A Comparison of Two Methods of Strengthening Exercises with and Without Massage on Alleviation of the Chronic Neck Pain

Neck pain is known as second most common musculoskeletal disorder after low back pain. Although the effect of exercise and massage on reducing pain is clear, but the effect of therapeutic exercise combined with manual therapy has been minimally researched. Therefore the aim of this study was to compare the effect of exercise therapy and the combination of exercise and massage chronic neck pain. Ninety symptomatic volunteered female randomly assigned into 3 groups (Control, Exercise, Combination of exercise and massage therapy). The exercise group went through neck and shoulder's strengthening exercises and the combined group received 10 minutes of Yumieho massage along with strengthening exercises for 6 weeks. Neck pain was measured using VAS before and after the interventions. Data were analyzed using paired-sample t-test and independent-sample t-test (α=0.05). Except for the control group, there was significant pain reduction in both experimental groups. The combined group also significantly showed more reduction in neck pain than exercise group. According to the results of this study, exercise is effective in reducing the neck pain; however, using exercise together with Yumeiho massage is even more effective and can lead to better outcomes. Therefore, we believe the combined method (using exercise along with Yumeiho meassge) as an effective method in reducing chronic neck pain in females.