Rib Pain On One Side? 3 Causes and Effective Relief Techniques

Table of Contents

• 3 Causes of Rib Pain on One Side
• How to Relieve Rib Pain Between the Shoulder Blade and Spine
• Stretch to Relieve Rib Pain on One Side
• How to Relieve Costochondral Rib Pain (Costochondritis)
• A Quick Tip to Relieve Front Rib Cage Pain
• Breathing Tips to Relieve Rib Pain on One Side
• Conclusion

3 Causes of Rib Pain on One Side

If you have rib pain, it can literally take your breath away.

There are many different things that can cause rib pain on one side of the body.

You may feel it in your chest, on the side of your ribs, on the back of your ribs between your shoulder blade and spine, or just underneath the rib cage.

Each of those has a different cause and therefore different solutions.

Serious Causes Of Rib Cage Pain

But before we jump into that, we first need to discuss who these tips are NOT for.

There are also some serious things that can cause rib cage pain that these types of treatments or exercises are not going to help.

For example, if you're having left-sided rib cage pain right over your chest, make sure to rule out that you're not having a heart attack.

If you've fallen, landed on your ribs, and think you may have a broken rib, please rule out that you've not broken a rib before trying these tips.

These may be helpful several months down the road after the rib fracture heals. But if you have an acute broken rib, unfortunately, it just takes some time for that to heal up.

Additionally, some of your digestive organs, such as your liver, gallbladder, and stomach, can refer pain into the rib cage area as well.

If you notice that your pain is triggered with certain types of food or after you eat, then make sure to rule those things out as a cause of your rib cage pain.

But if your rib cage pain is more musculoskeletal and only really hurts when you do certain types of movements, these tips could be extremely helpful

How to Relieve Rib Pain Between the Shoulder Blade and Spine

The first type of rib cage pain that we're going to discuss is the type right between the shoulder blade and the spine.

That's probably the most common type of rib pain that people experience.

Often people will have tender ribs between the shoulder blade and spine. Often there will be an area that sticks out, like one of the ribs is sticking backwards more than the others.

One of the treatments we'll use in our physical therapy clinic is manipulating the thoracic spine or rib cage. Provided there's not osteopenia, osteoporosis, or a fracture, that's generally a very quick and easy way to relieve pain, at least in the short term.

At home you can relieve rib pain using a  foam roller.

Lie on the floor with the foam roller underneath your back and then give yourself a big hug with your arms.

This will get your shoulder blades out of the way so that the foam roller contacts the thoracic spine and rib cage.

Then roll back and forth, to massage the sore area. It's very likely you may hear or feel some snaps or pops, which often feel good.

Additionally, you can move more towards one side, then the other to find the area that is the most sore.  Then focus on the sore area.

Stretch to Relieve Rib Pain on One Side

Although foam rolling can help relieve the pain rather quickly, it usually doesn't last over the long term.

The reason for that is there's usually muscle imbalances that have pulled that rib out of place. If you don't correct those muscle imbalances, it's likely that the discomfort will come back eventually.

A lot of times that has to do with one shoulder hanging down lower than the other. Thisin turn can pull some tension on your neck muscles and the nerves in your neck.  That can refer pain down into your shoulder blade and rib cage area.

Furthermore, your rhomboids, which connect your shoulder blade to your spine, are put on tension when one shoulder blade is hanging down lower than the other one.

If your right shoulder blade that's hanging down a little bit lower than the other one, then you'll put your right arm up in the air.

Reach up as high as you can comfortably and then take a deep breath into the right rib cage. This fills your lungs with air and helps expand the space between the ribs.

It also elevates your shoulder blade and takes some tension off of the rhomboids and nerves in your neck.

Reach up as you breathe in. Hold that top position with your arm, and breathe out.

Repeat that for about five to ten breaths.

How to Relieve Costochondral Rib Pain (Costochondritis)

This exercise can also be good for front rib cage pain, or costochondritis.

The costal cartilages are where the ribs join the sternum.

Sometimes one rib can move forward a little bit causing pain.

A Quick Tip to Relieve Front Rib Cage Pain

Here's a quick tip to relieve front rib cage pain or costochondral pain.

Take a fist and put it over top of the sore area of the rib cage.

Take your fist and put it over top of that sore rib area, then you'll take your opposite palm and place it over top of your fist.

Press the elbow of that palm hand into wall or the inside part of a doorway while applying pressure to the rib with your fist as shown below.

Hold for about five seconds.

Then relax and repeat that process about three to five times.

That often will relieve front rib cage pain  rather quickly.

Breathing Tips to Relieve Rib Pain on One Side

What about rib cage pain on the side of the rib cage or underneath the rib cage?

Again, you want to make sure that you've ruled out that you don't have a rib fracture and it's not coming from an internal organ.

But if you've ruled those things out, just doing some stretches to the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles can be helpful.

Just breathing using your diaphragm is one great way to do that.

Your diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle and it acts kind of like a plunger. That dome flattens out to increase your lung volume.  This in turn brings air into your lungs.

When the dome goes back up, it forces air out of your lungs.

When that dome drops down, your belly actually moves out.

Many people do that backwards.

They breathe the opposite way than they should.  When they breathe in, their belly comes in rather than out.

However, the way that your diaphragm is designed to work is that when you breathe in, your belly moves out, and air rushes into your lungs.

So practice taking a deep breath in, pushing your belly out, really expanding your rib cage and belly as much as you can.

Then let your belly fall and the air goes back out.

If you breathe using your diaphragm properly, it shouldn't really sound like a deep breath. It should just be more of a quiet breathing

Conclusion

Those were some self-help tips to help if you have rib pain on one side of your body.

If those don't help, again, make sure to rule out more serious causes.

Additionally, seeing a physical therapist for more specific joint and soft tissue work, as well as addressing the underlying postural problems that cause the rib pain in the first place, can definitely be helpful.

If you are in the St. Louis area, we'd be happy to help you here at More 4 Life.

Just tap the button below to request an appointment with one of our specialist physical therapists.

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