I take my neck training seriously and I have been getting great results. I remember when I first got my neck harness and I had no clue on how I was supposed to train my neck. I went way too heavy way too soon and I made many other mistakes. I remember injuring my neck in the summertime (what body part have I not injured by now) and it was terrible. Neck pain feels like a headache that you can physically feel and it follows you around all day. Here are 10 tips to help avoid some neck pain that you may be experiencing or getting in the future without proper training.
1) Talk to a doctor or physio before starting to incorporate any neck exercises into your program.
2) If they give you permission to then you could hire a coach to show you how to perform the exercises correctly.
You have to train the neck properly or don’t train it at all.
3) Start with baby weights.
I always see people start neck training with a 25 -45lb plate on their head and it makes my neck hurt every time by the thought of it. If you are going to start neck training, then start with no weight at all just to get used to the movement. When that gets easy then try using a 2.5lb plate. Then eventually, you will use a 10lb plate.
4) Train your neck for the pump in high rep ranges.
I see some guys on YouTube doing 1-5 reps on neck lifts and it’s ridiculous. As far as the reps go, I like to stay in the 20-50 rep range and occasionally 100 for a good pump at the end of the workout to finish off the neck.
5) Always stretch your neck and traps after workouts.
I used to never do this and then I started getting neck pains, but now I always take a good 5 minutes to stretch my neck from all angles after my neck workouts. Tight neck muscles will eventually catch up to you if you are not careful.
6) Don’t do crazy ranges of motion.
The neck is the muscle where a full range of motion could be extremely dangerous. Use a small pain free range of motion.
7) Cycle your neck training.
There was one summer where I was training my neck for 10 weeks straight and then I got injured. Now my approach is 4-6 weeks on and then 2 weeks off. I also go through phases where I don’t do direct neck work at all. These phases will consist of a lot of rack pulls and shrugs, but no neck isolation exercises.
8) If your neck is really in pain, try icing it throughout the day.
This helped me get through my neck injury pretty fast.
9) Understand that every exercise involves the neck.
This is probably one of the most important tips of all and I discussed it in my “Fixing forward head posture article”. Many people perform Chin-ups, dips, push-ups, deadlifts, squats, shrugs and hundreds of other exercises with a forward head posture. This will lead to a lot of pain in the future because your posture will be all screwed up. The simple way to fix this is to be very mindful of where your neck is when you train. You want to keep your chin tucked (without exaggerating).
10) You don’t have to do neck bridges for a big strong neck.
These are a very advanced exercise and there are many exercises that allow you to train your neck that aren’t neck bridges.
The picture above is a hyper-extended neck during push-ups which will lead to neck pain somewhere down the line.
The picture above demonstrates proper head positioning for the Push-up and will contribute to better posture.
I hope these tips have helped you. A strong neck is a sign of power and hopefully these tips will help contribute to the thick strong neck that you always wanted.