you walk around with your titties flopping around because a bra hurts your ribs?

How many months u used backpod

I use the soundCore flare speaker to roll under my back abs it gives relief too

Do you think Structural Integration will help me heal along with stretching and the backpod?

@@paceyhansen Hi Pacey. Yes. Generally speaking you need to (1) free up the frozen rib machinery round the back (hence the Backpod); (2) free up tight muscle scarring overlying the tight joints (hence massage, Rolfing, or anything else that'll tease through the muscles); (3) stretch the pecs; (4) strengthen the support muscles around your back; (5) stretch your pecs; and (6) if needed, do your own detailed massage around the rib joints on your breastbone. I'll shortly have a much more practical detail on all this up on the Backpod's Costochondritis page - link is www.bodystance.co.nz/en/costochondritis/ Cheers, Steve August.

Hello Steve I'm Philip prom Kenya .. How do you unlock the ribs on the chest part?

@@philanduro1503 Hello, Phil. If you mean unlocking the rib joints round the front where the ribs hinge onto your breastbone - you don't. With costo, mobilising or manipulating those already strained and straining joints will just flare them up big time. They don't need extra movement - they've already got too much. That's what costo IS. You take the pressure off them by freeing up the tight rib machinery around the back. This is what's driving the excessive movement at the front of the chest. See Bob and Brad's video 'Best Costochondritis Self Treatment..' Link is kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aq6HhNmAl9KwnHU.html

@@stevenzphysio4203 Thank you Sir.. I have been suffering for almost a month now.... I feel the pain on my left side, i lift weights in gym and I can't remember doing excessive weight in gym. Can sleeping badly on side cause this? I wish God can restore my good health back.

Hey bro! Please make those videos for the stretches or if you would wanna hit me up also to see what diet I can maybe start with! It would help for sure

Hey man i got this a month before bootcamp... it came out of nowhere. How do you manage this in the military?

@@matst432 Hey dude, I was a reservist when I got it, now regular, so I was already in. Basic training is most physically intense part of 90% of mil careers. In truth, If you can postpone it, you should. You do not want to be the bloke at the back of the run or the guy hanging out his ass after an obstacle course. Come back fit and healthy, because else you risk losing everyone else's respect and being seen as a biff because your pain will ultimately drag down the team and make it non-combat efficient. Brutal truth, but before Phase one training you need to be the best version of you.

I sure would love to see your video. I've been using the pod and getting deep tissue massages and still not over it yet. Improved but still there after 2 months. Willing to try anything , I do also do the twisting daily. Thanks!!!

@@karenmorgan8478 posture and sleeping position did it for me

Well done, on thinking for yourself and also on toughing out the soreness to free up the tight rib machinery around the back. Those joints can be exquisitely tender when they're frozen, and it can hurt to get them going again. Lots of people would give up on that initial pain. With the Backpod, we try start people off really gently because often they just do too much initially and get sore. You are starting to stretch joints that haven’t moved for months or years and you can get a bit of normal treatment tenderness for a few days. It’s a lot like stretching hamstring muscles that are so tight you can’t touch your knees - takes a while before you can reach your toes. You toughed through that a lot in one hit - well done! To give you an idea of how tight those joints were - when they're moving fine, then all you feel on the Backpod is a satisfying stretch, no pain. They're only sore when they can't move. The ball is doing a similar stretch; the Backpod does have more oomph and is better, but the ball will help heaps.

We are on the same boat! I remember sometimes when I sleep or rest on my bed, I feel like someone is stabbing through my chest and rib bones! It was super super painful plus pain when I turn the slightest of my chest. It is worse now, it began in 2017 and still counting. I did everything such as: MRI for chest pictures, x-ray scans and many more scans including heart and lung scans. I do not know where and how to end this shit permanently. I feel pain when I do anything and I feel extreme pain when I push my chest down! I used to punch my chest real hard to forget the pain but it gets back after a few minutes. Thank you for reading!

@@TheGhostLine If it's accessible to you I highly, highly recommended seeing a professional physical therapist to help you as well. When I hit the limit of my home routine, even though it helped so much, that was really the key at getting me wholly pain free this past year. She helped me strengthen my posture which loosened the ribs and has helped keep that horrible stabbing pain from returning. I wish you a healing journey!

@@serrelinda Yes, I will. Thank you!

Same here!!!

Did you have costocondrities? I’m trying convince myself to get one backpod but I’m afraid to get my pain worse and don’t fix anything

@@fabianasenhora4444 i have costs now buy the backpod now and save money on doctor visits

@@coffeebean7340 how is your Costco doing ?

Please guide me. Where you bought & how much normal life you are living ?

How did your recovery go?

hello bro a question were you cured? and by joints you mean weed?

How you cured this???

How did you cure it?

Wild. You and I share almost an identical story. Cardiac, pulmonary, and gastro doctors have all drawn blanks after a stress test, breath test, and endoscopy. Good news: nothing wrong there. Bad news: pain persists. Going to see a chiropractor this week because my primary doctor suggested this just might be the problem we’ve been trying to solve. Fingers crossed, the chiropractor and some stretching will begin to solve my pain.

@@brycepatingre Will you please keep me posted after the chiropractor? I’ve also been going to physical therapy and I have been improving. They pointed out that the muscles in my mid back are very weak and everything else is overcompensating for that. But I still feel like I also might need an adjustment to get things back into place in my upper spine.

Hey mate, nice to hear that you got better, how was your condition? Constant pain in your rips/sternum? Do you also had poppings when sneezing? Do your rips popp?

Mine was popping and clicking in my sc joint and pain in my sternum when putting my arms together and waking up. It wasn’t constant but was painful

@@PeachBoiASMR How are you now?

@@marcoocram4663 pretty much fully recovered. No more pain there anymore.

@@PeachBoiASMR what did you do to heal?

Did it work?

any updates mate? have costo for 6 months now and light pain free stretching and loosening up your spine and tight muscles helped me. since it's all connected. posture has a big impact as well.

I have more pain in the left side which lead me to ER for heart checkups. The left side is more frozen and needs more time. Appreciate your videos guys 👍

How you feeling?

Hi Cindy. Good - well done on thinking for yourself. Look, open heart surgery is almost a guarantee of costo - for perfectly logical reasons. The figures are appalling - up to 70% of open chest surgery patients still have pain a year after the op. To get in to do the (completely necessary and skilled) surgery on the heart or lungs, the ribs have to be cranked apart and held like that for the op. The surgeons use big stainless steel claw things to do this - either coming in through the side of the rib cage, or cranking the sternum apart once they’ve cut down its length. The strain on the rib joints around the back is massive. So after the op is over, normal scarring repair glues up the rib joints round the back. When they can’t move, the joints at the other ends of the ribs where they join onto your breastbone HAVE to move excessively just to let you breathe. This is unequivocal. So these joints strain, give, irritate, inflame - and welcome to costo. You get a double hit with a sternal split, because the scarring repair also binds down the nerves on the breastbone, making them hypersensitive. This is described in more detail in the Pain after Surgery section on the Backpod’s website - link is www.bodystance.co.nz/en/other-conditions/ The point is that this is all completely logical - this really is not a “mysterious inflammation” that just coincidentally happened along after your surgery. You can treat it logically, but now it’s a physio-type problem, NOT a surgical or inflammatory one. However the docs don’t usually get that, so they’re not good at it - it’s not their area. It is Bob's and Brad's and mine. Costo is also common after much coughing - from the 'flu, pneumonia, and now Covid-19. It is not, repeat not, the infection itself that brings on the costo, but the coughing. Coughing is a surprisingly strong percussive impact on the whole rib cage. I’ve seen cracked ribs from it, and not just in little old ladies. If the rib cage joints around the back are frozen solid and can’t move a little to absorb that shock, then the whole jolt hits the more delicate rib joints on your breastbone. So they strain and give - with every cough. It’s a lot like repeatedly hitting a sprained ankle with a hammer. And welcome to costochondritis. It’s NOT a “mysterious inflammation” appearing for no reason. The costo can stay even after the infection that caused the coughing has settled. The immobile rib joints at the back stay frozen, so the badly strained rib joints on your breastbone just continue straining, with every breath you take. This will usually get missed, by doctors and patients seeing it in terms of a lingering COVID-19 infection, which it isn’t. So there’s an expectation it’ll just settle down, as the infection has. Statistically, most of it doesn’t. It seems that you only start off costo this way if the rib cage machinery around your back is tight before the coughing starts. Unfortunately that’s really common anyway. So many people now have the iHunch from much bending over laptops, tablets and smartphones - see www.bodystance.co.nz/en/ihunch/ The rib joints round the back get tight along with the spinal joints, and that sets you up for straining the rib joints at the front if you start coughing. We fix it, logically enough, by freeing up the tight rib machinery around the back. See the Costochondritis page on the Backpod’s website - www.bodystance.co.nz/en/costochondritis/ Good luck with the work. Cheers, Steve August.

Update?

Great to hear

Hi Cheryl, great news! I got my back pod yesterday and starting to work with it a lot - I do hear it takes some time to get results so I will just keep at it daily along with my stretching and yoga too - this is a horrible condition to live with and it has affected me mentally as well and given me lots of anxiety to boot.

When you get a massage what area do you need to focus on?

Hi. Well done on thinking for yourself. I do sympathise - I know how hard it is to care for patients when you're in pain yourself. As PTs, we should be treating and fixing costo - it's essentially a PT problem, not a medical one amenable to medications. The standard PT strengthen and stretching exercise approach on its own does not work with costochondritis - it's not like a muscle strain, say. Any mobility or stretching exercise will just strain further the already strained and straining rib joints on your sternum, way before you can get a benefit to the tight rib joints round the back. You have to specifically free up the frozen rib and thoracic joints around the back first. The Backpod is ideal for that, because it'll actually do an effective stretch on the shortened collagen of the ligaments, fascia and joint capsules around the immobile joints at the back, but without flaring up the sternocostal joints around the front. A foam roller, for instance, can't, because its long cylindrical shape spreads the upper body weight too much to effectively stretch the rib joints; the small peaked shape of the Backpod is ideal. Have a look at the video I made on the actual research on costochondritis - link is kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qp6bZa90scu2Ymg.html That will give you a clear idea on why the docs usually get costo wrong, and what actually does help. (The very best piece of published evidence is from two US PTs in Fargo - Zaruba and Wilson.) If you'd like to email me on bodystance@gmail.com, I'll flick you some further info for PTs and docs on costo and the practical treatment of it. Cheers, Steve August.

Gidday Tineke. Good! That's how it should go. This is the normal response to treatment. Costo should be a straightforward, readily fixable problem. And so it is, with good manual physiotherapy in New Zealand and Australia. We were flabbergasted to discover it's generally not seen and fixed the same way in the rest of the world. Cheers, Steve August.

@@stevenzphysio4203 I been on the backpod for three months now my pain is now mild I been doing the exercises in your videos putting the anti-inflammatory gel on twice. My main concern is I keep getting shortness of breath even though I stretch out fine on the backpod the only part I gotta work on is the front where the pectoralis muscle are that part is stuff I still use the backpod just the ribs above where my collar bone and pectoralis muscle are can you give me a general idea what else I have to do?

God damn, all these seems to be the by product of Spondlytis.. I hope you find peace in all the pain.

@@satyasinghbhati8567 Thank you! Me too.

Iv similar pains but also in my biceps 💪 can u relate to this ??

look up Dr Sarno.

Any luck ?

How is it going now ?

Our pleasure! Brad

Same boat here. Been 8 months for me. It never fully goes away, but i do have some days where its barely noticeable. Hope it gets better for you

Hi Marcus. Think of it like having the hand brake jammed on in the car. The vehicle's fine, it's just that one bit of seized machinery that's the problem. We were gobsmacked to discover that the rest of the world doesn't see costo in the same sensible research-supported way that my manual physiotherapy area does in New Zealand. Of course you can't fix it with medications - it's simply not that sort of a problem.

When you use the Backpod are you using pillows for your head/neck at first (as recommended)? This will make it more comfortable. Move the pod around to different parts of your spine (above waist) and 10cm either side of this part of your spine. Try to "let go" and relax until you feel the need to move the pod to a new position. I actually fell asleep on occasion! Perhaps some meditation music may help? I think being able to relax completely is the key until you find the spot that unlocks the ribcage hinge that is causing the costo pain. I remember that I feeling a gentle "pop" and from then my pain has never returned. I was fortunate that I only had to use the Backpod about 3 or 4 times. Please persist, because the constant costo pain can also affect your mental health and quality of life. Good luck! 👱‍♀️❤

@@nadab4750 77

Best of luck with chemo Jeff.

Hope all goes well for you Jeff🤞

Hi Amy. I sympathise. I often get asked how long does costo last for, and how long does it take to "heal". The answer is it's not really a healing problem. It's not just a matter of waiting for it to settle down. You can freeze up the joint rib movement around the back (in various ways) and it can just stay frozen indefinitely - until you actually go and free it off yourself. Until you do, the rib joints at the other ends of the same ribs, where they hinge onto your breastbone, will just keep straining and hurting. That's what costo is. Sorry about your 20ish years. You are not alone - the record so far that I know of is a lady in the UK who had costo for 30+ years, and fixed it. Last heard, was going for daily walks again and had started back into the gym. I had it for 7 years myself, before becoming a physio in New Zealand and fixing it completely. Well done on thinking for yourself. DO please follow the user guide instructions accurately. It'll take time to stretch the joints free, and they will protest a bit. Do all the other bits in the user guide too - you'll need them. Especially, talk, bargain or bribe someone into doing the two massages shown - you'll be tight and scarred in the muscles overlying the frozen ribs. Good luck with the work!

Thank you, and thank you for designing the Backpod. I feel 85% better. I never knew how my spine played into this. It feels like it’s on fire sometime and never thought it as a backache( before a flare) I’ve come a long way in 5 months. Anti inflammatory diet, no more meds.

Did it work?

Just to follow up. It took a few months to feel results but they are significant. Gave me my life back. I still use almost daily and visit chiropractor. I had to go very slowly with this therapy because at first it feels like laying on the pod will trigger the symptoms- but now months later I look forward to the stretch.

Hello I'm going through this as of two weeks ago. It's hard to believe that a product can help the inflammation I feel around my heart, causing extreme anxiety. Did you ever have anxiety/heart attack like pain?

Hi Patrick. Well, there's a home test anyone can do which usually shows the tight restricted rib cage movement that drives costo. (If you're naturally really flexible, then your good movement may mask the stick bits, but they'll still be there.) It's described on the Costochondritis page of the Backpod's New Zealand website - link is www.bodystance.co.nz/en/costochondritis/ Basically, if you're restricted on the sitting twist test towards the side your costo pain is on, then what you've got is almost certainly what Bob and I have been talking about. In other words, it's NOT a "mysterious inflammation" but a clear mechanical problem, which should respond fine to the PT-type approach we've been discussing. Cheers, Steve August.

@@stevenzphysio4203 Thank you for this info! I will definitely have a look because I'm almost positive this is what I'm dealing with. And I will definitely be getting the back pod.

I’m also a long time drummer (50 years) and had a habit of intense pull-ups and dips at the gym. From what I’ve read, the gym workouts likely were my cause of costo. I doubt drumming itself would be a cause, but hauling all the heavy drum equipment to and from gigs certainly could strain the chest.

Sure. Chest pain should always be seen by a doctor or ED first, and urgently - in case it's the heart or anything else dire. The docs are very good at checking out those possibilities. They're just usually not good on costo. That's one of the things Bob and I were discussing in the video.

Good luck! Bob

Hello Nada, how are you?

Awesome news! This is a horrible condition to live with - I've had it for about 7 months now - I did get the back pod yesterday and starting to work with it - I will let you know what happens but after a few days I'm already feeling some relief from the daily pain - also doing a ton of stretching and yoga too.

@@patrickhandlovsky7665 That's great Patrick. I remember that I started using the Backpod by also having pillows under head to help me relax. (As the instructions suggest). When in position, place & the Backpod to wherever you feel your spine and mid/upper back needs it (10cm either side of the spine). When it's in position, relax and "let go". The final time I used it I felt a release with a little soft "pop" in my ribs. I had an inkling then that I had found the problem point. If I was you, I would not do any twisting/contorting of my body, as that was what caused my costo in the first place. It happened when I turned, twisted and reached for something in the back seat of my car. Good luck! 👱‍♀️❤

@@patrickhandlovsky7665 Patrick what about your results about backpodd

@@kamranshafqat166 it's been a mixed result with me so far with the back pod - I think I went too aggressively with it initially and it made my back even more sore - so I eased off on it a bit and continued my daily morning stretches and yoga - this has helped a lot as I had a big flare up playing with the band yesterday - it seems that drumming - as you are using your whole body - especially core work - that my costo flares up like no tomorrow when I drum. I have also completely stopped the weights too for months as this flared it up too - dealing with the daily pain is very challenging but I am devising coping mechanisms that are helping - also, I have found (and this is for anyone reading too to help) taking a couple aspirin (aspirin is highly anti-inflamatory) - really helps with the pain when I get a major flare up like yesterday. It works for me - everyone's body is different but boy does it help me! I will utilize this method with the next shows with the band - and then will have to take a leave of absence till I can figure this horrible condition. Best to everyone here with this - this is a horrible thing to live with on a daily basis.

You’re welcome 😊

Medical doctors know sooo little about this condition. Do the research and educate yourself - but I also highly advise seeing a very good physiotherapist - that helped me tremendously along with Steve August and Bob and Brad of course!! :) But I'm working with it every day and some days are better than others - it's a tough condition to live with on a daily basis.

Hi Kathleen. Speaking personally and as an experienced physiotherapist, I think everyone diagnosed with ank spon should have a Backpod. I couldn't put that more strongly. Ank spon pushes your thoracic spine towards a hunch, with the rib cage joints tightening also. It's not just the pain - the tightening rib joints make it harder and harder to breathe fully. We built the Backpod package, including the strengthening exercises and home massage, primarily to oppose the effects of hunching. It's essential to oppose this in ank spon as much as possible, and the Backpod has more leverage to do that than anything else. It's essentially a simple home package including the Backpod to oppose the tightening and hunching you get with ank spon, ongoing. Have a look at the AS section on the 'Other Conditions' page of the Backpod's website - link is www.bodystance.co.nz/en/other-conditions/. Best wishes, Steve August.

Thank YOU for sharing !

Mine is exactly the same, a sharp knife in the middle of the rib cage being well now well done well on that. You can’t imagine any more pain! Thank you for sharing yours

I got this about 4 months now and nothing is helping none of the tablets nothing i got middle chest pain and back pain with it

Hello so are You saying that Costochondritis is also caused by emotional stress because I also feel this too sometimes forgive Me if I misunderstood You

I could feel the vertebre in my spine that was effected also, and yes, emotional issue tied to the episode. Once i let go, Completely forgave the offense and asked Abba Father to forgive me for the unresolved anger ot helped greatly. 80 to 90% of human physical issues stem from emotional or spiritual issues. The Mg oil i used is from LL Magnetic Clay, called Ancient Minerals. Use it topically. I used it under my tongue but I am fully aware of my body and its functioning. You CAN use epsom salts and soak in the bathtub with the warmest water you can handle and 2 to 4 cups epsom salts. I find that lack of minerals of some sort will cause me structural issues also.

@Vape Girl w WOW Thank You I wasn't too sure Now I know because of You Thank You 😊 God Bless You Always ❤

We are so sorry to hear you are going they this ! Hopefully this helped a little

yoh! sounds like my story and time frame except I'm not a fire fighter ,just a free diver. I did have covid and developed a clicky sore chest on sneezing/coughing or leaning down to touch my toes and breathing in at the bottom. i took anti acids for a couple of weeks and that sorted out the swallowing issues hugely! i hope it helps you as much as it helped me, the depression now comes and goes and it seems to only come in the late afternoon before I lithely tell it to f#ck off and i physically smile as much as possible till i laugh and put nice music on and try put myself in a positive environment

Same.

I feel you bro I feel u same , suffering like u , sadly iv been diagnosed with hcm hypertrophic cardiomyopathy heart disease but they say pain is not from the heart , I can’t handle pain , I go ANE n they do bloods n x ray n ecg n say it’s muscle pain , what muscle pain lasts for 1.5 years ?? Or inflammation of chest wall n ribs , sadly im so depressed iv no life on so much pain killers yet don’t know what wrong with me 😿😿😿

You are so welcome!

Hi Nicholas. Yep - you've put it in a nutshell. Costo is essentially a mechanical, physio(PT)-type problem. It's NOT a "mysterious inflammation" - that's why anti-inflammatories don't fix it. There is existing, published, peer-reviewed medical research showing this. Sigh..

Did your girlfriend recover from Costco?

Well, we're trying to change that. I've been lecturing to the docs and physios at various conferences in NZ. Doesn't sound as though you hit health pros who've been to them. Pity. Are you still in NZ?

@Steve NZ Physio most definitely a worthy cause! And yep still in NZ

Hello my 16 year old daughter is going through this now. What did you do to keep the pain down?

@@tranandagraves2474 When first diagnosed, the doctor suggest I take ibuprofen, hydration and exercise to bring the inflammation down. Now that I'm older I follow an anti inflammatory diet, and get my omega 3's in daily, sometimes I'll experience some pain at night, and I'll use a CBD ointment that really helps plenty. I hope this helps.

Hi Michael. I'm the New Zealand physio. Shortness of breath is a classic symptom of costochondritis. It's also pretty common even when the rib joints at the front aren't straining enough to be painful - which is what costochondritis is. You can get it even when the lungs and heart are fine - for a very simple reason which is often overlooked by the doctors. You can't breathe in fully if you can't expand your rib cage fully, and you can't do that if some of the rib joints round your back are frozen solid and can't move. It's like wearing a tight corset. I think this is the commonest reason for breathing difficulties when all the tests say the lungs are fine. It does tend to get missed - maybe because it's so simple. It's also what causes costo. When some of the rib joints round the back can't move, then the joints at the other ends of those same ribs where they hinge onto your breastbone MUST move excessively, just to let you breathe. So they strain, click, pop, give (often with a sharp stabbing pain), get painful - and there's your costochondritis. It's NOT a "mysterious inflammation" arriving out of a clear blue sky for no reason anyone understands - no matter what you've been told. The frozen rib movement round the back cannot show on X-ray, CAT or MRI scans, because these are all essentially still photos, and cannot show if the joints can move okay of not. With costo, they can't. As well, because you can't expand your lungs to take a full breath in, you breath high and fast in the top of your lungs. This hyperventilation can cause panic attacks, and certainly anxiety. It's really common with costochondritis - in a way we just don't see with back and neck problems, say. So - logically - the core of fixing the problem is freeing up the tight rib machinery round the back. Cheers, Steve August.

Yep - I'm swamped with enquiries about costo ongoing after covid-19. Coughing is a classic trigger of costochondritis - from pneumonia, the flu, just a bad cold - and now COVID-19. It is not, repeat not, the infection itself that brings on the costo, but the coughing. With Covid, just the rib cage muscle spasm can be enough to set it all off. Coughing is a surprisingly strong percussive impact on the whole rib cage. I’ve seen cracked ribs from it, and not just in little old ladies. If the rib cage joints around the back are frozen solid and can’t move a little to absorb that shock, then the whole jolt hits the more delicate rib joints on your breastbone. So they strain and give - with every cough. It’s a lot like repeatedly hitting a sprained ankle with a hammer. And welcome to costochondritis. It’s NOT a “mysterious inflammation” appearing for no reason. The costo can stay even after the infection that caused the coughing has settled. The immobile rib joints at the back stay frozen, so the badly strained rib joints on your breastbone just continue straining, with every breath you take. This will usually get missed, by doctors and patients seeing it in terms of a lingering COVID-19 infection, which it isn’t. So there’s an expectation it’ll just settle down, as the infection has. Statistically, most of it doesn’t. You only start off costo this way if the rib cage machinery around your back is tight before the coughing starts. Unfortunately that’s really common anyway. So many people now have the iHunch from much bending over laptops, tablets and smartphones - see my discussion with Bob about the iHunch. The rib joints round the back get tight along with the spinal joints, and that sets you up for straining the rib joints at the front if you start coughing. We fix it, logically enough, by freeing up the tight rib machinery around the back. See the Costochondritis page on the Backpod’s website - www.bodystance.co.nz/en/costochondritis/

@@stevenzphysio4203 thank you for your reply, it makes so much sense! I have been using back pod for 4 days now and some stretches recommended by Bob and Brad and already feeling relief after weeks of agony! For anyone else with similar symptoms, I hardly had any coughing with covid, but as mentioned I definitely had iHunch beforehand. I sit at a desk all day and throughout pandemic have been working from my couch! I was sleeping on my side while dealing with chest pressure pain from pneumonia and that must have pushed it over the edge causing the costocondritis. I look forward to using the back pod every day now!

Stop the convid19 nonsense.

How are you currently?

Did it wrk?

Hi Nigel. Yes - that's Dr Michael Durtnall's clinic in Kensington, London. He's superb on costo, and also a lovely person. But the clinic's in a nice area in London, and it's not cheap. What you could do as a compromise is do all the things you can do at home for your costo, including the Backpod, and then see Michael for only a session or two, for personalised assessment and treatment. If you do the bulk of what's needed yourself, then he should have to do only some fine tuning. (Also he's incredibly busy so I think this works well for him also.) You'd need to get a Backpod - it's the single most useful thing around to quietly stretch out the frozen rib machinery round your middle back which is causing the strain and pain at the rib joints on your front.. Stick with it - it’s very tough stuff you’re stretching and it takes time. Do please READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and the 'Warnings and precautions' section in the 31-page user guide. If for some reason you haven’t got one, there is also a pdf copy of the full user guide near the bottom of the iHunch and Costochondritis pages on the Backpod’s website - www.bodystance.co.nz/assets/Uploads/backpod-full-user-guide-feb-2020.pdf. These are the best detailed instructions on how to use the Backpod. We start people off really gently because often they just do too much initially and get sore. You are starting to stretch joints that haven’t moved for months or years and you can get a bit of normal treatment tenderness for a few days. It’s a lot like stretching hamstring muscles that are so tight you can’t touch your knees - takes a while before you can reach your toes. When you no longer need a pillow under your head when you’re lying on the Backpod, get some more oomph out of it by lifting your buttocks off the ground, using the Backpod crosswise across the upper back (gives more leverage) as well as lengthwise and out to the sides a little (to get the ribs), and/or linking your fingers together and slowly moving your arms up over your head and down to your waist repeatedly; try that with just one arm as well. Chase the tightest bits and spend 1-3 minutes on each. Also, when you get to that point, start doing the sitting twist exercise I showed 12.54 minutes into the ‘How to Fix most Costo and Tietze’s , Part (2)’ KZfaq video - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qJ2mmJmfs7zIh5c.html This is to work the joints now they’re reasonably unlocked - like working a rusty hinge back and forth after you put some oil on it. Also, ideally, shout yourself a sports massage - preferably two, with a week off in between. When you've had costo for more than a few months, the muscles between and overlying the tight ribs around your back and sides, plus the pec muscles on your chest, also get tight and scarred. Massage is ideal for loosening them up. However NOT until it’s safe with COVID-19. At a minimum, you should both wear masks, hand sanitise, and when you get home take all your clothes off and put them straight into the washing machine and you straight into the shower, including washing your hair. As well, if possible, talk, bargain or bribe someone into doing the two massages in the Backpod’s user guide, about once a week for at least a few weeks. Get them to go hard down between your shoulder blades. You’re probably tight on your pecs as part of it all, so best to stretch them as well. There’s a good pec stretching video on KZfaq - link is kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e8yGfrWJzb-6dXU.html I’m guessing this next bit, but the commonest reason these days for costo starting is if you’re getting a bit hunched, usually from much bending over computers, phones, patients or whatever - we call it the iHunch. As part of the spine getting a bit hunched and tight, the rib joints attaching to your spine also stiffen and seize. When they can’t move, then the joints at the other ends of the same ribs MUST work excessively just to let you keep breathing. So they strain, ‘give’, irritate, get locally inflamed - and welcome to costo. It’s not a “mysterious inflammation” arriving for no reason. Have a look at the iHunch page on the Backpod’s website - www.bodystance.co.nz/en/ihunch/ If that looks like a fit with you, then do all the bits in the Backpod’s home program - we designed it specifically to counter the iHunch and pull you back towards perfect posture. It’s worth looking at the Perfect Posture page also. Good luck with the work. Cheers, Steve August (B.A.,Dip.Physio.).

Glad you liked it 🙂

Hi Tash. The problem is any sleeping position when you're lying down puts pressure on the rib cage. With costo, the rib joints round the back are frozen and can't move. So with load on the rib cage, the only bits that can move are the already strained and straining delicate rib joints on your breastbone. So they strain further - it's like stretching a freshly sprained ankle further into the sprain. It hurts!! Sorry, the only way I know if helping is to free up the frozen rib machinery round the back driving the strain at the front. We use the Backpod for that, of course. Thanks for the nice comments about my calm and reassuring voice! You got past my New Zealand accent, then? I'm truly not trying to falsely reassure anyone - I never do that with my patients. But really, where I work in physiotherapy in New Zealand we just don't find costo a mystery or difficult to fix. Of course it's harder without the patient in front of me, but the treatment principles are still the same. I do get dismayed by the doom and gloom about costo from people (including docs) who haven't come across the sensible research-validated understanding of costo we use, and which Bob and Brad have been so brilliant at spotting and passing out there. Of course it's not a mystery. Cheers, Steve August.

@@stevenzphysio4203 well hopefully you're well on the way to changing all that now! Hope the BMJ article gets a lot of attention and it finally filters through to the rest of the profession over here! No problems with the accent at all - we have so many bizarre accents in the uk i think it puts us at an advantage to understand other people quite easily! I've also just ordered Glucosamine and Condroitin in hopes it will help heal things up too as I really hate taking drugs. Don't know how effective it actually is but some research says it does help with the inflammation and restoration of damaged cartillage. Have your patients or yourself had any positive experiences with using supplements like that to help instead of / in addition to standard ibuprofen etc?

@@ImTash Hi Tash. Actually, no. Sorry. Worth a crack, though. There is mild evidence glucosamine/chondroitin does help repair damaged cartilage - I take it myself as I want my knees to last. Can't do any harm! It might definitely help with repair of the strained and damaged cartilage of the rib joints on your sternum. It is slow, though - like putting compost on a garden. The big fast improvements with costo are from freeing up the frozen rib machinery round the back driving the strain and pain at the front - which you're doing fine.

I use a wedge because I was originally worried about pneumonia, but I take the herb Devil's Claw when 20-30 minutes b4 I go to bed. It does help.😊 I can only hope it will help you too.🤞✌

Hello, Rose. Anxiety and panic attacks are common with costochondritis. The tight rib machinery round the back that causes the rib joints on your breastbone to strain, also means you can't take a full breath in - it's like wearing a tight corset. So that makes you breathe high and fast, and that hyperventilation pushes you towards panic attacks, and certainly anxiety. It's all classic costo.

@@stevenzphysio4203 I wish my doctor believed this.

@@stevenzphysio4203 Thank you again Steve and I totally agree. I have gone back to physical therapy where the p.t. is trying to teach me exercises to breathe again, although the pain I feel afterwards physically incapacitates me for almost a week after the appointment. I'm ready to quit.

@@RoseJackson79 Hi Rose. Well, I'm a physio myself. I just wouldn't approach it that way. My experience is that trying to fix costo just by exercises just doesn't work. The reason is that any exercise just strains further the already strained rib joints on your breastbone, way before you get a benefit to the tight rib joints around the back. You have to free up the tight rib machinery around the back first. Which is what we use the Backpod to do.

You’re very welcome

Yes, it is. There is an association between EDS and costo. But EDS just of itself doesn't cause costo. The usual story is that you've had EDS all your life, but costo only more recently (though it's not going away once it's there). The considerations with EDS are that the joints are hypermobile (move heaps) and the skin and muscle can bruise easily. However you can have EDS with all the general excessive joints and muscle mobility it brings, and still jam up some of the rib hinges (usually from impact, strain or much coughing) and therefore set off the costochondritis overuse pain around the front. The EDS patients I've seen over the years have all been the same pattern - jammed up specific spinal or rib joints, even though their general joint system is hypermobile. People who are just naturally and generally flexible get this same pattern. Because they're so flexible (and EDS types are even more so), you can jam a specific joint or two and they can just stay jammed like that. This is because everything else is moving so well (and with EDS often excessively) that their own movements and exercises haven't got enough leverage to drag the specifically stuck hinges free. So the jammed bits just get tighter and stay like that. I've certainly seen them jammed up like that for years. In fact I don't really see how the stuck hinges actually could free up just with time or your own movements. I had costo for seven years after I jammed up my own posterior ribs after a climbing fall, and none of my own exercises or movements (including yoga) could free them, even though I'm merely flexible. It took a specific outside force to do it (manipulation followed by specific stretching of the collagen around the joints). You can fix them by very specific hands-on manual treatment just to free up only the stuck bits. General exercises don't work. Also you have to go gently and carefully otherwise they'll bruise. The Backpod, used cautiously, is an ideal answer, I think. It's not traumatic, so shouldn't bruise and flare things - you're just lying back on it with enough pillows under your head so that it's just a bit uncomfortable initially; definitely not too painful. It's quite specific for individual ribs and spinal joints, so you can stretch just the ones which are tight and need it, and not the whole spine which is already super-flexible and doesn't need more. The tricky bit is that you need to use it yourself just on the tight bits and not elsewhere. In practice, with the EDS patients I've seen, but also with the heaps of merely flexible patients I've seen, this is pretty intuitive and not difficult. If you've been living with EDS, you'll know what feels right. Patients nearly always do. The other thing I do find handy with EDS generally is Pilates. You do want good muscle support for the excessively moving joints, and Pilates is a particularly low stress non-jolting way to quietly build up that surrounding support muscle. (But you still need to free up the specific tight joints too.) Good spotting from you. Cheers, Steve August.

Re laying off the gym: yes. You'll hate it. In my experience, you can't train through costo - it's different from a muscle strain, say. The reason is that any general exercise or stretch just strains further the already strained rib joints on your breastbone, way before you get a benefit to the tight rib machinery around the back. There are KZfaq videos around saying you can fix costo just by exercises - they don't understand the problem. What works is first stopping anything that hurts. Every time it hurts you're simply straining more the already strained rib joints on your breastbone. It's like running on an acutely sprained ankle - it's going to make it worse not better. What you have to do is free up the frozen rib machinery around the back, which is causing the rib joint strain and pain at the front, FIRST. We use the Backpod for that - to stretch free the tight and immobile rib and spinal joints. It usually takes only about three weeks - the same sort of time as stretching hamstrings that are so tight you can't reach your knees, until you can touch your toes. Of course this varies, but you usually have a clear, obvious improvement in the first week to let you know you're on the path. Re sleeping positions: there isn't a good one for costo, except sitting up, unfortunately. Two reasons for night pain with costo - you do feel pain more at night when your body isn't being so distracted by things happening during the day, including information from your joints ad muscles because you're moving around as compared to lying still. Secondly, you get it with costo because you're lying on your rib cage no matter what position you're in. So that pushes on it and it tends to strain and give more at the already strained rib joints on your breastbone. It's like stretching an acutely sprained ankle - it'll hurt. The only way I know of helping it is by fixing the costo, which means freeing up the tight rib machinery around the back which is driving the pain and strain at the front. Good luck with the work.

It was interesting and scary to hear that you got costo from The Zipper carnival ride. I got costo after turning and reaching for my handbag that I (unusually) had put behind my seat in the back of my car. The only reason that I had done this (that fateful day) was because someone had gifted me some chocolate! I didn't want it to melt from the warmth of the heater near the foot-well of the front passenger seat. The Back Pod worked for me after using it just 3-4 times, hopefully it will work for you. I followed the instructions and haven't had any costo pain whatsoever for almost a year. Good luck! (BTW, I'm in Australia too).👱‍♀️❤

Hi Emma. It's an excellent combination - osteopathic manipulation to unlock any really frozen rib and spinal joints around your back, then the Backpod to stretch out the collagen gristle around the joints so they can stay free. Just manipulation on its own bangs the joints free but usually doesn't last because the tight collagen around the joints just freezes them up again. That's why we developed the Backpod. Sounds like you have costo on top of the iHunch - which is increasingly common. Have a look at the iHunch page on the Backpod's NZ website - link is www.bodystance.co.nz/en/ihunch/ See also Bob's recent interview with me on it. Cheers, Steve August.

No - foam rolling isn't the same as the Backpod. Think about it. With a roller you've got a long cylinder which you're stretching your back over, using your upper body weight as the force. So your upper body weight is spread along the length of the cylinder, so you don't get very much pressure at any one point. The small peaked shape of the Backpod means your upper body weight is mostly focused on a much smaller area. So you get a much stronger stretch for that bit. Usually, you need that oomph. What you're stretching is the shortened collagen of the ligaments and joint capsules around the tight joints of your ribs and spine. This stuff is stronger by weight than steel wire. You have to have a strong stretch to do it - otherwise it's like trying to push a brick with a feather. As the instructions say, you grade the stretch with pillows under your head, etc. so it's not too strong to start with. But you need the full stretch or you're just not freeing up the tight joints. As well, the Backpod's small peaked shape can actually get into the ribs, between your spine and the inside edge of the shoulder blades. A roller just can't produce anything like the specificity or oomph. Rollers are unstable, like balls, so your body can't relax on them. The reflex muscle contraction opposes the stretch on the collagen. That why the Backpod has a flat base, so it's stable. So that's why. It's not marketing or fashion - there's simple science behind why we built the Backpod like we have.