A Danish study on women with neck pain says specific strength training led to prolonged relief of neck muscle pain, compared to general fitness training.
conducted a randomized controlled trial of 94 women from September 2005 to March 2006.
Seventy-nine percent of the participants used a keyboard for more than three-quarters of their working time. Participants were assigned to three intervention groups: those who did supervised specific neck and shoulder strength training, those who did high-intensity general fitness training on a bicycle ergometer and a control group that received health counseling but no physical training.
The study, published in Arthritis Care & Research, found that the general fitness group experienced a small decrease in neck muscle pain immediately after exercise; however, the specific strength training group showed a marked decrease in pain over a prolonged training period.
“Based on the present results, supervised high-intensity dynamic strength training of the painful muscle three times a week for 20 minutes should be recommended in the treatment of trapezius myalgia,” the authors said in a statement.