Is suffering muscle pulls or other injuries from sneezes common or unusual?

Over time as I’ve gotten older and stiffer I’ve suffered some minor, but extremely annoying muscle pulls in my neck after violent sneezes over the past few years. I used to just go with the sneeze, but over the past several months I’ve been trying to quickly readjust my posture just before the sneeze hits so my body is more upright and not locked into a fixed position. I’m not sure it’s really doing anything, but I have not suffered any recent muscle pulls.

Does this happen to other people re being injured by sneezes? Just curious.

When I had a really bad cold sophomore year of college I could NOT stop coughing and sneezing. One series of coughs were so violent I hurt my neck or back, I forget. But I hurt it bad enough that I had to lie down and skip class cause I could hardly move. I was 19 then. I haven’t done it since but I have hurt a muscle in my neck a few times when putting on shirts when I was trying them on in a store. Once was so bad I cried in the dressing room.

Not unusual, not that uncommon, either. Over the years I’ve known at least 3 or 4 people who’ve wrenched ribs out of place sneezing <or trying not to sneeze, depending>. Though it has to suck, I wouldn’t MAKE an appointment over it. You might want to ask the doc if s/he has any helpful hints if you’re already there for something else, though.

Repulled a muscle in my back once, have pulled muscles a couple of times when I didnt have a pulled muscle to start with.

What I fucking hate is that coughing fit or sneezing fit when I have a fucking migraine that makes me feel like someone cooked off a brick of c-4 in my head :mad:

I’d say, while it’s not common it certainly happens, I remember once, I grabbed a 5lb barbell and it pulled my muscle. I can curl 100 pounds, but it was the way I picked up the barbell.

I recall once, someone behind my called my name and I turned to quick and wrenched my back.

Sometimes it’s not the weight, it’s simply the way you move while you’re lifting things.

Mountain climber Alan Hinkes sneezed and slipped a disc.

A broken rib from severe coughing. I’d had broken ribs before (from an accident) so I know what it feels like; told doctor and she was skeptical. Had a chest x-ray to help diagnose the coughing, and that showed the broken rib (so there, doc!) Yeah, I think experimenting with different body positions could help. When I cough now, I lean over the sink or a chair, and this helps. (I figure maybe this tightens the muscles and protects the ribs?) I also have tendinitis in my right shoulder, and the coughing makes that hurt, but not if I lean over the lower my shoulder.

I’m not sure what a muscle pull is. If it’s what I think it is, I do it all the time to my back and neck. I move wrong, usually while lifting weights. The actual incident doesn’t cause any pain, but within a few hours…I can’t move that section of back. The only way to get rid of it is to stretch it out…which causes excruciating pain. If I do that, it goes away in four to seven days. Is that a muscle pull?

Back to the OP: yes, I’ve done this while sneezing. Many times.

The one and only time I threw out my back I did it sneezing. I was bending over to pick something up, I sneezed, and major ouchies. Later that day, I stupidly attempted to lift a large bag of cat litter and the pain caused me to faint.