When I broke two of mine snowboarding I was essentially incapacitated for about 2 weeks. After that I could do very light training for about another 2 weeks before I felt like I was back to normal. Very very painful experience for me, especially those first few weeks.

I broke mine in a Track Cycling accident- someone went down in front of me, the day before I was leaving for Nationals.

I tried to continue to train, but breathing pain was the limiter. I went to the Doctor, and had him start an aggressive treatment of a K Laser, and Pulsed EMF.

I had been training for an Hour Record and needed to be aggressive with the healing. Three weeks treatment I was back on the Track, and three weeks later set a record.

I think one of the concerns is having a fall and actually puncturing lungs, you need to protect them for a while.

I broke a rib two years ago (tried to show off while tubing.... ) about 2-3 weeks out from ITU Worlds in Chicago. Went to the doctor, told me to chill out. Zero chance that was going to happen with only a few weeks left till last triathlon of the season (and biggest race I'd ever done) so basically did the ibuprofen regularly and continued training as normal. Which, given the timing was generally starting to taper off. I had a pretty high level of discomfort while swimming and running but bike was ok. I ended up racing well, but not something I would choose to repeat. I would say that I was feeling 'fine' after 3-4 weeks and it was 2 months before I didn't notice during training but actual time is a bit hazy now....

IM Canada is in July? If so why not take some weeks, and rest/recover. I basically took 2-3 weeks completely off training last year (right about now) for a move and came back to have a great summer of training and racing. Depends a bit on where you're at now with your program and fitness but could be better long term rather than forcing it, doing a couple weeks of sub par training and then elongating the injury.

---

________________________________________________________
Taylor Rogers

2024: IM Hamburg

I have broken ribs at least 4 times, but I think it's closer to 6. I am of the opinion that as long as the pain isn't too acute and the pain isn't increasing day to day, you're ok to keep working out. Even though they often aren't a "big deal" relatively speaking in what you can break, ribs can be just as painful as a broken back, which I've done as well. I have played hockey and raced with broken ribs, but I've also had them where I can't do anything for about a month and life just sucks. The pain will tell you when to stop. Also, working out hard may not be the best way to heal since your body needs the energy, so be smart about it.

broke my ribs last summer, fractured but not displaced. I tried to train through, thought it was just bruising, until I heard/felt them snap crackle and pop while breathing hard in an interval session. That was disturbing. My wife made me go to the doctor ;-)

basically training through is going to cause them to heal more slowly. Another bike crash or fall while running/walking/etc has a high probability of displacing the fractures, which will really suck and probably require surgery.
Pain is the guide for when to resume exercising - so a judgement call, but the risks are there.

I did not find anyone in Google or in the real world who recommended binders..

Doc told me 6 weeks. A friend who is a GP said 'at our age' 12 weeks was more realistic. She was right..
Did exercise bike, pool swimming with fins and kicking only, water running. None of these hurt so figured it was OK.

---

"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview

2 years ago, big crash during a sprint tri and broke 1 rib and separated shoulder. I was back on my trainer 2 days later and kept up my fitness until I was able to run and swim again. 5 weeks later, got hit by a truck and broke 2 more ribs (plus a whole lot of stitches). Back on my trainer 2 days later. Barely completed a half ironman 5 weeks later and a full ironman a 4 months after that.

Like others said, if the pain wasn't too bad, I could continue the training. Mostly I was on my trainer as long as I wasn't in the aero position. Upright on my road bike didn't hurt much after a week. Running took the longest to recover from as the jarring hurt the most. Swimming wasn't too bad except I had to wait till my skin had healed up a bit. I wasn't allowed to swim with the stitches.

I would say let the amount of pain that you have be your guide. If you can do stuff with minimal pain I don't see you are doing any harm. You might want to avoid really strenuous exercise and be careful on the bike just to be safe. The only thing I have ever done for broken ribs if it is only a few is provide appropriate pain relief and make sure their are no complications by reviewing the initial chest xray and telling under patients under what circumstances they should seek followup care. A few patients with major trauma have had hardware put in for a flail chest (so many ribs broken that the chest doesn't move as a unit) but those people are managed by trauma surgeons because they are hurt badly.

---

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Rib injury in mid January of this year. Pain until end of February. Took Tylenol when I had to, usually to sleep. You actually want the inflammation to come to the area to help heal so personally I would avoid anti-inflammatories. Do what you can to train with out impact. ie. Trainer time. I did go to chiro for cold lazar- do not know if it helped. Did go to massage which helped tremendously as I was compensating and everything else hurt.