Injury Finder

Abdominal Muscle Pain: Common Causes and Conditions

Abdominal muscle pain tends to show up in ordinary moments: sitting up out of bed, coughing, twisting to reach the back seat. Sometimes it's one heavy lift that went too far. Sometimes it turns up after a pregnancy and doesn't settle on its own.

Pain across the front of your stomach, along one side, or around the lower ribs can come from a few different muscles, and which one changes what you should do about it.

What's causing your core or abdominal pain?

Abdominal Strain

A pulled or torn abdominal muscle, upper or lower. Sharp pain when you sit up, cough, twist or lift, usually traced back to a single hard effort.

Intercostal / Side Strain

Pain around or between the lower ribs on one side, worse on a deep breath, a twist or an overhead throw. In cricket and throwing sports it's called a side strain.

Diastasis Recti

Separation of the abdominal muscles down the midline after pregnancy. Often noticed as a gap or doming through the middle of your belly, and a core that feels like it won't switch on.

Not sure this is your region?

Some pain here starts somewhere else. Tenderness right where your ribs meet the breastbone, a deeper ache in the chest wall after a knock, pain between your shoulder blades, or a pull low down where your thigh meets your abdomen all point elsewhere. The Injury Finder body map will take you there.

If it happened playing sport, start with sports physiotherapy. For postnatal core rehab, that's women's health physiotherapy. Otherwise, general physiotherapy is the place to start.

Either way, we'll work out what's actually causing the pain before deciding what to do about it.

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Reviewed by Ahmed Elsayed Principal Physiotherapist at Well Motion