Anyone that succesfully got rid of side stitches and is running side stich free?

How long have you been running?

Many people get stitches for a while or if they run off and on but they go away once they attain a certain level of fitness.

Are you hydrated properly? Not just drinking something 2 hours before but all day every day.

I knew a HS kid who didn't like to go to the bathroom during the school day. They got stitches during every race or hard workout after school but were fine on Saturday mornings.

[quote]LP:

I've seen plenty of of "fit" people get side stitches. Anyhow, try exhaling purposefully on every right foot strike for a bit. The stitch should go away. If not, try the left foot. If all else fails just jam your fingers in the stitch until the muscle relaxes.

I get them one or two days a year just out of the blue. Sometimes during taper, which is maddening.

Yes. Practice breathing deeply and evenly. 3 steps in, 5 steps out during easy runs in my case (I have a high turnover).

I hate stitches a lot wrote:

I found info on the internet and I am quite sure it has to do with my breathing and core/diafragma muscles.

This is utter baloney. These muscles don't cramp up like that and if they did, it wouldn't feel like a stabbing pain, it would feel like a cramp, and it wouldn't restrict itself to the sides either.

Just behind the ribs at the right side.

Look at an anatomical chart of the intestines and the ribs and you'll see that's where the ascending colon meets the transverse colon. Running agitates intestinal gas, causing it to rise just like CO2 in a shaken bottle of soda. The tops of the ascending and descending colons are where gas collects and causes bloating. If the bloating gets bad enough it puts pressure on nerves around it and causes pain, and the pain can get worse if the diaphragm then presses against them too.

You will see all kinds of bullshit replies from people who don't want to believe this just because I said it. But it's true. Side stitches are just gas. You may not notice gas most of the time, but running is different.

Running for 4 years now. My fitness is very good (best ever), but my strength (muscles) not (don't train it..)

I think I hydrate properly, I drank enough before the race I think. I had to go to the toilet some times. I had to wait 10 minutes in the start place (don't know the English word..) where we were packed very close. It was very warm there. Maybe it has to do something with that too?

The race was in the early afternoon. I woke up 5 hours before the race, got my breakfast at 4.5 hours before the race.

So what has worked for you guys? My MS and HS kids can have a whole race torpedoed. My advice has been at a minimum don't eat for at least 3 hours before meet. This seems to work for most. Every once in a while I get a kid who says he has to eat near race time or gets stich??

Getting rid of stich--sips of H2O? Fingers under the rib cage? Breathing "exercises?

If it was just gas (which is a good theory), I would think you could drink willy nilly and not get a stich but clearly there are those that chug a water or gatorade and get a stich. The unilateral nature makes me thing colon, but the acute pain with heavy exercise that goes away as soon as you walk makes me think respiratory (gas pain would persist until passing it). Also gas pain, which we all have had, doesn't feel anything like a stich.

As someone who has dealt with this basically their entire life, there really doesn't seem to be a one size fits all for this problem. And after doing extensive research (googling lol), it seems like the medical/sports community also doesn't have a universal understanding of it either.

Some people say it's lactic acid, some say it's shallow breathing/not using diaphragmatic breathing, some say it's eating/drinking too close to a race, some say it's muscle spasms, some say it's running posture, etc. I have had instances where they've occurred where it seemed it could be any of the above reasons. The people who say it only happens to inexperienced runners is wrong. Look what happened to Kincaid last year.

In high school I really had zero knowledge about running, and apparently so did my coach. Regardless, I would go out way too hard in every XC race and get hit with a major side stitch by the halfway mark, almost fully incapacitating me.

Having since improved my high school times by quite a large amount and learning to pace myself better, I still occasionally get side stitches. They either happen on my right rib cage or my right shoulder, and it seems to happen moreso when I am running downhill. I usually try the forcefully expelling air when taking a right step trick, and not sure if coincidental, but typically works itself out after a few minutes. I just don't let it affect me the way I used to. Mind you they are much less debilitating than they were in high school, but it's definitely frustrating.

I've really tried to be more rhythmic with my breathing, but I find it really hard to do so. So therefore I just try to make sure I take deeper breaths through my belly and not just quick, shallow breaths in my chest. If someone has a super specific rhythmic breathing that works for them let me know, but I seem to struggle with staying focused on it.

I can get a side stitch during a race or hard, prolonged workout. I find that it's when I'm running hard (sometimes too hard) and taking very rapid, shallow breaths, above my threshold. There are three things that sometimes work to make them go away:

-Sometimes just running through it helps and it will just go away on it's own. I don't know how to explain this, but sometimes it just does, without changing pace or breathing. This only works about 1/4 of the time.

-Slowing down, enough to lower my breathing rate, helps. This works the most reliably, nearly 100% of the time, but isn't ideal since it results in a worse performance.

- Sometimes it helps to hold pace, but change up my breathing slightly. What I'll do is make a point to fully exhale and blow all the air out, then take very big, but slower, inhalations and exhalations. This seems to sometimes release whatever spasm is happening in my diaphragm muscle, when I'm getting a stitch. This seems to work about 1/2 of the time.

-Not eating big meals before hard workouts or races.

Bumped to keep the comedic ignorance afloat? Well it is still gas. This is why experienced runners take a complete crap before a workout or race. Empty the colon.

I've had a side stitch maybe once or twice in the past 10 years. I do know what I'm talking about. And it's not just me that knows it. As always, it is sad but hilarious to see people deny the obvious in the hope that I'm wrong.

It comes out of nowhere, but there have to be other runners nearby. Twist the waist, like in the twist dance, and it will stop. Then you'll see who has the stronger diaphragm. Or to really blow the attacker's mind, do racewalking for ten seconds.