When you sneeze does your upper arm or shoulder area get a brief twinge of pain?
Very occasionally my rotator cuff will act up, causing me to modify some of my strength training.
The last time this happened, I noticed that when I sneezed, I’d feel that very same pain where the rotator cuff would hurt when doing certain kinds of strength training.
The pain wasn’t severe or sharp, but rather, just a one-second abbreviation of what I’d feel when doing pushups.
The one-second discomfort was clearly being activated by the force of sneezing.
The logical deduction is that sneezing caused vibrations or reverberations and “shook up” the minor rotator cuff issue.
The only other time I’d feel the pain was, of course, when lifting weights.
Over time, as always, the rotator cuff issue resolved. But that particular round of flare-up was the first time ever that it became sensitive to the act of sneezing.
If this has been happening to you, I recommend just positioning your arm in a way that will minimize the sneeze-induced discomfort – assuming that you get enough advance notice that a sneeze is coming.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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