@picartist Well, I think you have diagnosed yourself. Huffs done correctly shouldn't be strong enough to cause pain, but coughing hard surely can irritate muscles and the lining between lungs and ribs. Maybe you can talk to your doc about "pain from coughing" and try to find a way to reduce severity.

One thing to note - in my early airway clearance days, I often had this issue. The golden advice I got from my pulmonologist's long time nurse was "back off" - it turned out my vigorous attempts to get rid of all the mucus was irritating my airways and causing even more, and more violent, coughing.

Here are a few of the bits of advice she gave me - Aim for 15-20 minutes MAX of airway clearance in a session - more is not necessarily better. Concentrate on deep breathing and huff coughs, try to stop deep coughing by swallowing and sipping water or warm tea. Use tea or lozenges to soothe your throat to limit some coughing - I use Sootheez drops from Amazon, recommended by my speech therapist, or ThroatCoat herbal teas.