Chronic neck muscle pain in women without further complications can be treated effectively with specific strength training of the neck and shoulder muscles, according to a controlled study published in this month’s issue of Arthritis Care and Research, Volume 59, Issue 1 (p 84-89), the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Rheumatology. Although the study was done on women, it is likely that the conclusions also apply to men.
The 20 week study broke a group of 94 women with occupationally-related chronic neck pain into 3 groups:
One control group had general health counseling but did not start any exercise regimen
Another control group exercised on an exercise bicycle 20 minutes a day, 3 times a week, for 10 weeks. This group had a slight decrease in pain that generally lasted about 2 hours, possibly related to release of beta endorphin, increased oxygenation of the trapezius muscle, and increase in core temperature.
The experimental group exercised on the same schedule for the same amount of time, performing supervised specific strength training of the neck and shoulder muscles. This group had a reduction in pain of about 79% and the pain reduction lasted during a post-exercise observation period of 10 weeks.
The only group that had a “marked decrease” that had a lasting effect was the group that did the specific strength training of the neck and shoulder muscles.
The full text of the article is currently available online here
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