[Music]

okay welcome everyone to a new episode

of technique Tuesday this week we're

going to be looking at how to train the

neck through a variety of different

training techniques while avoiding

injury and maximizing strength and size

of the neck musculature but before we

get into the training technique itself

let's have a quick look at why neck

training is so important in the first

place for me I would say the first

reason is aesthetics and my experience

it's usually photos like these that turn

people on to neck training there's

literally nothing different about the

two images here except for the width of

the neck and you can clearly see that

the guy looks so much more facially

attractive on the right and the same

thing goes for celebrities who have had

their necks photoshopped smaller I mean

you can see just how much nerdier almost

goofier Channing Tatum looks with his

neck shrunk in on the right and this is

what actor DJ Qualls actually looks like

and here's what he looked like if he

trained his neck and of course I've had

about a two inch neck transformation

myself after just one year of consistent

neck training now luckily one thing many

people do find is that once they

actually start training their neck it

grows pretty fast and I would say that's

probably because it isn't a muscle that

is gonna get a lot of external loading

and just regular day to day activities

so once you actually do start hitting it

properly it should actually grow pretty

fast I think it's also important to hit

the neck from an overall strength and

athletic perspective in my opinion every

athlete involved in contact sports can

benefit from neck training because the

neck stabilizes the head so

strengthening it can improve performance

and prevent concussions and injury so

football and hockey players boxers and

MMA fighters all can benefit from direct

net training and it's actually pretty

common to see these athletes include

direct net training in their strength

and conditioning programs now I've also

noticed as have many others that neck

strengthening can reduce day to day neck

pain and headaches as well okay so we're

gonna start by hitting the front of the

neck through a forward flexion which is

going to be handled mainly by the

sternocleidomastoid muscle but it's also

important to develop the back of the

neck which will be training through neck

extension

and we can also train the neck through

lateral flexion however since lateral

flexion is mostly handled by the

sternocleidomastoid as well I wouldn't

say it's a top priority for increasing

neck width but definitely can help

ensure proportional growth also rotation

or anti rotation of the head is

important for certain athletes like MMA

fighters or NASCAR drivers and I like to

use rotation exercises to sort of pre

activate the entire neck warm things up

and establish a mind muscle connection

so before doing any direct neck training

I think it's important to do a quick one

to two minutes dynamic warmup

so you don't pull a muscle or get a

zinger the next day which is basically a

really really stiff neck to the point

that you can't turn your head one

direction which can take a few days to

go away so before anything I'll start

with 8 to 10 head rotations alternating

directions so I don't get too dizzy and

then I'll lie down on the bench and do

10 to 12 slow tempo bodyweight neck

curls and flip to the side do another 10

to 12 lateral curls with head weight and

then do the same for the rear and this

phase is actually really important

because you're focusing on taking your

neck through a full range of motion

getting a comfortable stretch at the

bottom and then trying to touch your

chin to your chest at the top and you'll

feel a really strong neck contraction

and of mind muscle connection doing this

after that I'll do a few five-second

stretches side to side and then do my

last warm-up drill which basically adds

a head rotation to the mix so here you

want to do a neck curl as normal except

you're gonna try to touch your chin to

your shoulder rather than your upper

chest and then alternate sides from rep

to rep and finally I'll finish out the

prehab stuff with a few side-to-side

rotations with an isometric hold I

seriously love this drill and if you

don't have anything to load you can

actually get a crazy neck pump and burn

just by doing this on its own so if you

do all this in a straight sequence you

should be able to complete the full

warm-up in just a couple minutes and now

you'll be ready to train much more

safely and effectively okay so up first

is the basic neck curl now there are a

few ways you can set this up the

simplest way is just to hold a plate to

your forehead position your shoulders at

the back edge of the bench and curl your

neck down and up you'll definitely want

to use some kind of protective headgear

for this

nice and thick to is good or you could

just use a towel and I'm just now

realizing that this might make for some

pretty cool merch so I'll keep you guys

posted on that now you want to make sure

that your neck is actually doing the

work here not your arms or your abs so I

find taking a looser grip on the plate

or even actively pressing down sort of

mashing the plate into your forehead

prevents you from cheating with your

arms also once your neck starts to

fatigue your abs may try to get involved

by crunching the weight up and down so

you want to curl your legs in under the

bench to lock things in and really make

sure that the only movement is happening

at the neck as far as loading goes I'd

recommend loading in a more moderate to

light rep range for neck work generally

in the 10 to 20 reps own even as high as

30 reps since you don't want to risk

compromising any of the spines

supporting tissues or soft tissues just

to go heavier and as long as you're

training relatively close to failure you

can get the same results with higher

reps and with less of an injury risk

still I think many people do

underestimate their strength potential

on neck curls I've personally done 45

pounds for a PR set of 25 or 30 pretty

strict reps that actually pales in

comparison to some guys with really

strong necks for example here you can

see alex from the channel alpha destiny

doing 90 pounds for many reps and I

wouldn't necessarily recommend loading

that heavy for most people if you find

yourself still stuck at the 5 or 10

pound plate after training for a while

and maybe time to start setting your

strength standard a little higher so up

next is neck extension and again the

simplest way to load this is by placing

a plate on the back of your head and

doing lying neck curls and while this

can work I don't really use this

exercise any more myself for a few

reasons

find it a bit harder to maintain balance

on the bench in the chest down position

especially once you start loading a bit

heavier and because your neck is much

stronger in extension a single 45 pound

plate actually won't be heavy enough

even for 20-plus reps once you get

decently strong on these so this is

where training gear becomes pretty much

essential so I'd strongly recommend

investing in some sort of head harness

so you can load extension much more

effectively and comfortably now many of

you guys will know that for the last

four or five months I've been using the

neck flex which I find incredible for

this basically you can use it to Train

tension but also forward flexion in

lateral flexion which is unlike any

other head harness that I've used and

I've used a nice few and many of them

make forward flexion pretty much

impossible to load so you can load this

with band resistance as well and it also

comes with a door anchor so you can very

easily set this up at home which I

actually do most of the time now if I

just want to squeeze in a quick

10-minute neck workout without any real

setup or risk of getting stared at at

the gym even though I don't personally

think there's anything to be ashamed of

there

but anyway you can get a complete and

full neck workout in using just this one

piece of gear especially if you use the

chain included to load some weight for

extensions which you can do on a cable

rack or with a plate so I wouldn't say

that the neck flex is required to make a

net gains but it definitely makes it a

lot more convenient and totally saves

you the trouble and potential

embarrassment of having to put a plate

on your face and you can easily train

your neck from home if you don't want to

do it in the gym and neck Flex was kind

enough to hook the channel up with an

affiliate link so if you guys want to

grab one and take your neck training up

a notch you can support me in my channel

in the process so again with neck

extension in general whether you're

doing it on the bench with a plate on

your head or with the head harness you

want to take the neck through a full

range of motion getting a full stretch

at the bottom and then lifting your head

up till you reach a neutral head

position at the top and I'd be careful

not to hyperextend the neck at the top

so just stop and reverse the movement

once you get to that neutral head

position and you can also include neck

bridges in your training program however

I personally think they're a bit

redundant if you're already doing all

the other stuff we've talked about but

with that said I know many wrestlers and

combat athletes really benefit from

these movements and I will include them

in my own training from time to time so

if you guys would like to see me cover

neck bridges that's something I can do

in a future video so guys that is all

that I have for this one I don't forget

to check out the link in the description

to the neck flex like I said it's

something I've been using for a while

now and I thought this would be the

perfect way to bring more attention to

it because I really do think it's a

great piece of equipment so shout out to

them for being the first and only

technique Tuesday a sponsor like I said

it's not mandatory for progress but I

definitely think it helps also if you

haven't seen my neck and try

science explained video I definitely

recommend giving that a watch as I dive

into more of the research behind neck

training over there now please leave the

video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it

don't forget to subscribe to the channel

if you're new and I'll see you guys all

here next Tuesday