It’s a plight most office workers face: Chronic neck and shoulder pain after a long day of work. The reason? Poor posture while sitting down–many workers are prone to hunching over, putting unnecessary pressure on the neck and shoulders.
However, now researchers say there may be a simple way to deal with the pain–by doing a short, 2 minute exercise.
“We hypothesized that performing two minutes of daily neck/shoulder resistance training for 10 weeks will beneficially alter the muscular activity pattern and thereby reduce neck/shoulder pain,” say researchers, whose study was published in the journal BioMed Research International. “The 10-week training period led to decreased pain and increased muscular strength in the neck/shoulder muscles.”
Recruiting 30 office workers with chronic neck and shoulder pain, researchers divided them into two groups: A group which did not exercise and a group that exercised for two minutes every work day. Researchers asked them to do only one exercise during this two minute bout: Lateral shoulder raises with a resistance band.
To do so, they secured a resistance band to the floor while holding both ends of it in their hands as they raised their arms away from their bodies at a 90 degree angle. They continued doing this same exercise regimen everyday for a total of 10 weeks.
Then, after 10 weeks, researchers evaluated the pain levels of both groups. Not surprisingly, those that did not exercise didn’t experience any reduction in neck or shoulder pain.
But for those who exercised, there was a significant reduction in pain.
“While resistance training acutely generates a more tense muscle activity pattern, the longitudinal changes are beneficial in terms of longer and more frequent periods of complete muscular relaxation and reduced pain,” say researchers. “While the single training session acutely altered the muscle activity pattern so that less frequent periods of muscular relaxation were observed, the longitudinal change in muscle activity led to both longer and more frequent periods of complete muscular relaxation. The longitudinal changes were observed concurrently with increased muscle strength and reduced pain of the neck muscles.”
In addition, researchers say those who kept up with their daily exercise regimen–which, in this case, was over 80 percent of the participants–experienced 40 percent less neck and shoulder pain. For just two minutes of exercise, this isn’t a small number by any means–and now has experts recommending that office workers exercise more.
“These results are strong enough to warrant two minutes per day of your time if you have chronic neck and shoulder pain,” says Scott Douglas, a contributor to Runners World. “The exercise group also had significantly less muscular tension during normal work days, as measured by electromyography.”
Bottom line? If neck and shoulder pain are interrupting your workday, don’t pop pain pills–do a 2 minute bout of resistance training instead.
Readers: Do you try to stay active at work? Why or why not?
Sources:
Study: 2 Minute Exercise Relieves Neck and Shoulder Pain for Office Workers – Hindawi.com
Two Minute Exercise Good for Neck Pain – RunnersWorld.com
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