How to Get Rid of Side Cramps (aka Side Stitches)

That sharp, stabbing pain just under your ribs has a way of stopping a good run cold. Athletes call it a side stitch, and if you have ever doubled over mid-workout waiting for it to pass, you are in good company: roughly 70 percent of runners report experiencing one in any given year. The reassuring part is that a side stitch is almost always harmless and fades within minutes. The frustrating part is that a lot of the popular advice about fixing one is folklore. This guide separates the techniques that actually hold up in research from the ones that do not, explains what is really happening inside your body when a stitch hits, and walks through the prevention steps that keep side cramps from interrupting your training in the first place.

What is a side stitch?

A side stitch is a sharp, localized pain felt just under the ribs during exercise, known in medical research as exercise-related transient abdominal pain, or ETAP. The sensation changes with intensity: it tends to feel sharp or stabbing when severe, and more like cramping, aching, or pulling when mild, according to a comprehensive review of the research in Sports Medicine. The pain shows up most often in the upper-to-mid abdomen along the lower edge of the rib cage, though it can land anywhere across your midsection. Some people also feel it referred to the tip of the shoulder on the same side, a clue that points to where the pain actually originates.

Side stitches are most common in runners, but they turn up in swimming, horse riding, and other activities that involve repeated movement of the torso. They are far more frequent in younger and less experienced athletes, although even well-conditioned competitors are not immune.

What causes a side stitch?

The most likely cause of a side stitch is irritation of the parietal peritoneum, the thin membrane that lines your abdominal wall and the underside of your diaphragm, not a cramping diaphragm as older advice often claims.

Researchers favor this explanation because it accounts for the pain's sharp, well-localized quality, its appearance across different regions of the abdomen, and its link to shoulder tip pain, since part of that membrane is served by the phrenic nerve that refers pain to the shoulder.

Several long-repeated theories have not held up. The idea that a stitch is your diaphragm cramping from lack of oxygen runs into a problem: when researchers measured lung function during an episode, they found no impairment in breathing at all, and stitches occur even in low-breathing activities like horse riding. The popular "it's a muscle cramp" explanation also failed testing, because electrical activity in the abdominal muscles was not elevated during the pain. Here is how the leading theories compare:

One honest caveat: scientists have not fully settled the exact mechanism. What they have established is which explanations no longer fit the evidence, which matters when you are deciding what advice to trust.

How do you get rid of a side stitch while running?

To get rid of a side stitch fast, ease your pace, breathe slowly and deeply, and press your fingers firmly into the painful spot until it settles.

When researchers asked roughly 600 sufferers what they actually do, the most common responses were deep breathing, pushing on the affected area, stretching the sore side, and bending forward at the waist, as documented in the Sports Medicine review.

A few tactics worth trying in the moment:

• Slow down or stop. It is the least exciting fix and the most reliable one. The pain is transient, meaning it fades quickly once you reduce the effort.
• Breathe deeply and deliberately. This was the single most-used technique among sufferers. Some people also get relief from pursed-lip breathing, exhaling against gentle resistance.
• Apply firm pressure. Press your hand into the painful area, which may support or limit movement of the structures underneath.
• Bend forward and stretch the side. Many runners find this helps, though the evidence is mixed, so treat it as worth a try rather than a guarantee.

Be straight with yourself about expectations: the research describes mid-episode relief techniques as inconsistent, and concludes that the most dependable way to end a stitch remains backing off the effort. That is not a failure of your technique. It reflects how little the underlying cause responds to quick tricks.

How do you prevent side stitches?

You can prevent most side stitches by avoiding large meals and sugary drinks in the two hours before exercise and by building core strength.

Prevention is where the evidence gives you the most control, so it deserves more attention than the in-the-moment fixes.

The steps with the strongest support:

• Time your fuel. Large volumes of food and drink before a workout consistently provoke stitches, so leave at least two hours after a big meal, and closer to three or four hours if you are especially prone, as the epidemiology suggests. Notably, it is the volume that matters, not the nutritional makeup of the meal.
• Skip concentrated, sugary drinks beforehand. Hypertonic beverages such as full-sugar sodas and juices are the most provocative fluids tested. Plain water and isotonic sports drinks are easier to tolerate.
• Sip, do not gulp. Small, regular amounts of fluid during exercise tend to sit better than large volumes at once.
• Strengthen your core. Runners with stronger trunk muscles and a thicker resting transversus abdominis experience fewer stitches, and trunk-stability training has prevented recurring episodes in case studies.
• Improve your posture. Poor alignment in the upper back is linked to more frequent stitches, and the thoracic spine appears to be involved in reproducing the pain.
• Keep building fitness. Stitches grow less frequent as your conditioning improves, even if better-trained athletes are not completely protected.

Which side do side stitches happen on, and what does it mean?

Side stitches strike the right side roughly twice as often as the left in adults, while younger athletes tend to feel them more on the left, and the location does not signal a problem with any specific organ. This pattern comes from large surveys of athletes and reflects anatomy and age rather than anything to worry about.

Age is one of the clearest predictors. Stitches are far more common in the young and become less frequent and less severe over time: about 77 percent of active people under 20 report them, compared with roughly 40 percent of those over 40. If you have noticed stitches easing as you have gotten older, that tracks with the data.

Are side stitches dangerous, and when should you see a doctor?

Side stitches are not dangerous and resolve on their own, but abdominal pain that does not ease when you stop exercising is worth having checked by a doctor.

The defining trait of a true stitch is in its medical name: transient. It arrives with exertion and fades within minutes once you slow down or stop.

Pain that behaves differently is a reason to pay attention. If your discomfort lingers at rest, keeps returning in the same spot outside of exercise, grows steadily worse, or comes alongside other symptoms, it is no longer following the stitch pattern, and a medical evaluation makes sense to rule out other causes. A genuine side stitch leaves no lasting harm. Anything that does not fit that description deserves a closer look from a professional.

What This Means in the end

A side stitch is a common, harmless, and frustrating interruption that almost every runner meets sooner or later. The current science points to irritation of the abdominal lining rather than the cramping diaphragm of old advice, and it is honest about a hard truth: once a stitch starts, easing your effort is the most reliable way to end it. Your real leverage is upstream. Time your meals, skip the sugary pre-run drink, build your core, and stay consistent with your training, and you will face the sharp pain under your ribs far less often.