# Intercostal muscle strain



## ebarker9 (Jul 10, 2006)

Anyone had experience? I had bronchitis a couple of weeks ago and was coughing a ton. Apparently during the course of this I managed to strain one of my intercostal muscles. Hurts like heck to breathe deeply, sneeze, cough, etc. Just wondering how long this is likely to take to heal. I've done a couple of road rides and one mountain bike ride since and it's pretty tender. Now facing the thought of being off the bike for a while to avoid prolonging the recovery period.


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## ebarker9 (Jul 10, 2006)

Well, for anyone else who may come along this, I'm about two weeks in from the original strain and things are definitely getting better. I've done another mountain bike ride and it didn't seem to aggravate it significantly. Pain is definitely decreased and only really deep breaths and motions similar to pushups cause acute pain. Fingers crossed that it will continue to get better and resolve itself in another week or so.


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