Botox and Exercise

Every once in a while a question from a client stumps me.  This is one I got recently, how long should I wait to exercise after I’ve gotten Botox?  Hunh … I had no idea.  Time for some investigation.

Luckily one of my best friends owns a MedSpa so all I had to do was pick up the phone.   Bridget from Boston Skin is one of the best in the business and also one of the most thoroughly researched people I know.  I asked her about botox and exercise and she checked in with her Medical Director, Joseph A. Russo and got the following answer.

“The point of all this is to allow the botox to bind and enter the nerve and get the best effect possible. exercise, hanging upside down and putting your head down all increase blood flow to your face and have the potential of “washing out ” the botox and lessening the  effect. Rubbing the area may cause the botox to spread to an area that was unintended. after four hours or certainly by the next day, all activities can be resumed”

The basic idea then, is to give yourself a minimum of four hours and a whole day can’t hurt.  This is actually pretty easy, just plan your Botox session after you’d had your workout for the day and ideally the day before a rest day.

No biggie. Dr. Russo also said rubbing it can cause the botox to move to an adjacent muscle so don’t do that for the same amount of time as well.

As to the question of whether or not you should do Botox.  That is a loaded question.  Do women need to inject themselves to feel beautiful?  Is this a societal norm? Are we risking potential side effects?

Honestly, I’m not going to go there, my expertise doesn’t lie in this area at all … I can tell you I had it done once, mostly because I was curious and I hated it.  I did like how I looked but I have a very expressive face and one of my big moves is to raise an eyebrow.  I do it ALL the time.  I didn’t realize just how much I did it until I couldn’t … it drove me nuts.

So I’m combatting wrinkles with a lot of lotions and potions thanks to Bridget and her expertise and I’m keeping my wayward eyebrow.

If you’re considering Botox and want to know if you can immediately go back to exercise the prudent answer is no.  Just keep that in mind the next time you’re planning an appointment.

Cheers,

Lisa