That's some good information, thanks. Do you know of a good core strength work out to help me prevent injuries like this in the future?
I'm constantly working on my internal and external obliques, transverse abdomonis and rectus abdominis. What can I do to strengthen the muscles in my back?
You're welcome. It sounds like you are already doing a lot of work for your core muscles.
If you want to strengthen your back some more, some good exercises are deadlifts and barbell rows. For the deadlifts, just do a few sets of 10-12 reps. For the barbell rows, you can do a few sets of 12-15 reps.
Another great exercise for your ribs that was recommended to me by a brown belt from Vegas that had some rib problems is to do dumbell pullovers while lying on a bench.
If you don't want to use weights, you can use a medicine ball and place it on your chest when doing situps. Or you can use the medicine ball while lying on the mat and do pullovers. Hold the ball on your chest, push it up in the air over your chest by almost fully extending your arms (leave a little bend in the elbows), carry the ball over your head so that the ball can touch the mat behind your head, and then while flexing your lats, pull the ball back up to the starting position of the ball being extended up over your head. Repeat.
Another good exercise is to lay on your stomach and stretch your arms out all the way in front of your face like you're flying like superman. And do some flutters. That means, lifting your arms and feet slightly off the ground at the same time. Do a few sets of 20 reps. Don't be too jerky in this movement.
Another good exercise is to lay on your back and put your legs up in the air. Have a partner push your feet down to the mat, and then as soon as your feet get clost to the mat, raise them back up to your partners hands. Then your partner will repeat by pushing your legs back down. You can do this exercise under time. Whatever time is comfortable for you.
You can lay on the mat and pull yourself across the mat using only your arms. Laying flat on your stomach, shoot your arms forward and then pull them back while pulling yourself forward.
You can do leg raises by hanging from a pull-up bar or using the leg raise apparatus at a gym (the one where your legs hang from the apparatus while your forearms are supporting your weight and your hands are gripping a verticle handle.
Just make sure you give your ribs time to heal. From what I've learned by reading everyone's responses in threads like these is that the people that give themselves proper time to heal don't have the recurring problems later on. Then there are the stubborn ones like me that didn't wait long enough. Don't make that mistake.
