Keep A Good Head On Your Shoulders And Happy New Year

 A year has gone by and a new one begins. A fresh start for some, for others, it's a continuous grind that never stops. It doesn't matter what your ambitions, goals or resolutions for that matter, what is important to you will come and if you have the will, you'll make it as bad ass as you can. We all have something we want to accomplish but is it realistic and better yet, will it benefit you as an individual? 

There those who will tell you flat out what they're goals are or what they plan on doing. The truth is, talking can be very convincing to another's ear yet where is the heart of the person saying it. I sure as hell have goals in mind but I'm not going to talk about them because most of the time, I'll end up talking myself out of them later so instead I shoot for what I want to do and then talk about it another time. It's a process for me but it's also part of my journey as a person.

I have talked about showing the Neck Flex after doing some workouts with it which I have and filmed a demo......

Obviously it's a demo and not a full workout, I wanted to show the exercises I've been doing and the form of control I'm using to give you an idea of how I work this thing. A big workout for me is doing 2x25 Reps per exercise with the six exercises shown here which is a total of 300 Reps. The other times, I would do a 10-count hold and then a 1-2 count for reps until I reach 10 reps with these with an added exercise of doing circles. 

As you can see, I don't have a small neck and for good reason. Off and on for many, many years I've trained my neck to the point where I've done Bridging Gymnastics where I've fallen back until my head, kick over and back, held the front and back for as long as 3 minutes or longer (My longest in the back bridge is 7 minutes), Wall Walks, Gymnastic Bridge, even bent a 6 inch spike in the back bridge several times, even performed this feat in front of an assembly of kids when I was with Bud Jeffries when he came around here the first couple times. 

As you read in one of the recent posts, I've never worn a harness until this came and even with getting a feel for it, I'm enjoying it cause it's another tool in my arsenal to building a strong body that lasts. It feels great afterwards and it has even helped me sleep a little bit better at night and I'm a night owl. Training the neck is one of the most crucial elements in physical training yet it's one many don't do out of fear when in reality, they're not shown the true aspects of Neck Training that can be tailored to those who aren't wrestlers, fighters or football players.

I don't have any plans at the moment to use weights with this, it's not my style. Doesn't mean I won't try it one day but for now, I have plenty of exercises to choose from that don't include a plate or hooking up to a machine. Using the band even for the majority is more than enough because it's a teacher on how to control your movements. If you jerk your neck the wrong way during training, things can go south. We can't avoid injuries 100% of the time but we can choose to find ways to prevent them as much as possible and that starts with being in control. The reps will come but it's not about how many you can do, it's about making each rep or hold count for something that will lead to greater strength and condition. 

Hold your head up high and make the New Year great for you. Keep at it and if you fall, get your ass back up, it's either going to happen on your own or someone may lend a hand to get you back on your feet. You never know what's on the horizon. Set goals, be amazingly awesome and welcome to 2026.

The Ying And Yang Of Physical Training

 

It's easy to get caught up in the idea that doing some form of hardcore training will get you the best results. The truth is, in certain cases it's true but from a certain point of view. Going completely nuts in a training session whether it's for 20 minutes or an hour, has its perks but only if you understand the awareness of what needs to be done after and how you apply the recovery process so you can build muscle. 

There's also the polar opposite of this in the sense where if you have a fear of going hardcore and all you do is "soft" stuff that doesn't do much for you, your progress is going to be unsuccessful in that regard. What can you do about this? You learn to find a balance, a Ying & Yang so do speak. It's the understanding of doing something crazy but being aware that you can have sessions as well that benefit your body's ability to recover and adapt from the breakdowns.

It's a learned flow state of being able to charge into battle in your training but knowing you don't need to do it all the time. If you do one or the other too frequently, it's going to bite you in the ass and by that I mean, you're either going to get injured more often or your body and mind just won't have the juice needed to test yourself. I've done enough sessions that were rough as hell yet other sessions that looks like something out of Tai Chi or something to know that it becomes a balance game and only you can figure out how your body responds to the "trauma" along with being "passive" in your journey. 

I train every single day for many reasons but in the last couple years, I've been relearning how to balance myself with testing my capabilities and going into a state that seem like I don't get anything done but getting more than what the eye sees. Often I train multiple times a day doing little things or multiple workouts that last 30 minutes or more that keep me going. Training to control your movements not from a forced aspect but an entity of effortlessness even though it's not easily done by any stretch. You can go into a gym and do some insane stuff for a period, in the same day do something that is less intense but keeps you moving. It's the blending with intent that keeps you into that flow state. 

Now, not everyone is capable to go so hard they can't do anything else the rest of the day, not because they're not trained that way but why? What's the purpose of training so hard you can't move almost at all but think you can go another set of rounds just as crazy? That's geared for more of those in the pros or world-class level for specific purposes. In reality, very few can withstand what it takes to be world-class. If you took a well trained sprinter who has been trained to take trauma and the type of training that pits him at the Olympic level and put a guy who's never trained in his life let alone done a sprint and put him on the same type of regimen....That guy would be injured severely within a week or even the first day or worse and you expect him to keep showing up? That's where some people's minds go, they believe they can keep up with routines that are found in magazines and on youtube and find out the hard way that your ego could get you killed just out of sheer stupidity. There's no balance or progressive steps. 

This isn't about learning one thing or another, it's learning how to use both sides of the coin effectively and with mindful awareness that your body is a very powerful tool and can do extraordinary things but not at the expense of doing things that can either easily put you in the hospital or have no ambition and just go through the motions without any real intent or purpose. There are some people who will tell you that going hard everyday is the true key and they can be very convincing because they have mastered that level of manipulating into thinking that you either go hard no matter what or die trying. This is a dangerous and inhumane mentality in the sense where you're telling people without deliberately saying it to purposely injure themselves or torture themselves into pain. It's that "No pain, no gain" level of stupidity that hinders progress more than doing something that will have you gaining. Not to mention it comes from those who believe losing 132 lbs in less than 8 weeks is healthy when here on earth, that could be a death sentence. 

Find your balance and be in a flow that channels your energy regardless if you train like a maniac or utilize recovery training. It's a process but when you can flip that switch so do speak and go through life outside of training, things will have a clearer form of what is useful and what isn't. There are ways to learn this, it's a practice not many have figured out yet and some can pick up on it right away, others it can take a little time but it's beyond worth the effort that you can make progress at a much faster rate instead of looking at one thing or another and keeping them separate. 

Be amazingly awesome and flow with purpose.   

Training The Neck And Minimizing Injuries As Much As Possible

 I know what it was like having a pencil neck at a time in my life. Before I was a teenager, I was on Ritalin to help keep me focused in school but that also led to not eating a whole lot when I needed to for growth. I was skinny and had a bobble shaped head where my noggin was big compared to my neck and the rest of my body. I joke about that now. After I went off the Ritalin, my appetite shot through the roof but not in a good way. I grew taller of course but I was expanding more than lengthening.

I didn't eat the best foods for a growing boy and by the time I was 13, I was just under 5'5 along with being 180-185 lbs. Not a great weight for a teen that short. Didn't have much muscle to show and even when I started weight training around that time in P.E, I didn't understand how to build muscle and kept doing various activities to get my energy out during recess or after school like Street Baseball, Basketball and other things.

As I got older and experienced things more from a training stand point, my neck was starting to grow out more but not by specifically training for it. The only time I ever trained my neck for anything was when I tried out for wrestling as a senior in high school. We did bridges and all that stuff, what stopped me wrestling wasn't the calisthenics, those were a bitch on their own, I left because I got hurt during a sparring session working on drills where a guy in my weight class landed on my left knee and I damaged my left hand where it had to be wrapped up. It wasn't in the cards for me and I still think about to this day if that hadn't happened. I quit after a few days of tryouts. 

Since that time, I went on to explore aspects of weight training and learn the basics on my own. I was barely coached at all in high school, by 18-19, I was on my own and mimicked the muscle books and the guys in the gym. Still had no clue what training the neck really was and even tried a machine once that had you work your neck but it never felt right to me. 

After the accident and rehabbing, part of the Royal Court I learned along with the Hindu Squats & Hindu Push-Ups was Bridging. I worked it with the other two everyday for a month just feeling out how to do the rocking, the flexibility progressions and holding the positions. I wasn't anywhere near nose to the mat those first few weeks but I kept getting stronger and eventually held my first back bridge, nose to mat, hands folded and feet flat. At first I only used a towel for padding which now that I look back on it, wasn't probably the best idea LOL but I figured out how to get my hands on a mat and made my bridging better. I even worked up to getting my chin down at one point, that was insane for me to pull off.

Of course I did Front Bridges, Wall Walking, built up to a Gymnastic Bridge and then years later was kicking over and back in the Front/Back Bridge thanks to the guidance of Logan Christopher. My neck got crazy strong, thick and kept me from a lot of potential injuries. Think ever since I learned how to bridge and the multiple variations, I've never had a concussion (knock wood). It built my back to where I was building muscle there and eventually it would be the most muscular area of my body. I'll always credit Bridging as my foundation and I'll still bridge from time to time. 

Now in my 40's, training my neck has changed in recent years where even though I can still Bridge, I focused mainly on working my neck in multiple directions through Isometrics & Tension Control during movements while standing from Self Resistance to Mobility Work. I've built a routine I picked up on Matt Furey's Youtube Channel and added a few things to it and this routine has kept my neck thick but flexible. Last time I measured it, it was around 18 inches. 

For years and years I've resisted buying a neck harness because I've always associated those with weights when in reality, you can still work with bands and don't need barbell plates to use it. That's where Mike Bruce comes in. The true KING of Neck Training. If you researched him, you'll know why. I even interviewed him for this blog many moons ago. Nobody knows more about training the neck than this guy. So after years of hesitating, I got his Neck Flex Apparatus that comes with a resistance band. 

Although I've only done 3 workouts with it so far, it's still in a phase of experimenting. I can feel it that's for sure and have a bit of soreness but nothing irritating or anything. I'm learning to control my movements and sticking to 6-8 directional exercises as my foundation. First workout was just getting a feel for it and hit 180 Reps. Next workout, did 2x25 reps for each exercise totaling 300. This morning after my Joint Loosening routine, I worked it similarly to what I do with my Neck Mobility; hold an exercise for a 10 count and then do reps in a 2 count format. It felt really good and loosened up things really well. The band is at about 20 lbs resistance which even for pros that's more than enough, even Mike does things with that Band that are unbelievable.  

It's another tool in the arsenal for building a strong and powerful neck. Now that doesn't mean thickening it to the point where it has Kurt Angle vibes but having a strong and mobile neck is crucial regardless you're an athlete or not. The neck is one of the most neglected group of muscles and people forget what actual Neck Training does. Whether you get a harness with a band or just do Bridges & Self Resistance/Mobility Work, it doesn't matter, what matters is how you are able to work your neck with efficiency and keep it strong so to minimize injuries because let's face it, those who've had concussions know that later in life things can very much go south and not just through physical trauma but what happens with the brain and how it effects personality and function. 

The Neck Flex isn't a NEED unless you're looking to build a thick neck for Combat Sports like Wrestling, Football, Hockey or whatever but it is very much an optional form of training that also expands knowledge on how to train the neck properly and with effectiveness. I didn't get it cause that's all I'm going to do from now on, I have all the other stuff at my disposal, I got it because it doesn't just support my love for strength training and physical culture, it's because I want to work on something that is useful in my own life and be able to maintain levels of strength and condition for many years to come. It's part of my journey and if you want it to be a part of yours as well, fucking go for it. Just be wise and don't go overboard otherwise you won't like what happens. Be resourceful, build knowledge and learn to control your movements using progressive formalities. 

Be amazingly awesome and keep killing it everyone.