This Weighted Hot/Cold Wrap is My Favorite Way to Treat an Aching Neck and Shoulders

I have a lot of aches and pains, but there are a few that are really achy and painy and are very hard to treat. One is pain in my toes, which has been greatly helped by Yoga Toes (reviewed here), and the other is pain in my shoulders, which has been helped by this neck and shoulder pillow thingy from the As Seen on TV aisle at Target.

I bought the ThermaComfort Weighted Neck Wrap in a moment of desperation. I didn’t know if it would work - it was from the Aisle of Things That Might Not Work - but I had so much pain in my neck and shoulders, and nothing I was doing was helping. There’s this kind of pain I get across the tops of my shoulders and the back of my neck that has evolved to a point where a foam roller just isn’t going to cut it. But this weighted neck wrap is just right.

I will say, it hasn’t gotten rid of my shoulder pain. It’s not a cure, but more of a treatment. It allows my permanently tensed shoulders relax, and the combination of weight and heat is very soothing.

It’s basically a bag of beans, in a U-shape, with a little popped collar around the inside. You stick it in the microwave for up to three minutes, then wrap it around your shoulders and let your tense aches just melt away.

There are a few features that I think set this neck wrap apart from others. First, it’s a bit heavy. It weighs 3lbs, which is just enough to provide that soothing weight that you get from a weighted blanket, but just on one part of your body. Maybe this is just me, but sometimes a weighted blanket goes from soothing to suffocating and I feel like I can’t move and I get a little panicky. Plus they’re notoriously HOT. You can move the little beats all around the U-shape, and I like to make sure that I have at least a bit all over, but have a little extra at the ends, which I then place over my chest, and it just gives that calming weight but only over my heart, and it’s very nice.

The other game changer is that this wrap comes in a bag, and you don’t have to fold it juuuust right to get it to actually fit in the bag. We all have things that come in a convenient carrier or case or whatever, but there’s no way you can actually use them without performing some elaborate contortions. You can fold this neck wrap any which way you like, and it will still fit in the bag. The bag, by the way, is what you’re supposed to use when you microwave the wrap, but I don’t really know if it makes a huge difference. It kind of just keeps it al tidy.

You can also use this wrap cold, which I have never done and cannot speak to. I’ve heard that cold is for new/temporary injuries and hot is for chronic conditions, so maybe that’s why my arthritic aches prefer hot treatments. Either way, this neck and shoulder wrap is my favorite way to make my permanently tensed shoulders calm the hell down.