Title — when I’m running I pretty regularly get a stitch in my right side, I assume it’s something like a muscle spasm that may be on a side I’m overcompensating on or something, but what exactly are they?
In: Biology
This is one of those “we don’t really know” phenomena….a lot of theories not a lot of concrete evidence.
Muscle spasm; electrolytes;cramps; posture are top theories.
You can generally self correct pretty quickly by trying to regain a normal breathing pattern and straightening your chest/torso
There seems to be a lot of different causes and effects but noone I ows for sure. I get them more easily when I’m full or hungry so 2-3 hours after a meal is normally my sweat spot for running without them.
If you want some advice try breathing in more than you breath out. So if you normally breath in for 3 steps and then breath out for 3 steps, try breathing in for 4 breaths then out for 3.
Alternatively I find stopping and reaching as high as I can then towards my toes as much as you can.
I’d give a very different answer for ELI10, perhaps talking about how awesome it is that there’s so much of the world we don’t really understand.
But for a five-year-old, I’d simply say it’s your body’s way of saying that what you are doing is hard.
I get a very brief but sharp stitch sensation in my side when I cut my fingernails too short specifically when I cut into the hyponychium. no idea why.
So – we don’t know.
At one point we thought it was due to buildup of lactic acid during exercise. But this was disproven.
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