Training The Neck Safely While Building Strength

 If there was an area of the body that shows the most neglect, it’s the neck. Unless you’re a football player, wrestler or martial artist, there isn’t a ton of people training their neck. First off, mainly those who do teach it, even with good intentions may not showcase the bigger picture and focus on this or that. The real truth: It can be scary with the way it is shown at times.

Most who attempt to teach people how to train their neck show mainly machines or using some form of weight along with Bridges that don’t have progression systems in place. The Bridges are often the most “Screw this” reaction than to even using weights because you’re having the top of your head on the floor and the only things supporting are the hands and feet. Does that mean Bridges are bad overall? That depends. I’ve done Bridging exercises for many, many years and never had neck issues that were a cause for alarm but it’s because I learned how to properly progress and control in how I perform them. 

This doesn’t mean Bridges or even weights for that matter are for everyone. If you have spinal injuries or have spurs, it isn’t wise or even worth your health doing those things. Now, if you are healthy and need guidance in training the neck using those things, I would highly recommend Advanced Bridging by Logan Christopher where he teaches you even the most basic exercises to train not only your neck but the spinal cord and overall body development. For the weights, I would look into the Neck Flex and learning ideally from Mike Bruce who knows a thing or two about training those muscles efficiently. 

What would be the alternative to these where you can still work your neck without having to do those things. You can do Neck Mobility Drills like I show on Youtube, you can do Self Resistance Exercises working the neck in several directions where you are in complete control of the tension you use, or you can use a resistance band with the Neck Flex.

For the record, I never really used weights to train my neck, the closest thing would be bending steel in a wrestler’s bridge on my head but other than that, I didn’t necessarily need to do weights. So what makes training with a resistance band any different than training with weights? Resistance is resistance right? In a nutshell, weights have the same level of resistance throughout the range of motion but with a Band, the more you stretch it, the more it fights against you instead of staying the same.

From a personal stand point, I believe using a band is a very powerful alternative because you can train in different directions when you hook it up to the D-Rings on the Harness and train safely while also building size and strength. Because of my own training with it, I have maintained a 18 1/2 inch neck and don’t have any problems in those areas or in my spine. I can still do Bridges if I wanted to but in terms of maintaining size, mobility and keeping it strong for things that matter, it truly is the cream of the crop for those attributes. The resistance isn’t stupid heavy and it can be for beginners or seasoned vets in the game.

As we get older, safety becomes more of a priority than ego lifting or doing better than everyone else. We want to build that strength and mobility that keeps us lasting longer and as injury proof as possible. That doesn’t mean you have to be paranoid or overly cautious, it means you learn to be aware of things from a focused perspective. I’ve had enough injuries in my lifetime to understand that it’s not worth your health if you can’t enjoy the greater things in life. Too many people become crippled or worse because they don’t train their bodies in a safe manner to keep things going smoothly as they can. We can’t 100% avoid injuries but we can learn to be aware and do our best to control what can be prevented and be able to have that durability without testing our egos on theories of how far we’re willing to push. It’s one thing to challenge yourself, it’s another to punish yourself in the attempt of being healthier and stronger.

Train your neck wisely and be in control in how you perform movements or even holds for that matter. Having a strong and healthy neck can mean saving your life.

Be amazingly awesome and share your experiences with me on Neck Training or have questions about the Neck Flex by shooting me a comment. Be sure to use my code POWERANDMIGHT when you have an opportunity to order the Neck Flex. They may even be having a sale going on and my code will shave off even more of that. Subscribe to have articles sent to your email and may you continue to kill it in your journey.