bibliography*The PainScience Bibliography contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers and others sources, like a specialized blog. This page is about a single scientific paper in the bibliography, Nielsen 2010.

Effect of physical training on pain sensitivity and trapezius muscle morphology

updated Jun 17, 2015

Tags: neck, muscle, exercise, muscle pain, head/neck, spine, self-treatment, treatment, pain problems

PainSci summary of Nielsen 2010?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided at the bottom of the page, as often as possible. ★★★☆☆?3-star ratings are for typical studies with no more (or less) than the usual common problems. Ratings are a highly subjective opinion, and subject to revision at any time. If you think this paper has been incorrectly rated, please let me know.

In this experiment, 62 women (40 with shoulder pain, 20 without) participated in either a general exercise program or specific strength training for their shoulders. Pain tolerance and strength increased response to strength training in the women who started out with pain. In those who had no pain to begin with, both general exercise and specific exercise training were beneficial.

~ Paul Ingraham

original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.

The objective of this study was to investigate morphological and physiological characteristics of painful muscles in women with (MYA, n=42) and without (CON, n=20) trapezius myalgia, and assess changes in response to a 10-week, randomized, controlled trial. MYA accomplished: (1) specific strength training (SST); (2) general fitness training (GFT); or (3) reference intervention (REF).

Differences in muscle morphology could not be detected by ultrasound imaging. Significantly lower pressure pain threshold (PPT) and shoulder torque were observed for MYA, indicating pain-related lack of full activation. After 10 weeks, increased shoulder torque and PPT of the painful trapezius were observed in SST solely. The PPT of a pain-free reference muscle was increased in response to both SST and GFT, indicating a general effect of physical activity on pain perception. This study shows clinically relevant improvement in pain sensitivity and muscle strength capacity in response to SST.

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“The effects of training and detraining after an 8 month resistance and stretching training program on forward head and protracted shoulder postures in adolescents: Randomised controlled study,” R M Ruivo, A I Carita, and P Pezarat-Correia, Manual Therapy, 2015.

One article on PainScience.com cites Nielsen 2010 as a source:

Strength Training for Pain & Injury Rehab — Why building muscle is easier, better, and more important than you thought, and its role in recovering from injuries and chronic pain

This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:

Effectiveness of customised foot orthoses for Achilles tendinopathy: a randomised controlled trial. Munteanu 2015 Br J Sports Med.
A Bayesian model-averaged meta-analysis of the power pose effect with informed and default priors: the case of felt power. Gronau 2017 Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology.
The neck and headaches. Bogduk 2014 Neurol Clin.
Agreement of self-reported items and clinically assessed nerve root involvement (or sciatica) in a primary care setting. Konstantinou 2012 Eur Spine J.
Effect of NSAIDs on Recovery From Acute Skeletal Muscle Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Morelli 2017 Am J Sports Med.