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Background: Neck and shoulder complaints are common among employees in sedentary occupations characterized by intensive computer use. Specific strength training is a promising type of physical exercise for relieving neck and shoulder pain in office workers. However, the optimal combination of frequency and exercise duration, as well as the importance of exercise supervision, is unknown. The VIMS study investigates in a cluster randomized controlled design the effectiveness of different time wise combinations of specific strength training with identical accumulated volume, and the relevance of training supervision for safe and effective training. Methods/design: A cluster randomized controlled trial of 20 weeks duration where employed office workers are randomized to 1 x 60 min, 3 x 20 min, 9 x 7 min per week of specific strength training with training supervision, to 3 x 20 min per week of specific strength training with a minimal amount of training supervision, or to a reference group without training. A questionnaire will be sent to 2000 employees in jobs characterized by intensive computer work. Employees with cardiovascular disease, trauma, hypertension, or serious chronic disease will be excluded. The main outcome measure is pain in the neck and shoulders at week 20. Trial Registration: The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01027390. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A mismatch between individual physical capacities and physical work demands enhance the risk for musculoskeletal disorders, poor work ability and sickness absence, termed physical deterioration. However, effective intervention strategies for preventing physical deterioration in job groups with high physical demands remains to be established. This paper describes the background, design and conceptual model of the FINALE programme, a framework for health promoting interventions at 4 Danish job groups (i.e. cleaners, health-care workers, construction workers and industrial workers) characterized by high physical work demands, musculoskeletal disorders, poor work ability and sickness absence. Methods/Design: A novel approach of the FINALE programme is that the interventions, i.e. 3 randomized controlled trials (RCT) and 1 exploratory case-control study are tailored to the physical work demands, physical capacities and health profile of workers in each job-group. The RCT among cleaners, characterized by repetitive work tasks and musculoskeletal disorders, aims at making the cleaners less susceptible to musculoskeletal disorders by physical coordination training or cognitive behavioral theory based training (CBTr). Because health-care workers are reported to have high prevalence of overweight and heavy lifts, the aim of the RCT is long-term weight-loss by combined physical exercise training, CBTr and diet. Construction work, characterized by heavy lifting, pushing and pulling, the RCT aims at improving physical capacity and promoting musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health. At the industrial work-place characterized by repetitive work tasks, the intervention aims at reducing physical exertion and musculoskeletal disorders by combined physical exercise training, CBTr and participatory ergonomics. The overall aim of the FINALE programme is to improve the safety margin between individual resources (i.e. physical capacities, and cognitive and behavioral skills) and physical work demands, and thereby reduce the physical deterioration in a long term perspective by interventions tailored for each respective job-group. Discussion: The FINALE programme has the potential to provide evidence-based knowledge of significant importance for public health policy and health promotion strategies for employees at high risk for physical deterioration. Trial registrations: ISRCTN96241850, NCT01015716 and NCT01007669 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Regular physical exercise is a cornerstone in rehabilitation programs, but adherence to comprehensive exercise remains low. This study determined the effectiveness of small daily amounts of progressive resistance training for relieving neck/shoulder pain in healthy adults with frequent symptoms; 174 women and 24 men working at least 30h per week and with frequent neck/shoulder pain were randomly assigned to resistance training with elastic tubing for 2 or 12minutes per day 5 times per week, or weekly information on general health (control group). Primary outcomes were changes in intensity of neck/shoulder pain (scale 0 to 10), examiner-verified tenderness of the neck/shoulder muscles (total tenderness score of 0 to 32), and isometric muscle strength at 10weeks. Compared with the control group, neck/shoulder pain and tenderness, respectively, decreased 1.4 points (95% confidence interval −2.0 to −0.7, p <0.0001) and 4.2 points (95% confidence interval −5.7 to −2.7, p <0.0001) in the 2-minute group and 1.9 points (95% confidence interval −2.5 to −1.2, p <0.0001) and 4.4 points (95% confidence interval −5.9 to −2.9, p <0.0001) in the 12-minute group. Compared with the control group, muscle strength increased 2.0 Nm (95% confidence interval 0.5 to 3.5Nm, p =0.01) in the 2-minute group and 1.7Nm (95% confidence interval 0.2 to 3.3 Nm, p =0.02) in the 12-minute group. In conclusion, as little as 2minutes of daily progressive resistance training for 10weeks results in clinically relevant reductions of pain and tenderness in healthy adults with frequent neck/shoulder symptoms. Trial registration: www.isrctn.org/ISRCTN60264809. In generally healthy adults with frequent neck/shoulder muscle pain, as little as 2minutes of daily progressive resistance training reduces pain and tenderness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]