Ease Neck & Shoulder Tension with Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
THE EVERYDAY ACHE
When spending your days bent over a laptop, a steering wheel, or a phone, that sore, achy feeling across your neck and shoulders probably feels like just simply how it goes living life today. The good news: two recent studies suggest real genuine relief doesn't require a total life overhaul — and it works even better alongside the neck pain relieving care you're already getting at Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC.
WHY A FEW MINUTES OF MOVEMENT ADDS UP
The first is a 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis looking at "micro-exercises" — short, simple movement breaks built into the workday — for people with office-based jobs. (1) Instead of asking you to carve out an extra hour for the gym, this line of research supports the idea that a minute or two of gentle neck rolls, shoulder rolls, or posture resets, done a few times throughout the day, can noticeably reduce the neck and shoulder tension that accumulates from hours in one position. It's a good reminder that frequency and consistency often outweigh intensity when your pain is rooted in posture and prolonged sitting.
WHAT THE COCHRANE REVIEW ADDS
The second is a major 2025 Cochrane Review, widely considered the gold standard for medical evidence, on manual therapy combined with exercise for neck pain. (2) Looking across the strongest available trials, the reviewers found 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 other words: hands-on care alongside active exercise tends to help you move and function better, even when pain scores alone only capture part of the story.
PUTTING THE TWO TOGETHER
Put those two findings together, and a clear picture emerges: your visits and hands-on care do real work for function and mobility, and pairing that with small, frequent movement breaks at your desk can help prevent tension from creeping back between visits. Neither piece substitutes for the other — they work as a team.
BRING THIS UP AT YOUR NEXT APPOINTMENT
If your neck and shoulders have been nagging at you lately, it might be worth asking at your next visit to Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC in La Grande 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 benefit of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for relief of neck pain and related shoulder pain in a patient of hers.
