Treating muscle pain in the chest yourself

Muscle pain in the chest is usually harmless and not always a sign of a heart attack or serious illness.

Nevertheless, it makes sense to have a doctor examine you. Especially if you belong to a high-risk group.

In most cases, chest pains are caused by muscles. In other words, they are caused by excess tension and/or trigger points in the muscles.

You can get rid of tension and trigger points yourself and as such, substantially contribute to relieving your pain.

On this website, I provide you with instructions that you can use to help get your pain under control.

This website is entirely dedicated to the practical means by which you can eliminate your pain.

Therefore, I will now spare you any “unnecessary” information and concentrate on the things that deliver real results.

1. Muscular chest pains: This is how you get rid of them

Tension and trigger points are often the cause of inexplicable muscular grievances. In this case, it is a question of chest pains.

Most people don’t know that they can “massage out” the tension and the “knots” in their muscles and thus eliminate the problem by doing a self-massage.

In the next section, I will show you the self-massage to be done in the regions of the body and the muscles that likely cause chest pain.

2. Description of the self-massage

It’s not necessary to massage muscle tissue that’s relaxed and not tensed. For this reason, I recommend that you examine the regions listed below for sensitivity to pressure, and thus pain, and then to concentrate on the affected areas.

2.1 Chest pain: self-massage of the chest area

Muscles: Pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, sternalis, subclavius

The muscles that are primarily responsible for muscle pain in the chest are found in the chest area.

Massaging these muscles is often all that’s needed to free them of trigger points and relieve the pain, even eliminating it in the long run.

Start with the area in the middle of your chest.

There you will find the “medium” fibers of your pectoralis major – the large chest muscle. It is the most common cause of chest tightness and pain.

A massage ball is the best tool for massaging this muscle.

  • Place a massage ball on your chest between yourself and a wall and press up against the wall.
  • Now roll the ball slowly over your chest area searching for tense and painful spots.
  • As soon as you find one, concentrate on that spot rolling over and massaging this area a maximum of 15 times.
  • Increase the pressure on the ball in the area slightly before the painful spot, roll very slowly over it until just after it; decrease the pressure, roll back again and repeat the process.
  • Do this with every sensitive, painful areas in your chest!

Let’s continue with the area under your collar bone. This is where your subclavius and your pectoralis minor are located.

Both of these muscles frequently cause chest pain if too much tension is present.

You can massage these muscles with a ball, the Trigger Fairy or with your fingers.

When massaging with your fingers, make sure to take regular breaks and keep the sessions short to avoid straining your fingers.

We’ll begin with the pectoralis minor.

  • Place your massage tool – ball, Trigger Fairy or fingers – on or directly under the coracoids process.
  • This is the forward projecting part of your shoulder blade that you can feel on the front side of your shoulder in the hollow between your deltoid and pectoralis major.
  • Examine the 5 – 8 centimetres running diagonally below this area. This is the region through which your pectoralis minor runs.
  • Press repeatedly into the muscle and search for tensed and painful spots.
  • Massage each of these areas using short massage strokes. Start slightly before the sensitive spot stopping just after it.

Self-massage of the pectoralis minor with massage ball, Trigger Fairy or fingers

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The massage ball is under the coracoid process.

Kneel and make small, vertical “rolling motions.”

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You can also concentrate on a single area in the muscle and repeatedly lift your elbow up and to the back.

3

Trigger Fairy

Hold the Trigger Fairy with both hands and apply pressure to the muscle.

Massage every painful spot using short strokes, pulling the Trigger Fairy from just before to just after the spot.

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As an alternative, you can hold the Trigger Fairy with only one hand, apply pressure to the muscle, and then lift your elbow toward the back several times.

5

Fingers

Shape your hand into a shovel and search for painful spots with your fingers.

Once you find one, press into the area of the muscle before it, then pull your fingers over this location, let up on the pressure, return to the starting point and repeat the process.

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15 massage strokes are more than enough for one session.

I also recommend that you support your massaging hand with your free hand to spare your fingers of excess strain.

Proceed in the same way in the region directly under your collarbone.

  • This is where your subclavius muscle is located.
  • The most sensitive areas are usually found in the area just before where the collarbone meets the sternum.
  • Make sure to explore the entire muscle starting from above your coracoids process all the way to your sternum.
  • Carry out the massage strokes horizontally, i.e. to the left or to right.
  • You can either use your fingers or the Trigger Fairy as a massage tool.

Self-massage of the subclavius using your fingers or the Trigger Fairy

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Self-massage with the fingers

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Self-massage with the Trigger Fairy

2.2 Muscular chest pain: self-massage of the forward neck area

Muscle: Sternocleidomastoid

This muscle is not very often involved in chest pain in the same way as those described in the first point.

However, to be absolutely thorough, it should nevertheless be examined since the presence of trigger points in this muscle could be the cause of pain.

Don’t spend too much time on this area if you don’t find any sensitive spots.

Here we’re dealing with the sternocleidomastoid muscle, but don’t let its name scare you.

All you need to know is that it is the thick, round muscle on the side of your neck that stretches from the collarbone to the back of your head.

Massage this muscle with the thumb-index finger technique. That means you roll it back and forth between the two fingers.

  • Take hold of the side of your neck shaping your hand like a pair of pliers.
  • Now, pull the muscle you find there slightly outward. You can easily feel the entire length of the muscle with your hands in this position.
  • Take the time to search for painful spots. As soon as you find one, slowly roll it back and forth between your fingers a maximum of 15 times.
  • If you feel your pulse under your fingers during the massage, then that means you have taken hold of the large artery located in your neck. There is nothing to be worried about. Just let go and grasp the muscle again –this time without the artery.

3. Your self-evaluation for successfully treating your pain

To eliminate your muscle pain in the chest, it is important to continuously evaluate your self-massages.

  • In which areas did you find the most painful locations? This is an indicator of the location of the main problem zones.
  • Where were the muscles soft and supple? There is no need to massage these areas. Where did the massage offer the most pain relief?
  • Experiment with your massage positions and techniques and stick to those that give you the best results.