Post Vaccine Arm Pain: Exercises to Fight It

, including the Covid-19 vaccine, can cause arm pain as a side effect. Fortunately, this is a temporary symptom and above all it can be improved with some ad hoc exercises. Here are the most effective ones for post vaccine arm pain.

. Incidentally, post-vaccine arm pain also appears to appear with other vaccines currently in use.

Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are Messenger RNA (or mRNA) vaccines. It is possible that the reason recipients of these drugs feel more pain than those who receive routine vaccines is that the former contain unique preservatives and stabilizers. But this is only a "hypothesis, not yet confirmed at the moment. In any case, there is no need to fear: it is not a serious reaction.

and the chemicals inside the syringe. According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), post-vaccine discomfort is a sign that the body is building protection against the new coronavirus. That said, if you don't have a sore arm after the Covid-19 vaccine it doesn't mean the vaccine didn't work. Therefore, one should not be alarmed in either case.

The side effects of vaccination are minimal and do not preclude the possibility of doing sports immediately afterwards.

Soon, the Covid-19 vaccine can also be done in pharmacies.

. How? With a series of targeted exercises. Here are six suggested by Rachel Volkl, a physiotherapist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

of the shoulders, with the palms of the hands facing forward. Slowly rotate your arms by drawing small circles backwards. Do 10 repetitions, then repeat by drawing circles forward.

, bringing the upper limbs a little "back".

away from a wall. Place the palm of your hand against it at shoulder height, keeping your elbow bent. Slowly slide ("walking") your hand up along the wall until your arm is fully extended. Pause for a while, then slowly reverse the movement to bring your hand back to shoulder height. Repeat on the other side.

A tip: if your shoulder is very sore, you can place the other arm under the elbow to support it.

. Then, the expert suggests doing 5 to 10 repetitions of each movement approximately every hour (during daylight hours) for two to four days or until the pain subsides. They can only be done with the arm that received the injection, but it would be better to do them with both arms to ensure symmetrical training.