If you’ve ever had an intra-muscular vaccination before, you know that a common side effect is soreness in that muscle that can last for a few days.
Is that so bad? Not really on its own BUT here’s what typically happens when people feel a sore body part: they favor it. For some, they can develop such an aversion to pain that the idea of invoking it quickly prompts them to avoid that sensation at any cost. The technical term is “fear avoidance.” After all, pain may have evolved to be a sensation that protected our ancestors from harmful injury, allowing us to heal after being injured and avoid future scenarios that might repeat them. When it comes to something like an injection, however, it makes no sense to avoid using the affected shoulder because shots don’t cause significant injury and the pain we feel isn’t a signal that we are doing any further harm to it. Still, many will inevitably avoid using their affected arm for more than several days after the vaccine and when it comes to shoulder health, avoiding use for that long does no favors.
As millions of Americans are preparing to receive their first round of coronavirus vaccinations, we thought it’d be helpful to share some gentle stretching tips to get people to avoid unneccessary shoulder disuse and dysfunction.
Check out this video here describing 7 Glorious Stretches to Help Your Shoulder!
How did you feel after your vaccine shot? Did these activities help?
If you need physical therapy to help with your shoulder problems, we can help!