Sports Break | The healing time of a rib fracture

Sports Break

After a broken rib, heavy physical work should be avoided at first. However, some movement exercises can also promote the healing of the rib. However, it is important to ensure that the rib cage in particular is not subjected to unusually high loads.

You should also make sure that you do not lift any heavy objects (not more than five kilograms). Movements such as vacuuming should also be avoided if possible. Sports where there is a general risk that the rib injury will break open again should be avoided under all circumstances.

This includes jogging or cycling. Exertion increases breathing – this can also have an effect on the broken rib. All these activities should be avoided for at least six weeks.

Only when the broken rib is completely healed can you resume your everyday sports activities. Nevertheless, there are some physical exercises that can and should be performed during a rib fracture. These include breathing exercises, stretching and extension exercises, back exercises but also light weight training (knee bends, leg presses, light dumbbell training).

Simple walks also pose no danger to the healing of the rib fracture. It usually takes three to four weeks until a rib is largely healed. A complete healing takes another two to three weeks longer in simple, normal rib fractures. The less the complaints become, the more sports activities can be resumed. However, sports that pose a risk of rib fractures should be postponed until the ribs have completely healed.

What to do if the rib fracture does not heal?

If the bone ends of the broken rib are not parallel to each other, complications may occur during healing. If the bones cannot grow together without complications, surgical interventions may be induced. If the doctor finds that the rib does not heal together as it should, he may consider surgery.

This can be determined relatively early after the fracture, as it is easy to see how the ribs are positioned in relation to each other and whether they are growing together or not. When a rib fracture is diagnosed that does not heal together, surgery is usually the only option. In a surgical procedure, either screws or plates can be used to fix the two ends of the bone.

In this way, the ribs are brought together again and can grow together properly. An alternative to surgery is in a few cases the complete “dead-leg” of the nerves in the area of the broken ribs. This method can be used if surgery is too dangerous, for example, if the fracture is located near the spine. The pain caused by a broken rib is stopped, but the broken rib itself is not treated.