Learned from a quilter friend: Put a hard baseball between your shoulder blades (you'll KNOW when you hit the spot because it HURTS!) Lean back in your easy chair and keep the baseball on the sore spot for, oh, say, the duration of the newscast, or your favorite one-hour program. Believe it or not, the baseball therapy really works. I've even used the baseball in the car, for pain relief.

I do the same thing. I have the neck pain from a whiplash accident several years ago. Dr. said it will never get better and arthritis will set in as I age. I take a break every hour, do some stretching I learned in my water aerobic classes and take two Tylenol. Works for me.

Badger sore muscle rub. I sold it at my gift shop and when we closed we ordered a case just for us. I think you can get it at Cracker Barrel. Love that stuff, also the sleep balm works.
I still take a break or two when I'm working for a long time on something.

Take tons of breaks. Get up walk around and stretch your neck, shoulders and arms. I have ulnar neuropathy in my right arm/shoulder area so I know how you feel.

Same problem here. Have a great chiropractor and massage therapist. Sew no more than 20 min. at a time. Sewing/embroidery machines are about 5 inches higher than set in machines. I am short and need shorter sewing table. Higher one nearly killed me. Rubbing on theragesic or Biofreeze will give temp. relief. Ibuprofen helps me, but I hate pills. Wishing you well.

<--- loves her Biofreeze but Aspercream works well, too, and all pain pills do horrible things to my tummy!

I make sure I have to get up to press my block. Following Kaye England's instructions piece the block together - then press. Also, as stated before, make sure you drink lots of water.

Don't work so long a time without stopping to stretch and relax. Then, of course, there is the good ol' BioFreeze.

I don't need to work five hours to end up as your did. A half an hour will do that to me. That's why it takes me forever to get anything done. :-( After about a half an hour I have to sit with a heating pad on my back and neck and recover!

You can buy a machine tilter, but door stops you can buy at the Dollar Store work as well. Just put them behind and under your machine and tilt the machine forward so you don not have to hold your shoulders up when you sew!