Injection site rotation
Rotating injection sites means not using the same spot every time. It gives each spot time to recover and makes it easier to notice a site that isn't settling. Keeping a simple record is the easiest way to rotate without thinking about it.
Note: this is general information, not medical advice. Use only the injection sites and technique your prescriber or pharmacist has shown you.
Why rotate
Repeated injections into exactly the same place can leave it sore, lumpy or scarred, and scar tissue can change how well an injection absorbs. Moving between sites, and between spots within a site, spreads that load out.
A simple way to rotate
- Agree your sites with your prescriber, for example left and right of the same muscle group, or two different muscles.
- Go in a fixed order, such as left, right, then the next site. A fixed order is easier to follow than trying to remember.
- Move within a site too, a little way from the last spot.
- Write it down every time. Memory is unreliable after a few weeks; a log isn't.
Keep notes on each site
When a site is sore for longer than usual, or gets a lump, note it. Over time that shows you which sites work well for you and which to rest.
See a doctor promptly if a site becomes hot, increasingly red or swollen, very painful, or you feel feverish. Those can be signs of infection.
Doing it in Enhanced Training Studio
For intramuscular injections the app has glutes, upper and lower ventrogluteal, delts, lats and quads, each left and right; for subcutaneous, the abdomen, love handles and thighs. Pick the ones you use for each compound under My injection sites.
When you log an injection, the app suggests the next site in your rotation. The site is saved with every entry in your injection history, so you can always look back. This is part of the free edition.
The body map
History → Sites shows every site on a front and back outline (the front view faces you, so your right side is on the left of the picture):
- Orange: used in the last 2 days. Light orange: resting (3–6 days). Plain: rested, 7 days or more, or not used yet.
- A dashed ring marks the site suggested next; a dashed dot is a site that isn't in your rotation.
Tap a site to see its last uses and any reactions you noted in the daily check-in (sore, lump, red, itchy, bruised), and to add it to or take it out of a compound's rotation. When you log a dose, Body map above the site list lets you pick the site from the outline.