Hello Robwynge,
Thank you for the information. I wish I could participate in a stretching session with you, but since my last post in this discussion I injured myself doing this kind of stretches. Probably I pushed too much, and I teared some of the internal intercostal muscles that you described or just damaged the cartilage of the ribs attaching to the sternum, I have been in the hospital because the symtoms are similar to those ocurring with lung or heart problems: pain and constant chest tightness. After many tests (x-rays, blood tests, electrocardiogram, etc), everything appears fine, so doctors told me that maybe is an intercostal muscle damage or costochondritis, anyway I am waiting an appoinmet with a traumatologist.
The problem with this injury is that is related with the respiratory muscles so it takes a lot of time to heal, since you can not stop breathing, and also I can not do any kind of exercise that involves an increase of the respiratory rhythm, and of course this includes freediving ( the other day I just went to the sea to refresh a bit thinking that fresh water would be good for recovering and the pressure and chest tightness just increased), I can just walk and not very fast. Now after more than 2 months of constant suffering (the symptoms have been constant, doesn´t matter if I am sitting, liying down or moving) it seems that I am improving, so the pain and chest tihghtness (the worst symptom since it doesn´t allow me to breath properly, and sometimes it was just unbearable) are dissapearing, I hope that within a month or two I will be able to practice sport again.
With this message I don´t want to discourage anyone from doing the stretchings that we have discussed, the reason of my injury probably comes from a bad technique (I advice begginers to do this stretchings with supervision), and mainly from an old injury that never really cured, a weak spot in my sternum, or ribcage that I got many years ago while I used to do a lot of up push ups and pull ups, I had to stop to do this kind of exercices because after several years of training I started to have aches in my chest in the mornings just before waking up, but they dissapeared once I started moving, anyway I associated this morning pains with the pull and push ups and I decided to stop doing this kind of exercices, after several weeks of resting the chest pains disspeared.
After this event I never had problems again practicing running, cycling or spearfishing, or doing hard works, that involved carrying heavy weighs, but I have tried to do pull ups or push ups and after some sessions I have started to feel this chest sensationg that something is wrong, so I think that repetitive exercises that involve the use of the sternum or surrounding muscles are that bother me the most. The chest stretchings that I was doing I though that were fine, but after serveral days of stretches I finally broke my "weak point" again, maybe I should have rest some days between stretches or just not having pushed too much, maybe the stretches at full lung pushed too much pressure in my weak spot.
Anyone has gone through a similar situation as mine?
Any advice? I am scared of doing stretches again when I recover from this, and if I do I won´t do them at full lung. Or just I won´t do stretched anymore, I have been very happy without doing them, jeje.
Best regards!
Manuel