Oblique strain? St. Joseph’s/Candler can help with that.

St. Joseph’s/Candler Medical Director of Sports Medicine Dr. Steven Greer explains this common abdominal injury

Do you experience sudden, sharp pains near your rib cage? Does it hurt when you cough or take a deep breath? One possible diagnosis may be an oblique strain or tear.

It’s even more likely that’s the case if you frequently twist or rotate your torso suddenly and forcefully, says Dr. Steven Greer, with St. Joseph’s/Candler Physician Network – Bone, Joint & Muscle Care and medical director of SJ/C Sports Medicine. Think baseball pitchers and cricket bowlers or golfers and tennis players, or an injury can happen as a result of direct trauma to the abdominal wall.

“It’s not uncommon at all,” Dr. Greer says.

What is the abdominal oblique muscle?

Your abdominal obliques are one set of muscles that hold your belly together, Dr. Greer explains. It includes the internal obliques, external obliques, transversus abdominis and rectus abdominis. Your internal and external oblique muscles overlap, spanning between your ribs and pelvis, making up the waist. They go in different directions so that your body can move in all sorts of ways, Dr. Greer says.

Your internal and external obliques are the most likely to get injured from sudden, forceful twisting. Symptoms of an oblique muscle tear can include:

• Sudden, sharp pain near the rib cage
• Stiffness, especially in the morning
• Muscle weakness
• Swelling
• Bruising

Coughing, sneezing and deep breathing can intensify your symptoms.

Proper diagnosis of your injury is the first step to feeling better. If you experience any of the symptoms above, you should consult your primary care physician or request an appointment with Dr. Greer. 

Treating an oblique muscle strain

Because you can’t sew muscle back together, a strain or tear of the oblique muscle heals on its own over time with help of physical therapy and/or exercises you can do at home.

Your healthcare provider may recommend starting with stretching and isometric exercises, which includes consciously tightening and relaxing the injured muscles, Dr. Greer says. Then you may be instructed to incorporate some range of motion exercises and then strength training.

Trying to prevent an oblique muscle injury

If you hated doing sit-ups or crunches in gym class growing up, well you probably weren’t alone. But your teacher wasn’t wrong for “torturing” you. Almost everything your body does comes from your core, Dr. Greer says.

“All the core exercises, abdominal exercises they tell you to do are good for you,” Dr. Greer says. “The stronger your core is the stronger the rest of you will be. Your ability to move other body parts is based on your ability to move your core, maybe with the exception of your fingers.”

Dr. Greer recommends crunches in multiple directions – forward, to the side, twisting as you are doing them. If you experience back pain, making crunches and abdominal exercises painful, try side to side motion exercises, such as passing around a medicine ball.

Another thing you can do – eat a balanced, healthy diet. Yes, even what you eat plays a role in having strong and health bones, joints and muscles.

“The better building blocks you give your body, the easier it is for your body to build better parts,” Dr. Greer says. “You need protein in order to build muscle. You need calcium  in order to build muscle. You need carbohydrates to get energy in order for your body to build muscle. You need a little bit of healthy fats and don’t forget the vitamin D.”

“A good balanced diet is critical to any kind of recovery but also critical to injury prevention as well.”