Is stress making you ache?

- Stand with your heels and shoulders touching a wall. Tilt your pelvis so that the small of your back presses against the wall, relieving back muscles. Hold for 15-30 seconds. Do this exercise regularly to reduce your risk of getting back pain or to relieve existing pain.

- Strengthen your abdominal muscles, which support the spine, by doing crunches three times per week. Lie flat on your back on an exercise mat with hands cupped behind your ears. Feet should be together and flat on the floor, with knees bent at about a 45-degree angle. Curl your upper torso up, bringing ribs in toward hips until your shoulder blades clear the floor. Do one set of 15-25 crunches; gradually build to three sets. Also, increase endurance of the muscles along the spine, the spinal erectors, by doing alternate leg and arm raises from an all-fours position, holding each position for eight counts. Initially, do one set of 10 repetitions, building up to three sets.

Neck and shoulder painThe neck is particularly prone to stress-related pain in part because it's already bearing the burden of your 10-pound head. Pain may start with bad habits like squeezing the phone between your shoulder and your ear, but tension in neck muscles makes the problem worse, often causing pain to radiate. A recent study in Finland found that in addition to physical factors like working with a hand raised above shoulder level, mental stress is strongly linked to the likelihood of experiencing radiating neck pain. In most cases, getting rid of pain in the neck will benefit the shoulders as well. Here is what you can do:

- Give your neck muscles an all-around stretch one step at a time. First, while sitting erect in a chair, lower your chin to your chest, letting the weight of your head gently stretch tense muscles at the back of the neck. Hold the stretch for 15 seconds.

- Next, gently let your head drop toward one shoulder. Hold for 15 seconds and repeat on the other side.

- Use progressive muscle relaxation, in which you mentally focus on muscles and consciously allow them to relax. "First, you have to isolate the muscles by actually tensing them more," says Ronald Kanner, M.D., chairman of the department of neurology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. To do it, rest your elbows on your desk and press your face against your hands, then release, which will relax the muscles in your neck. Mentally note the neck muscles you're using and, over the course of about 15 seconds, slowly release their tension. Keep focusing on your neck muscles even after you lift your face from your hands, imagining the muscles deeply relaxing

HeadachesTension headaches are sometimes called hatband headaches because pain occurs all around the head, although it's most intense at the temples and back of the skull. The tight areas causing the ache, however, are often concentrated in the face and neck, referring pain through muscle fibers and nerves, says MaryAnn Mays, M.D., a neurologist with the Headache Clinic at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Some research suggests that people with tension headaches are especially prone to see (or remember) everyday events as stressful, though studies are contradictory. A greater concern is that those who have headaches frequently are at higher risk of depression and anxiety. "If you have more than several headaches a month, consult a doctor to see what else may be going on," Mays says.