most time it doesnt crack. So thats how you cure the stiffness in the back. And about the pushing capability, you need to basically progressively overload your sternum so it gets used to load again. Whatever your starting point is, if push ups are painful, go do incline push ups and drop the height when you feel ready as long as the pain doesnt go above 2/10. And one big warning, with this method you are going to flare up 100%, so expect it to be hard and painful because of the flare ups. Its a road of ups and downs, you finally get to a normal push up, you flare up and think you have to start all over again but actually your starting point is a bit ahead than the last time. And eventually you will heal and go back to normal. Nothing lasts forever.