Physical exercise in the rehabilitation of trapezius myalgia

The studies presented in this thesis have been approved by the Local Ethical Committee (KF 01-138/04), and conforms to The Declaration of Helsinki. The intervention study qualified for registration in the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Register: ISRCTN87055459. All subjects were informed about the purpose and content of the project and gave written informed consent. The present thesis is based on four papers. They will be referred to in the text as Study A to D (Full-length articles in Appendix).EMG-velocity relationship in female workers with chronic neck muscle pain. Effect of two contrasting types of physical exercise on chronic neck muscle pain. Muscle activation during selected strength exercises in females with chronic neck muscle pain. Introduction Trapezius myalgia – chronic pain from the upper trapezius muscle – is the most frequent type of neck pain among office workers. The prevailing view is that sustained low-level activity of the upper trapezius muscle day after day leads to overload of muscle fibers of low-threshold motor units, and eventually pain develops. As a consequence, maximal muscle strength and neural activation may be impaired. Physical exercise has been suggested as treatment, however conflicting evidence exist as to which type of exercise that is most efficient.