Neck exercises in the gym: a set of exercises, technique, effectiveness, reviews

• October 14, 2018
• Workouts in the gym
• Galina Fil

Many athletes place the main emphasis in training on the back, abs, biceps or triceps, completely forgetting to pump the neck, which is why this part of the body looks extremely ridiculous. Therefore, trainers strongly recommend not to forget to include exercises for the neck in your training program in the gym, thanks to which it will look as impressive and strong as the rest of the body.

Why train your neck?

Judging by the reviews of trainers and those people who pumped and pumped their necks, these workouts were extremely useful for them, and not only because the neck began to look much more powerful and beautiful. Also, exercises for the neck muscles have proven to be very beneficial for health. Developed and pumped up muscles in this part of the body help:

• prevent the development of neck pain and osteochondrosis;
• normalize intracranial pressure;
• improve the condition of the spine;
• have beautiful posture;
• get rid of migraines and headaches.

Why shake your neck?

In the presented area there are muscles that are responsible for holding and turning the head in separate planes. Local tissues play a protective role for the upper spine. These structures are involved in performing movements during swallowing food. A network of blood vessels passes through the tissues of the cervical region, which supply the brain with oxygen and nutrients. The development of the muscles of the marked area contributes to better conduction of nerve impulses.

A muscular neck helps avoid discomfort for people who are forced to do sedentary work in an office chair every day. Pumping the area relieves the feeling of tightness and reduces the likelihood of developing headaches. Regular application of moderate loads to local muscles is a good prevention of osteochondrosis.

A pumped-up male neck looks organic against the backdrop of large, prominent shoulders. If you do not pay attention to training the muscles in the marked area, it is difficult to achieve a truly menacing, impressive look. After all, a frail neck cannot be hidden under clothes.

Mistakes during training

Before moving on to a detailed analysis of neck exercises in the gym, let's look at possible mistakes that may await you during training. After all, judging by the reviews, it is precisely because of the incorrect technique of performing exercises and unacceptable actions of athletes that the effectiveness of training can be zero, and the likelihood of injury increases exponentially.

What mistakes should you avoid?

1. Many athletes begin to immediately perform exercises, which is categorically unacceptable, since before training you should definitely warm up and do a warm-up.
2. Warming up the neck should proceed in a calm, slow manner without the slightest sudden movements, which beginner athletes often make.
3. Wanting to quickly pump up their neck, athletes begin to train daily, which will ultimately lead to the opposite result, so it is better to exercise only twice a week.
4. When choosing weights to perform exercises, you should not immediately pursue large loads; it is better to increase them gradually to avoid injury.
5. Exercises to strengthen the neck should be done slowly and without jerking, so that each movement is fully felt.
6. Despite the fact that every athlete knows how he should exercise so that the training goes smoothly and painlessly, they may still periodically experience neck pain or a feeling of tightness, which can be easily relieved with a light massage and compress.

Preparation for training

To pump up your neck muscles and avoid health problems, you need to start and end your workout with stretching and warming up. In addition, adequate load selection is important, as excessive weight or resistance can cause serious injury.

To warm up and prepare your muscles before training, just do a few simple exercises:

• Tilts and rotations of the head;
• Diagonal head tilts;
• Stretch to the sides, forward and backward using your arms.

It is enough to perform each exercise 10 times to prepare for further training. Bends and stretches should be done slowly, feeling the tension in the muscles and holding at the peak point for a few seconds.

You should also complete your neck workout by stretching the muscles, since they tend to shorten. Shortening of the neck muscles is an extremely undesirable phenomenon due to its serious health consequences. Short-term after exercise, in the absence of stretching it becomes permanent and leads to spasms, blockages, severe headaches and hypertension. If an athlete has a sore neck after training, it means they did not stretch effectively enough, did not prepare the muscles, or lifted too much weight.

Warming up before training

Before performing a set of exercises for the neck, you should always do a short warm-up, which, judging by the reviews of trainers and experienced athletes, can protect you from many health problems, especially since stretching and warming up is not at all difficult:

1. We sit on a chair, put our hands on the top of our head and slowly lower our head with them until our chin touches our chest. Then we slowly return our head to its original position and then nod again. Repeat 5 times.
2. We place our palm on the right ear and slowly tilt our head towards the left shoulder, then return to the starting position, place our palm on the left ear and tilt our head towards the right shoulder. We repeat the exercise 5 times.
3. We sit on a chair, straighten our back, look straight ahead, keeping our head straight, and then carefully get up from the chair, after which we return to the starting position again - we do this 5 times.
4. We make slow circular rotations with our heads, first 5 times clockwise, and then 5 times counterclockwise.

Safety comes first

Before performing any physical exercise, it is necessary to warm up those muscle groups that will be subject to stress. General warming up of the body will also not be superfluous and will contribute to overall physical strengthening.

The neck is the part of the body where injuries are most dangerous and can even lead to hospitalization.

This is fraught with long, painful treatment and the need to undergo a rehabilitation course. The reasons may be different: pinched nerve, vertebral displacement, muscle strain. To avoid such troubles, be sure to do a thorough warm-up before physical activity. This requirement is relevant for everyone, beginners and experienced athletes.

Neck extension

You should start doing exercises for the back and neck by lifting your head from a position lying on your stomach, which, judging by reviews, will make your neck much stronger and strengthen your spine. To perform the exercise, you should lie on a flat bench on your back or stomach so that your shoulders, head and neck hang from it. Wrap a towel around your head and place a disc with the selected weight on top, at the back of your head, which should be held with both hands. As you exhale, we begin to slowly raise our neck, trying not to move our shoulders. Having reached the peak of the rise, we freeze for a couple of seconds and, inhaling, return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise about six times.

Workout 3

1) Bench press

2) Upper block pull

Try to make your grip as wide as possible and pull the weight solely with the strength of your back muscles.

3) Incline Dumbbell Press

Make the trajectory of the movement as if in an arc, so that at the top point your dumbbells almost touch each other. At the bottom, the distance between them should be as maximum as possible.

4) Shrugs with a barbell or dumbbells

Alternate this exercise from workout to workout, performing it with both a barbell and two dumbbells.

5) Lateral head lifts

Perform this exercise similar to neck curls while lying on your back. But only this time you need to lie on your side and do a given number of repetitions on both your right and left sides in one set. The number of repetitions and approaches is the same.

Raising your head while lying on your side

A very popular exercise for the neck in the gym is lifting the head from a lying position, but not on the stomach or back, but on the side, which, judging by reviews, makes the neck muscles more elastic. In this case, you also need to tie a towel around your head, take a disk with the selected weight, lie on a flat bench on your right side so that your shoulder is in full contact with the bench and your head hangs from it. With one hand we apply a disk with the selected weight to the left ear, and then, as we exhale, we begin to slowly raise our neck. Having reached the peak of the rise, we freeze for a couple of seconds and, inhaling, return to the starting position. We repeat all this six times.

Theoretical part of the program

The crown of every athletic body is, of course, the neck. Developed neck muscles indicate a serious level of training of the athlete. After all, in order to pump them up, the owner of a strong and strong neck had to seriously sweat in the gym. You will have to do the same if you want to pump up what is called the “bull neck”.

It’s worth making a reservation right away and warning you that training the neck, as well as other muscles, will be successful only if your complex contains just basic exercises.

Such as, for example, bench press, sitting and lying, squats, deadlifts, pull-ups and others. It is they, due to their complexity and multi-joint nature, that will involve not only the target muscles, but also additional ones, including the neck muscles.

As for isolating exercises, as in any training program, they will only be an addition to the heavy base.

Don't be fooled into thinking that simply bending your neck with a load will make it much bigger and stronger. It is not true. Remember, muscles will only respond to growth to a basic multi-joint load.

For example, according to scientific data, such a basic exercise as the bent-over barbell row uses, in addition to the main muscles, that is, the back muscles, also the biceps. It would seem that the biceps here only help to carry out the movement, but in fact, the degree of load on them increases significantly. The power of their contraction increases by about a third if we compare this exercise with standing biceps curls. Although the latter puts a more direct load on the biceps. But the bent-over row benefits from a significantly higher “basicity” indicator.

In general, we will not go into much detail into physiology and analyze this example at a scientific level. It just needs to be said that with neck training things are the same.

The degree of load on it becomes maximum only when it works in basic exercises in tandem with other muscles. Isolating exercises for the neck will serve as auxiliary exercises to the basic ones, but by themselves they will have virtually no effect. That is, they cannot be independent.

Based on this, we will offer you a special training program for all muscle groups, but with a significant emphasis on the neck muscles.

Neck flexion

And of course, during training, we must not forget to perform an exercise to strengthen the neck muscles, which involves bending the neck with weights, which is almost identical to the neck extension exercise. Judging by the reviews, this particular activity allows you to work out all the existing muscles of the neck, plus the long abdominal muscle. To perform the exercise, you should lie on a flat bench on your back so that your neck, shoulders and head hang from it, tie a towel over your head, take a disk with the selected weight with both hands and place it on your forehead. Then we exhale and begin to reach our chin towards our chest as far as possible. After this, we freeze for a couple of seconds and, taking a deep breath, slowly return to the starting position. We repeat the exercise about eight times.

Workout 2

1) Deadlift

Perform the deadlift as technically as possible. This is the only way you will make your muscles work harmoniously and in tandem with each other. Which will have a positive effect on the load in general and on the load on the neck muscles in particular.

2) Swing forward with a kettlebell

An excellent exercise for the shoulder muscles, but, as you understand, the neck is not deprived of the load here. If your gym doesn’t have weights, you can perform this movement with dumbbells; they should definitely be there.

3) Hanging leg raises

If you cannot lift your legs straight, then do this exercise with your knees bent, it will be easier. If things are really bad, then do it lying on the floor

4) Lying Neck Curl

Lying on a bench, place a barbell disc on your forehead. Lie down with your head hanging off the bench. Choose the weight according to the strength of your neck. We raise our head powerfully and quickly, lower it under control and slowly, while making sure that only the neck is working.

Exercise with a clamp

If you ask experienced athletes how to pump up their neck in the gym so that it becomes massive and strong, most will suggest performing a set of exercises with a collar - a device that is put on one side of the head, while on the other side a load with a selected weight is attached to it . To perform it, you should put the exercise machine on your head, attach a weight and stand in the starting position, bending towards the floor, forming an angle of 90° with it. After this, as you exhale, we begin to bend over even more, trying to let the load touch the floor. As soon as this happens, we freeze for a couple of seconds, and while inhaling we return to the starting position, doing everything very slowly and without sudden movements. Naturally, then we repeat the exercise again from 6 to 8 times.

Neck muscles

In total, fifteen muscles pass through the cervicothoracic zone - ten actual cervical muscles and five alien muscles that simply pass through the upper body. All of them, both native and alien, are divided into two types - middle and lateral.

The medial muscles have a longitudinal arrangement of fibers and are responsible for the work of the jaw and larynx, and, therefore, they are of no interest to us - there is no point in pumping them up, and no one has come up with exercises for this muscle group. But the lateral muscles, which have an oblique arrangement of fibers, are responsible for tilting the neck and to increase its volume, they need to be trained.

The lateral neck muscles consist of superficial and deep groups, and both of them are equally important for those who want to quickly pump up their neck at home.

• the deep group is responsible for assisting breathing and tilting the head;
• superficial is responsible for protecting the most important parts of the spine and trachea, and also helps with bending and turning the neck;

The deep group consists of four scalene muscles, the superficial group consists of the subcutaneous muscle of the neck and the sternocleidomastoid muscle.

In addition to the neck muscles themselves, the shoulder muscles and trapezius muscles are also responsible for its visual perception, so if you want to pump up your neck at home, you should think about them too.

Training your neck at home

If you don’t have time to do neck exercises in the gym, but still want it to become strong and pumped up, you can perform a set of exercises for this part of the body right at home in any free time. This training will be especially useful for office workers who perform sedentary work and often suffer from back and neck pain. To avoid such discomfort, you should perform several simple exercises, repeating each of them 10 to 15 times.

1. We sit down straight, place our palms under our chin, and then, trying to overcome their resistance, tilt our head towards our chest.
2. We put our hands on the back of our heads, joining them in a lock, and then, trying to overcome the resistance of our hands, we tilt our head back as much as possible.
3. With our left palm we touch the left cheek, and then, trying to overcome its resistance, we tilt our head to the left. After this, we touch the right cheek with our right palm and, overcoming its resistance, tilt our head to the right side.
4. We place our left palm directly under the chin, after which, overcoming its resistance, we turn our head to the left, trying to turn as far as possible. Next, place your right palm under your chin and turn all the way to the right.
5. We get up from the chair, place both hands on the top of our head, rise on our toes, and then begin to slowly rotate our head from side to side or make clockwise movements with it.
6. If you are doing the exercise at home, you can call a partner to help you, who will tie a long towel around your head and hold the ends while you get on all fours and, overcoming resistance, try to touch your chin to your chest.

What exercises are there to properly pump up your neck?

In order to pump up your bull's neck, we recommend doing a certain number of special exercises that can be performed both with dumbbells and with exercise machines and on the horizontal bar.

Exercises for the neck muscles can be performed by both girls and men.

The most important and fundamental point is to adhere to the correct technique, as in its absence you can get serious injuries.

The exercises for strengthening your neck muscles outlined in the article are all useful and effective.

Each exercise will help you make your neck bigger, stronger and more resilient.

You need to do the above exercises as often as possible and with a certain rotation.

It is necessary to start from heavy exercises with heavy weights for you and gradually move to lighter ones with lighter exercises.

All exercises must be done carefully and at a slow pace with proper technique, otherwise your neck may suffer and be injured.

How to pump up your neck muscles using the exercise “Neck extension on a simulator”?

The best and most useful exercise machine for pumping up your neck muscles is a machine for pumping up your leg muscles. This is a very surprising fact, but in fact it is true.

The neck can be easily and well pumped on a sitting leg extension machine.

The most important thing you need to do is to perform the exercises with the correct technique and at a slow enough pace so as not to injure the neck muscles.

To do this, you need to kneel down and put your head under a special pillow, namely under the very place where your legs would be if you trained them.

From the starting position of the exercise, you need to put your head under the pillow and slowly raise your head up and then slowly lower it down.

Try to raise your head all the way up and slowly lower it down so that your neck muscles can stretch.

We recommend doing twenty-five times with four working approaches. Try to stretch your neck with special exercises between each approach.

In order to understand how to properly pump up your neck, be sure to try to do this exercise, which will also help you recover from various back and neck pain.

You can do a similar exercise at home using a towel or other dense fabrics.

You need to sit on a flat surface and take a towel or thick cloth.

Take a towel or other thick fabric and place it on the back of your head.

Squeeze the towel or cloth at the back of your head tightly with your hands downwards and then, in a taut position with the towel or cloth at the back of your head, lower your head down, then up.

Do this exercise before bed in the range of twenty to thirty times.

Before starting the exercise, be sure to warm up your neck and perform circular rotations with your head.

A warm-up must be done so that your neck is warmed up and you cannot strain your neck or injure it when performing exercises on the neck muscle.

How to pump up your neck using the Neck Extension with Disc exercise?

Neck extensions with a disc can be performed both on a training board and on any other surface.

We recommend doing neck extensions as often as possible, as the exercise helps strengthen your neck, make it strong and generally wide.

This exercise is quite effective and works your neck muscles efficiently.

To perform this exercise, lie on your stomach on a bench in such a position that your head faces the floor.

Place a light weight plate or disc on the back of your head and lower your head down, then slowly lift it up.

Try to lift the load plate or exercise plate not using your back, but using your head.

We recommend doing twenty-five times in four approaches.

Between each set, also try stretching your neck.