About Fitness

• Neck and shoulder pain can be helped by exercise. This study involved women who suffered pain caused by computer or office work. The women were divided into four groups. Three groups engaged in some type of exercise — strength, endurance or coordination training — three times a week for 10 weeks. The fourth group discussed stress but did not exercise. All three exercise groups, but not the fourth group, reduced their pain significantly.

Pain

• Bicycling to work may be good for the environment — and for you. Researchers tracked the physical activity levels of adults for about 14 years. As expected, people who were more active had lower death rates. But, the lowest death rate was seen in those who rode their bikes to work every day — though they rode only for three hours a week, on average. Why? The study’s authors aren’t sure. They note that in another study, bicyclers had half as many heart attacks as did nonbicyclers.

Archives of Internal Medicine

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