Few modern athletes, with the exception of wrestlers, rugby players, and representatives of some martial arts:. Pay due attention, if at all, to neck training. At the same time, there are several good reasons to include a couple of exercises for this muscle group in your training program.
Security and Protection
The muscles of the neck, along with the trapezius muscles, are an airbag for any person. While this function of the neck muscles is obvious to boxers, wrestlers, and fighters, it may not be clear to people who are not involved in daily clinches and grips while they spend extra time training the neck. A well-trained neck and trapezius muscles can save your life one day. Of course, this is not a 100% guarantee of your invulnerability, but still, repeated accidents with athletes whose necks and trapezius prevented fracture of their cervical vertebrae and reduced the degree of concussion give us a chance to think and not regret the 5-10 minutes spent on neck training.
Improving Well-Being and Brain Activity
By exercising the neck, we improve blood circulation in the brain, supplying it with additional oxygen and nutrients. In addition, a good tone of the neck muscles allows you to improve your posture. Often, being in front of the computer for a long time, hunched over and spasming the back and neck muscles, we experience a headache, decreased performance, and fatigue. It’s a good idea to do some light stretching for your neck, eyes, and whole body while you’re at work, along with regular neck training.
Increased Strength and Athletic Performance
Well-trained neck muscles provide stability in the thoracic spine, which gives us the ability to perform better in the deadlift, squat, bench press, etc, and avoid the need to visit a sports injury clinic.
The two areas of your body that are almost always visible are your neck and forearms.
For those who do not want to acquire a “bull neck,” and lose proportions and symmetry –– you can get all the above benefits without a serious increase in neck volume by adjusting the volume and intensity of the exercises performed.
Now consider those simple exercises with which we can train the neck.
1) Exercises with manual resistance
If you are just starting to train or did not train at all, as well as in the absence of other equipment, you should start with exercises for the neck where you use the effort of your own hands as resistance.
Perform extensions, flexions, and side bends of the neck using manual resistance. You can also use a towel for convenience.
2) Extension of the neck with a collar
Especially for this exercise, a special collar is blown through, on which pancakes are hung, or rubber bands can be used as resistance.
3) Neck curl with a light plate
Take a light plate from the bar, and a small towel, and lie back on the bench so that your head hangs down. Put the plate on your forehead, between your forehead and the towel. Now, hold the plate with your hands, bend your neck, trying to touch your chest with your chin.
4) Exercises on the wrestling bridge
These are not for beginners and doubters in technique, as it is easy to get injured. After a few months of regular training with manual resistance and a collar, you can begin to master the stand in the wrestling bridge, keeping your hands on the floor. Then move on to smooth swaying movements of the head and body, adjusting the load with the pressure of the hands on the floor.
Start with 1-2 sets of 15-25 reps. Very smoothly increase the load, weights, and repetitions.
