[Grifter]

When i stretch my chest, say like in the morning when i wake up or just anytime during the day kinda stretch, my chest pops, the sternum does. Does anyone elses' chest pop when they stretch it? And does anyone know why?

[lifted]

yeah, I get the same thing man...I dunno what it's from. I can't do heavy dips and a few other exc. anymore due to sternum soreness. I think that mine may be from the way I sleep and the amount of weight that's being place on it in a weird way. Do you sleep on your side mostly? That';s how I sleep and think that it may be the problem...

[Grifter]

Yes, i always try sleeping on my back, but i end up on my side eveynight.

[Ant.]

Mine does the same. It isnt painful at all. Feels kinda good actually. There has to be a connection to lifting heavy weight. Thats all I can figure out. Hopefully, someone more educated than us on here can shed a little light on it. I know there is cartilage in the middle of your chest. The stress from lifting could be moving it and when you stretch, it may pop back into place. That is prolly way off those.

[gixxman]

mine does the same and only started to do so after i began working out....especially after heavy chest days....i sleep on my stomach if that makes a difference

[stalemate]

happens to me also. only for 2-3 days after chest day. i sleep all sortsa different ways. still does it bout every time.

[foo.c]

When I was younger mine used to do it too, but somewhere around age 26 or 27 it stopped.

At age 30 I started getting these chest pains. Went to the doc and had a stress test. Everything was fine, but I had these pains still. About a month after that my sternum did the old pop/crack thing of my youth (only louder) just once and the pain went away and hasn't come back.

Perhaps it fuses together or something as you get older?

[Cuffs]

Some people have this, while others don't. I for one do. Especially after a long layoff from training. Sometimes it hurts like hell, most of the time it feels good. The popping in your sternum is more than likely cartilage breaking apart and/or stretching. At least, that's what it is for me. It's not a bad thing. Some people have an over development of cartilage, and it just needs to expand.

[lifted]

Yeah, I also notice it more when I take a break from lifting like cuffs said. I usually train VERY infrequently during PCT and this is when it goves me the most trouble....although for me, it's still minimal.

[miked512]

It most likely is cartilage. I know in my late teens I used to have the same thing and my chiro always said that it was just the cartilage needing to be put back into place.

The ultimate cure for it though was, surprisingly, an open chest surgery a few years back. Uuuhhh, thats not necessarily the most pain free and visually appealing method of fixing a popping sternum but it gets the job done. By the way, the popping of the sternum wasn't the reason for the open chest surgery.

[Iron Warrior]

Originally Posted by Grifter

When i stretch my chest, say like in the morning when i wake up or just anytime during the day kinda stretch, my chest pops, the sternum does. Does anyone elses' chest pop when they stretch it? And does anyone know why?

Are you doing a lot of dips ? A guy I used to train with says he got this from doing dips, dips never affected me though.

[Grifter]

No, i really don't do dips too often.

[bioman]

If it's hurting a chiropractor can sometimes take care of it. Mine did it a lot after my big-ass Hessian of friend broke my sternum when we were "play" fighting. It popped and cracked for years afterwards and now only does it occassionally with no pain.