Ease Neck & Shoulder Tension with Hollstrom & Associates Inc
A FAMILIAR KIND OF TENSION
If you spend your days stooped over a laptop, a steering wheel, or a phone, that stiff, burning feeling across your neck and shoulders undoubtedly feels like just simply how it goes modern life. The good news: two recent scientific reviews suggest real relief from that pain doesn't require a total lifestyle overhaul — and it works even better alongside the neck pain relieving care you're already receiving at Hollstrom & Associates Inc.
BIG BENEFITS FROM SMALL BREAKS
The first is a 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis looking at "micro-exercises" — quick, simple movement breaks built into the workday — for people with seated jobs. (1) Instead of asking you to carve time for an extra hour for the gym, this line of research confirms the idea that a couple of minutes of gentle neck rolls, shoulder rolls, or posture resets, repeated every so often through the day, can meaningfully ease the neck and shoulder tension that builds up from hours in one position. It's a good reminder that frequency and consistency often beat intensity when your pain is tied to posture and lengthy sitting sessions.
THE ROLE OF MANUAL THERAPY
The second is an influential 2025 Cochrane Review, widely considered the gold standard for medical evidence, on manual therapy combined with exercise for neck pain. (2) Looking across the soundest available trials, the reviewers reported that a combination of manual therapy with exercise may show a moderate improvement in function, but little or no lessening in neck pain when compared against a placebo (sham) treatment. In simple terms: hands-on care alongside active exercise tends to help you move and function better, even when pain scores alone aren't the full picture.
CARE PLUS MOVEMENT: A TEAM EFFORT
Taken together, these two findings paint a clear picture: your visits and hands-on care do genuine work for function and mobility, and pairing that with small, frequent movement breaks at your desk can help keep the tension from building back up between visits. Neither piece substitutes for the other — they work as a team.
ASK US ABOUT YOUR CARE PLAN
If your neck and shoulders have been nagging at you lately, it might be worth asking at your next visit to Hollstrom & Associates Inc in Largo how a few simple daily micro-movements could fit alongside your care plan.
Check out this podcast with Dr. Sarah Murrow on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as she describes the advantage of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for relief of neck pain and related shoulder pain in a patient of hers.
