Weight Lifting After a Tetanus Vaccine
FitnessWorkouts & Activities
Explore This Topic

Weight Lifting After a Tetanus Vaccine

Weight Lifting After a Tetanus Vaccine
Westend61/Westend61/GettyImages
By
Updated on July 31, 2025
by
A healthcare professional administers a tetanus vaccine to protect you against tetanus, a bacterial infection also known as lockjaw. This has made the infection rare in the United States and other developed countries with access to the vaccinations.

The bacteria enter your body through a puncture wound, a dirty cut, or an animal bite. Once in the body, the bacteria release toxins that impair the nerves controlling your muscles.

A doctor may advise you to avoid intense exercise, such as weight lifting, for a certain period after receiving a tetanus vaccine.

Weight Lifting and the Tetanus Vaccine

Weight lifting after a tetanus vaccine may feel okay for some people, but it’s essential to listen to your body and consult your doctor if you experience any ongoing difficulties.

Healthcare professionals administer the tetanus vaccine as a deep intramuscular injection into the upper arm muscles. This may cause arm soreness, redness, pain, and swelling at the injection site.

Doctors often advise patients who have received a tetanus shot to frequently move the arm in which they administered the shot to help reduce discomfort. They may also encourage light exercise, stretching, and massage if the arm is sore after a vaccine.

However, despite no direct guidance being available on weight lifting specifically, a healthcare professional will suggest avoiding intense exercise or heavy workouts right after any vaccine.

 Lifting heavy weights too soon after a tetanus vaccine may increase soreness in the arm that has received the tetanus vaccine.

Rarely, some people receiving the tetanus vaccine develop an adverse reaction called brachial neuritis, which can cause pain and arm weakness. This occurs when the vaccine contents cause inflammation in a specific nerve associated with arm function. While this can be severe and temporarily affect arm function, symptoms usually resolve without treatment.

 However, if you develop brachial neuritis, you may not be able to comfortably weight lift until symptoms subside.

Exercise After a Tetanus Shot

A doctor might advise waiting a few days before resuming vigorous exercise, such as weight lifting. This allows time for arm soreness and swelling to get better, as those symptomss may last for several days.

According to a review of the effects of exercise after a different vaccine, light exercise is generally safe after a shot as long as you feel well enough.

 However, the side effects of a tetanus shot may include fatigue, headaches, loss of appetite, low-grade fever, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.

 If you feel severe side effects after the shot, waiting to do any exercise until symptoms have passed might be most beneficial. Those with mild side effects may benefit more from light walking while they recover.

Weight Lifting Complications After the Vaccine

The most common side effect of the tetanus vaccine is muscle soreness in the arm.

Lifting weights with a sore arm can be painful, and weight lifting through pain can lead to improper form. This can mean you don’t get the full benefit of the exercise, but poor form can also lead to injury for some people.

Who Gets the Tetanus Shot?

Healthcare professionals administer tetanus vaccines to adults and children age 7 and up. Infants also receive the tetanus vaccine in a series of three injections that combine it with two other vaccines for diphtheria and whooping cough.

Children and adults then receive booster injections every 10 years.

 People must receive booster doses every decade to maintain an active immune status against tetanus. If you’re receiving care for wounds or injuries that break the skin and risk saliva, dirt, or poop exposure, you’ll need a tetanus booster if you don’t remember when your last shot happened or if you haven’t had one in the last five years.

Tips for Reducing Injection Pain

You can help reduce soreness after your tetanus shot by applying an ice pack when you return home from the shot. Applying compression, such as a wrap, may also be helpful.

If you have a history of arm soreness after vaccination, consider taking an over-the-counter (OTC) pain relief medication, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, around two hours before receiving your shot as long as your doctor confirms that they’re safe for you to take.

You might still feel pain afterward. In this case, try taking another dose of OTC pain relief medications after the shot (within a safe time frame of the previous dose, as advised on the packaging).

Choosing to receive the shot in the arm you use least is the best way to reduce the vaccine’s disruption of your daily activities. Let your healthcare provider know which arm you use the least.



The Takeaway

  • If your arm doesn’t hurt after a tetanus injection, you can try resuming light exercise. However, arm soreness is the most common side effect of the shot, and doctors recommend avoiding intense exercise immediately after vaccination.
  • People with post-injection arm soreness or weakness should wait a few days for side effects to improve before weight lifting again. Lifting through pain can compromise form, increasing the risk of injury.
  • However, exercise after a vaccine is generally safe, so listen to your body and keep it light until you feel better if you experience adverse effects.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Tetanus. Mayo Clinic. December 21, 2023.
  2. Why Vaccine Shots Can Hurt and How To Prevent It. Cleveland Clinic. May 6, 2022.
  3. Tetanus Shot. Cleveland Clinic. April 30, 2025.
  4. Rabadi T, Brady MF. Tetanus Toxoid. StatPearls. May 1, 2023.
  5. AL-Mhanna SB, Ghazali WS, Maqsood A, et al. Physical activities pre- and post-COVID-19 vaccination and its implementations: A narrative review. SAGE Open Medicine. 2023 Mar 6.
  6. Weight training: Do's and don'ts of proper technique. Mayo Clinic. November 29, 2022.
  7. Tetanus Vaccination. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. June 10, 2025.
Meet Our Experts
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network
Allison Buttarazzi, MD

Allison Buttarazzi, MD

Medical Reviewer
Castle Connolly Top Doctor, Member of American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Allison Buttarazzi, MD, is board-certified in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine, and is a certified health and well-being coach. In her primary care practice, Dr. Buttarazzi focuses on lifestyle medicine to help her patients improve their health and longevity, and her passion is helping patients prevent and reverse chronic diseases (like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes) by improving their lifestyle habits.

She is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine and completed a residency at Maine Medical Center. Diagnosed with celiac disease during medical school, she realized the power of improving one's health through diet and lifestyle habits, which she later incorporated into her practice.

See full bio

Destiny Simmons

Author

Destiny Simmons has worked as a professional health writer since 2005. She specializes in health and nutrition articles. Her work has appeared in various health Web sites. Destiny holds a Bachelors of Science in nursing from Boston University and a Master of Public Health Nutrition from Tufts University.

See full bio
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network