Chest pain

[TT Eric]

As I mentioned before in previous threads, I'm use to train hard, people know me for that, when I do exercises I go all the way, using a lot of mental focus to go beyond my limits, I treat each hard workout like a competition where I need to surpass myself, this the way I train. (Reduce vision, blue lips, near blackout, red eyes, etc...) I dig this.

Lately, I got chest pain, it happened twice, I mean not the chest muscle, but it look like heart's area.

First time, after nailing some PR, I began to have some sporadic 'pinching' pain in the chest, offset to the left, left arm became partially numb, had a hard time sleeping because of the intermittent chest pain, like squeezing pain (intermittent). I went to see the chiro the next day, he found a rib that moved a little and he said that rib might have been pinching a nerve that give symptoms like a pseudo-angina, good explanation... I prefer that.

Second time (Wednesday), I had the same thing happening, but this time when I came back home, I hardly was able to drink my shake, was totally unable to eat (I tried force-fed) and wasn't able to drink the PM shake either. I took the next day off, stayed in bed, ate half what I'm use too. Today I was feeling better, went to the gym and train less hard and feel ok.

My question is, I'm not eliminating the rib that is pinching the nerve, but also I wonder if it could be possible that my O2 dept was too great when I push over my limits, I mean if I have blue lips and all, maybe the heart miss some O2 and do not like this... ? So I should back-off and train less hard ?

Did somebody experienced something like that, or have you heard someone have this ?

Thanks guys.

Eric

[rickerred]

maybe angina, regardless chest pain is serious business. Seeing a doctor would be your best bet.

[scottlove]

Hey Eric. I have a tiny tear in my inner left pec. It doesn't affect my workouts but once in a while, while I'm at work or in bed, I'll move the wrong way and I feel a sharp pain in my heart area.The first time it scared me, thinking I was having a heart attack but just a minor inconvenience now. Hope you're ok brother.

[Praetorian]

I would really suggest getting it checked out...better safe than sorry.

P

[cog]

Some crossfit ter was telling me he experienced blue fingertips running through a mountain pass.I think you train too hard too often.

[TT Eric]

Hey Eric. I have a tiny tear in my inner left pec. It doesn't affect my workouts but once in a while, while I'm at work or in bed, I'll move the wrong way and I feel a sharp pain in my heart area.The first time it scared me, thinking I was having a heart attack but just a minor inconvenience now. Hope you're ok brother.

Yeah, I had similar things like that happened in the past, even the lungs can play tricks. This time, the squeezing effect happened repeatedly without me moving along with the numbness in the left arm, again it might me another stupid thing like a rib that is pinching a nerve... but ignoring this might not be the best idea since it can be serious.

@Prae, Yes I will go see my chiro again to see if I have rib that moved again and will see from there for a doctor.

@Cog, yeah I'm slowing down a bit now on some targeted compound exercises like chest and back, others like arms exercises are not as demanding even if I go all the way.

Thanks guys.

Eric

[Primal]

Hey Eric! Give us an update! Did you get the doc to check it out yet? About what rickerred said above, angina is unlikely given that it is most common with the heart not being able to get enough blood. This is most common with people who have a solid base of plaque coating their arteries. Seeing that we are all eat pretty good here and are all relatively healthy, it seems a bit unlikely. However there has been some evidence to show that some people are just naturally prone to having high cholesterol and such just based on genetics. A big piece is whether or not your are experiencing numbness or tingling in any other areas of the body AFTER your done working out.

I'm not a doctor or even in a healthcare position (yet), this I know. However, I am in a few courses based on medicine and the internal human anatomy of the body and my prof is very well educated. We just covered angina last week and are learning a lot more about the heart, so I realize I don't know...anything yet lol. But just my 2 cents from what I've learned in class.

Stay safe Eric!

-Primal

[TT Eric]

Thanks for the concern. No my car is at the garage at the moment waiting for parts and my wife's grand mother is actually in her last day at the hospital (Montreal) so the other car is there... basically I'm stuck here, good thing I can walk to the gym...

Yes cholesterol is very high here, it runs into my family, one uncle is dead at 30, one got a heart attack at 28 and got open via thoracic for bypass (died at 48), my dad is dead from multiple blocked arteries (90%) in his sleep, etc... at 19 my doctor said I had probably one of the highest level of cholesterol in the Canada for my age. I have been on statins for about half of my life, but stopped that a year or 2 ago.

One thing we all had in common in my family: we were eating tons of sugars and carbs... myself included, plus as a bodybuilder I was into the low fat/high carbs crap, but changed that in 2008.. I decided to control the carbs and bad fats to avoid arterial inflammatory. My thinking is that since I eat a lot of good fats, even though my LDL is very high, the particles must be bigger (low levels of VLDL) along with relatively low triglycerides.

Eric

[cog]

Reading a Kindle book right now.The Art And Science Of Low Carbohydrate Performance.Lots of health benefits from keto.

[Primal]

Thanks for the concern. No my car is at the garage at the moment waiting for parts and my wife's grand mother is actually in her last day at the hospital (Montreal) so the other car is there... basically I'm stuck here, good thing I can walk to the gym...

Yes cholesterol is very high here, it runs into my family, one uncle is dead at 30, one got a heart attack at 28 and got open via thoracic for bypass (died at 48), my dad is dead from multiple blocked arteries (90%) in his sleep, etc... at 19 my doctor said I had probably one of the highest level of cholesterol in the Canada for my age. I have been on statins for about half of my life, but stopped that a year or 2 ago.

One thing we all had in common in my family: we were eating tons of sugars and carbs... myself included, plus as a bodybuilder I was into the low fat/high carbs crap, but changed that in 2008.. I decided to control the carbs and bad fats to avoid arterial inflammatory. My thinking is that since I eat a lot of good fats, even though my LDL is very high, the particles must be bigger (low levels of VLDL) along with relatively low triglycerides.

Eric

Wow Eric... I'm really sorry to hear about your family. I can't imagine even being in your shoes right now. Stay tough man! Along with the question about feelings of numbness or tingling after your workouts, I have another question. Do you get pumps and are you able to hold them for extended periods of time? I'm asking because it is known that when you exercise, they say that as much as 70-80% of the blood in the body can go towards the targeted muscle (this could be slightly incorrect, I am going off of memory here and it is late, I will confirm in the morning with my notes).

Stay strong Eric!

-Primal

[TT Eric]

Oh sorry I forgot about numbness, I don't think it happens anywhere, except for the skin on the right quads feels numbs from time to time since about 3-4 years, but it doesn't happens particularly after I train, sometime it's ok for a while, sometime it's numb for a while (days/weeks), I'll try to pay more attention when it happens.

Yes I have insane pump, but it doesn't stay for extended periods.

Eric

[Primal]

Oh sorry I forgot about numbness, I don't think it happens anywhere, except for the skin on the right quads feels numbs from time to time since about 3-4 years, but it doesn't happens particularly after I train, sometime it's ok for a while, sometime it's numb for a while (days/weeks), I'll try to pay more attention when it happens.

Yes I have insane pump, but it doesn't stay for extended periods.

Eric

Hmm, once again, I know I'm not a doctor or anything but if you are having numbness on your thigh, you could have possibly damaged your femoral nerve? You said you had a pinched nerve or something right? You could possibly have damaged this without knowing... It could explain the numbness since it supplies to the majority of the quadriceps. As for the heart issue... That is quite interesting still... Hopefully you can get a doc to check it out soon. Stay safe man, you never know with conditions these days... Also confirmed about what I said before, up to 70-80% of the body's blood can go towards the targeted muscle.

-Primal