Recovering from broken ribs

I broke one last summer. Gentle commuting within a couple of days, didn’t ride off road for approx a month. Probably varies hugely from case to case.

Yeah took me about 12 weeks before I could do anything strenuous. If you need to cough/sneeze get a pillow and hold it to your chest. Be prepared for some uncomfortable nights' sleep ahead.

A couple of years ago I went over the handlebars due to collision with a large itinerant branch, resulting in broken ribs.

I recovered faster than I expected but it was back ribs which I believe cause significant less pain than front ribs. Yeah coughing wasn't pleasant nor was the clicking sensation caused by the break when I breathed..

Last april I came off at Gisburn and double factured three ribs and punctured a lung. Four nights in hospital on morphine and then back home with oramorph and strong painkillers. Couldn't lay down at all so slept in a chair for three to four weeks was off work two months and it took quite a few more months before feeling anything like right. Can still feel pain now at the site of one of the fractures.

And then about eight weeks ago slipped at work and landed with the corner of a garden planter in my other side and fractured another rib. This one was only really sore for a week and then just had to be careful what I was doing for a few weeks, can barely feel it now.

If you're going to cough or sneeze wrap that pillow around the factured area and squeeze real tight under your arm or whatever works best. It really helps.

With this latest fracture I was feeling so good after a week that I forgot and let out a full blown sneeze. It felt like I tore open whatever little healing had already happened, didn't forget again!

Done it 3 times. The only time my ribs healed in the 6 weeks was the time my spine got broken, 2 vertebrae and 4 ribs. Ribs were fine after 6 weeks in hospital on lots of drugs.

You'll have to sleep sat upright. Take co-codamol to suppress coughing. Diazepam is good if getting bad spasms.

You may be able to ride a road bike after a couple of weeks OK, but you won't be climbing or pulling on the bars. Looking 4 plus weeks, upto a few months. Mate of mine broke 4 ribs and punctured his lung on the MTB, but was back on the road within two weeks.

As always, the answer is “it depends”
Broke one skiing years ago. Pain gone after 6 weeks.
But broke a few 11/12/22 coming off in the snow landing hard on my back. Hurt a lot for 8-9 weeks and didn’t ride for a month. Now 4 1/2 months in it only hurts if I roll onto that side in bed or need to push up on that side from lying. There is a palpable lump on several ribs and I think my rib cage is a different shape to before. Riding is definitely fine though.

Snapped six ribs at the back snowboarding. (2 x Helis, very punctured lung, 10 days in hospital etc). Tramadol and sleeping sitting upright...massive pillow pile either side worked for me. Not ideally of course, but well enough. 4 months until I could ride a road bike again, although strangely non-crashy MTB was OK about the same time too, wider bars seemed to help for me.

I literally feel your pain. I currently have four fractured ribs and spine after Bike park Wales... I've also cracked a few sparring.

Hang in there. I'm about 20 days in, and I can manage a whole day without pain killers finally.

Rotate ibuprofen and paracetamol, get some stronger stuff if you can. Sleeping will get better. I managed only thanks to cocodomol.

Try to breathe deeply even though it hurts, and try not to get a cough!

6 weeks for me to be pain free both times I’ve broken mine.

Broke my ribs 6 times now. As already said recovery varies I've had anything from 4 weeks to 9 months.
First time, docs advise was stay off the MTB for as long as possible as the chances of crashing were higher and with already weakened ribs a puncture lung was a high risk. Also try to make sure you take good deep breaths as much as possible if your in pain and take shallow breaths you increase the risk of pneumonia.

A really important thing is, don't rebreak them. it's really easy to do and just so rubbish when it happens.

For sleep, build a nest! Spare/old duvets, pillows, blankets, whatever, anything to avoid going flat. I usually end up sleeping in a chair for a week or so just because it's so much nicer (and not just sleeping, but also avoids the rubbish getting-up-again bit).

How much you can do varies wildly depending on you and the injury, so it's hard to really advise. I did 10 under the ben one year with freshly busted ribs, it was really sore but nothing like as bad as other times. Another time, I just couldn't do bloody anything, couldn't even use the arm properly. Good painkillers help, I could definitely get through any of those breaks with nothing but over-the-counter but there's no reason to and less pain means more mobility means better healing and less chance of complications. So I go straight to the GP and get some proper strength cocodamol

This thread is giving me the proper heebie jeebies thinking back to December when I did mine. I managed to get flu about ten days in and every cough and sneeze felt like another massive boot in the ribs. I had to take a day off work the week before Christmas and missed a gig I was looking forward to so it must’ve been horrific. Hoovered up all the pain killers I could find in the house initially- some codeine from when I sliced my knee open in 2017 but they went out of date before covid so not sure they did much. After a bit though I think opiates were making me feel worse so I stuck to paracetamol and ibuprofen for a few weeks.
My wife was away the weekend it happened and still thinks I fell down the stairs! Who would be foolish enough to go mtbing in deep fresh snow!

Avoid catching a cold(you don't want to sneeze)

Only hang out with boring people(you don't want to laugh)

avoid sleeping on them(this was hardest for me) so I slept on the couch to avoid rolling over.

The good news.

Broken heals faster then cracked normally

I was back on the bike(road only no shaky mtb) after a couple of days. 5my broken/craked ribs got missed I only found out weeks later when consulting for a long term leg injury I was nursing as well

I'm beginning to think I got off lightly - despite it being a 50mph crunch - after reading some of these horror stories.

Have learnt the hard way this morning about not laughing and will have to adjust my tv viewing accordingly.

Find it much easier to stand and luckily use a standing desk so have no excuse not to work instead of riding my bike.

Alternating codeine and ibuprofen at the moment, but can't say I'm really get much off them. I'm sure they do take the edge off but it's hard to tell.

I'm thinking going for a walk every day will help with making sure my lungs get gently cleared but someone else will have to walk the dogs since I can't hold a lead or shout when they cause chaos.

I was supposed to set off bikepacking across France in a couple of weeks, then ride the Alpine passes in June. Looks like the bikepacking section is out, but I'm hoping I'll be able to do the Alps after getting a lift down. Frustrating because I spent ages planning this trip, but I've only myself to blame. As usual.

50 mph, my back was broken in car turnng right, so maybe 10-15 mph vs me doing 13 mph (on the brakes as Garmin said).

Codeine is to surpress coughing. Backpacking in two weeks looks out, as you'll need to lift or pull on bars. I was able to ride to work, but not pull on the bars at all after two weeks. The big crash, basically no, needed diazepam to stop the rib muscles contracting, then causing the back muscles to spasm - I asked for something, as even a slight movementcasused the chest to spasm, then the spine, which was incredibly painful. I was off my head for 3-4 weeks (in a hospital bed).

6weeks for mine at least.

As above a pillow is your friend

Word of the wise - avoid comedy programs 😉