Is it OK to exercise before or after COVID vaccination? Here’s what experts say
Exercise may be the last — or first — thing on your mind in the moments before and after your COVID-19 vaccination, but should it be?
While there’s no official guidance about the do’s and don’ts of breaking a sweat around the time of coronavirus vaccination, studies on other vaccines show physical training done either before or after getting jabbed might improve immune responses.
But that cycling or kickboxing class could also hurt more than help, experts say, because it depends on how you react to any one of the three authorized COVID-19 vaccines that may cause side effects.
“The most important thing to understand is that if you are showing signs or symptoms of being sick, this is your body working overtime to make you well again. Any extra high-intensity activities would be adding to that stress,” Damien Evans, a certified personal trainer and co-owner of the fitness chain Eat the Frog Fitness in Southern California, told Verywell Fit.
“What many people forget is that exercise is a positive stress on the body when you are healthy. However, if your body is under large amounts of stress already — in this case the immune system is working hard and firing on all cylinders as it processes the vaccine — then throwing extra stress through exercise will be doing more harm than good,” Evans added.
You can resume any regular exercise “when feeling back to normal” one to two days after vaccination, Dr. Purvi Parikh, an immunologist and allergist with the Allergy & Asthma Network and a co-investigator on COVID-19 vaccine trials at New York University, told PopSugar.
And when appropriate, start off slowly with low-impact and low-intensity workouts, she said. Even more so after a second dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shot, which is associated with more intense side effects.
Other than causing weakness or nausea, doing physical activity after vaccination may increase inflammation in the body, Parikh told the outlet, because exercise speeds up blood flow and heart rate.
The same holds true even if you don’t feel any side effects after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Even if you don’t feel like you’re experiencing severe symptoms (beyond fatigue, muscle soreness and body aches), your body is still working to mount an immune response,” Cara Harbstreet, a registered dietitian nutritionist based in Missouri, told Verywell Fit. “You might feel like forging ahead with your usual workouts, but you can also adjust as needed after you start to accommodate how your body responds. A rest day is not a wasted day when it comes to fitness and overall well-being.”
However, much is still unknown about the coronavirus vaccines outside of general safety and efficacy. That’s why Dr. Blanka Kaplan, a specialist in adult and pediatric allergy and immunology at Northwell Health in Great Neck, New York, told WebMD that people should avoid vigorous exercise two hours before and after vaccination, “until more is known.”
Meanwhile, historical data show exercise right before vaccination can serve as an adjuvant, or anything that enhances the body’s immune response to a vaccine. Even Dr. Sharon Ostfeld-Johns, a pediatric and adult hospitalist with Yale Medicine, shared in STAT that she rode her bike home after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, “knowing that exercise after vaccination can improve the immune response.” She cited a 2014 study on the topic.
It’s well known that regular exercise can boost immune system function, but “acute bouts” of it “can elicit profound changes,” such as releasing cytokines — small proteins that signal the immune system to do its job, according to a 2013 review of studies on exercising and vaccines.
Yet two questions remain: Is exercise around vaccination appropriate for at-risk populations and what is the most effective type of exercise in terms of intensity, type, duration and timing?
For now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s OK to “exercise your arm” after getting a vaccine to help reduce pain and discomfort. Otherwise, experts agree it’s best to listen to your body before making any decisions.
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 11:03 AM with the headline "Is it OK to exercise before or after COVID vaccination? Here’s what experts say."
