Neck exercises should be done for many reasons. They will help you build muscles proportionately, and this part of the body will not look lagging behind. Strong muscles will also help avoid some injuries, and the exercise process itself will improve your well-being by activating cerebral circulation.
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.
Warm-up
It will be impossible to pump up your neck without the participation of other muscle groups of the back, shoulders, and arms. Also, most of the exercises intersect with strengthening the muscular corset of the thoracic back (latissimus muscles, wings), forearms, shoulders (biceps, triceps), hands. To strengthen your neck muscles without consequences, you need to know how to pump up your hands. Weak hands will not allow you to lift dumbbells, a barbell, or simply lean on push-ups or exercises involving your arms.
The neck corset consists of three main muscles:
- The sternoclavicular muscle is the mastoid muscle. Performs the function of tilting the cervical spine and bending it along with raising the head.
- The wide trapezius is a necessary muscle for turning the head and protects the spine.
- Muscles of the hyoid bone, which perform many functions for movement.
Also, when pumping up the neck, it is necessary to avoid injury and overstrain of muscle groups such as the latissimus, wings, shoulders and arms. To do this, the course of exercises is supplemented with techniques with dumbbells.
To avoid treating sprains and other complications, a warm-up is performed before the main group of exercises. It is needed to stretch the shoulders, hands, and cervical spine. By performing the warm-up correctly, the risk of injury during further exercise is reduced. About 7-10 minutes are spent on these exercises:
The starting position for all techniques is standing straight. The head is tilted up and down, 10-15 techniques in each direction.
The head turns as far as possible to the left and right 10 times in each direction.
Exercise similar to No. 2, but bends are performed in such a way that the ear tends to touch the shoulder. Mode – 10 tilts in each direction.
Rotational movements are performed in a circle: first to the left side for 30 seconds, after which you need to rest for 10-15 seconds and rotate your head in the right direction.
Techniques for pumping up your hands:
- The best option to pump up your hands is to use an expander. Bending movements with the hand are performed regularly, starting from 30 seconds and extending to 2-3 minutes.
- Hanging on a bar has the effect of strengthening the muscles of the hand.
- In order to treat hand pathologies, exercises involving tearing sheets of paper or crumpling them in the hands are used.
In addition, you can perform gymnastics for the neck corset, preparing the latissimus dorsi muscles, wings, arm muscles, and shoulders for exercise. For this, pull-ups on the bar, push-ups and exercises with dumbbells are recommended.
How to pump up your neck with a strap?
Few people have a special helmet with straps that can help work out the neck muscles well enough.
But, if you still have such a helmet, then you can quickly and well develop your muscles with this extension.
In order to perform this exercise, you will need to put a helmet with a disk or plate on your head and tilt your body 30-40 degrees.
From the starting position, try to slowly lower your head down, then slowly raise your head up.
Try not to lift too much weight, as this can injure your neck.
When performing the exercise, try not to move your body and maintain an even balance.
Do neck extensions with a helmet fifteen times for four working sets and stretch between sets.
You will rarely see a person doing this exercise in the gym, but nevertheless it is very effective and helps make your neck larger and more powerful.
Straps can be bought in many special sports stores and in particular in online stores.
As a last resort, you can even make homemade straps for yourself using ropes, ropes, towels and other available methods.
Stretching for healthy neck muscles
How to properly shake your neck so that it becomes both strong and flexible? To do this, it is necessary to perform not only strength exercises, but also those whose goal is to stretch the muscles. They are necessary so that as the neck is pumped, it not only thickens, but also maintains the same flexibility and mobility.
- The first exercise will be forward bends . You need to stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. We tilt our head as if we want to touch our chin to our sternum. We do 10 to 15 repetitions, which will help make the back muscles flexible.
- Next we proceed to bending backwards . We make all movements carefully and concentrated. Pull your chin as high as possible, then return to its original position. The number of repetitions is the same.
- We turn the head to the sides in a sitting position . The back should be straight and the body motionless. We tilt our head so that the ears are as close to the shoulders as possible. Stay in this position for a couple of seconds and return to the opposite position. Do 5-10 times on each side.
- We strain our neck. We do the following: the right hand is placed on the chin, all the muscles tense. From the outside it should appear that you are making a “double chin”. Do this 5-8 times, fixing the pose for a few seconds.
After stretching the neck muscles is completed, proceed to the main exercises aimed at pumping up the muscles.
How to pump up your neck at home?
You can pump up your neck both in the gym and at home.
In order to pump up your neck muscles at home, you need to perform one exercise on the floor.
Before starting the exercise, warm up your neck muscles very carefully and well so that you cannot pull them.
In this exercise you need to stand on your toes and on the top of your head.
From the starting position, tuck your chin towards your chest and do this several times.
Initially, try to place your head on a pillow or soft mats so that your head does not start to hurt too much.
Do this exercise on the floor from twelve to fifteen times in four sets.
Doing exercises at home is much easier, since you don't have to spend a lot of time getting to the gym.
If you are a very busy person and you don’t have time for gyms, then training at home will save your time and this will be ideal for you.
Why do you need neck muscle training?
There is no doubt that the aesthetic component of a healthy and strong male neck is important. The neck muscles of an athlete with broad shoulders, sculpted arms and a developed chest should be pumped up. Athletes who strive for high performance understand well what a pumped neck means to them. Well, for those who do not understand why this is necessary, we can advise you to look at the photos of titled bodybuilders, who will confirm that the neck should be trained. Therefore, the training program must include exercises that are aimed at making it this way.
Women also need to pay due attention to this muscle group. This should be done, if only because their prerogative is the open décolleté area, which should look elegant. To do this, they should not use large weights, which can turn such a delicate area into a pumped up “pile” of muscles of a fairly large size. In addition, the neck area in women is one of the first to begin to age, revealing the actual age of the fair sex, which once again suggests that it needs to be monitored.
Trained neck muscles will prevent the appearance of sagging and the formation of a double chin, which means they can change their appearance for the better, i.e. prolong youth. In addition to aesthetic pleasure, a powerful neck will prevent the athlete from developing osteochondrosis and the appearance of neck pain. A healthy neck is also the key to normal intracranial pressure, because it contains many vessels and nerve endings that can spasm, leading to migraines.
Finally, a healthy and strong neck provides additional support for the spine, which will not hurt anyone.
How to prepare for training
To avoid health problems, you need to start training (as well as end the session) by warming up and stretching your neck muscles. Adequate load weight is also very important to avoid injury.
It doesn't take much exercise to warm up these muscles.
It will be enough to complete the complex below:
- Head tilts.
- Head rotation.
- Head tilts are diagonal.
- Stretching with your arms back and forth, to the sides.
The number of times each exercise is performed is 10 times. They are performed slowly (especially stretching). The athlete should feel their tension. At the Peak Point you need to linger for a few seconds, then repeat the exercise.
Since the neck muscles tend to shorten, it is recommended to end the workout by stretching them. Shortening the neck muscles is undesirable because it can lead to serious consequences.
Initially, shortening is short-term, but can become permanent if there is no stretching. It can all end in spasms, hypertension, severe headaches, and blockages.
If an athlete feels pain after training, it means that he did not stretch effectively enough, poorly prepared his muscles, or took on too much weight.
Contraindications and precautions
Among the huge number of exercises, the most traumatic are those that are aimed at strengthening the neck muscles, so they should be performed smoothly and thoughtfully. It is advisable for beginners to do them in the presence of an experienced trainer who will provide backup and help hone the technique.
People with cervical osteochondrosis should not perform exercises for the neck muscles that use weights, as should those diagnosed with hypertension and tachycardia, as well as patients with infectious diseases.
Even if there is a desire to quickly pump up your neck, you do not need to do this every day or, according to experts, carry out short training sessions (5-6 times a week) of medium intensity. Heavy training is undesirable, even if it is carried out 2-3 times a week.
If severe pain occurs, blood pressure rises sharply, or neck mobility is limited, it is recommended to immediately stop training and consult a doctor.
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Video: Sergey Badyuk about neck muscle training
