Surgeons Can Avoid Lasting Pain Through Exercise Literacy

Participant will be asked to fill out a series 5 questionnaires at beginning of the study, end of the 8-week intervention and 1 month later to determine how the exercise program affected their general health, neck pain, and function.

• Demographic information about their age, height, weight, sex, surgical experience, surgical frequency, level of pain, and exercise frequency and types. (21 items)
• A questionnaire about neck pain (10 items)
• A questionnaire about how pain interferes with their life (8 items)
• A questionnaire about general health (10 items)
• A questionnaire about how much the participant typically exercise. (4 items) All these questionnaires can be completed on a computer or tablet and the data will be stored on a secure site (RedCap). This should be completed in approximately 20 minutes at each assessment.

Next participants will be instructed how to perform a series of 4 exercises described in the intervention

Every week the participant will be sent a 3-item questionnaire to report their level of pain, surgical burden, and exercise compliance for the week. There are only 3 multiple choice questions which should take approximately 1 minute to complete per week.

Inclusion criteria

• must be an actively operating surgeon either faculty, fellow, or resident.
• Must report at least 4 out of 10 with pain at worst over the previous week at intake that is attributed to operating.

Exclusion criteria

• Participants will be excluded if they have prior neck or upper back surgery within the last year.
• If the participant has any other medical condition that would prevent the participant from performing shoulder and neck strengthening and stretching exercises.