How to pump up your neck

Basic principles of neck training

Pay attention to all existing sports. A truly massive neck is typical for athletes from the new discipline of "strongman", where in a competitive format participants try to lift, pull, squeeze or push unusual objects: stones, boulders, cars, and even trucks. Also, a strong neck is an element that is often found in martial arts at a professional level. Where have you seen a champion in freestyle or Greco-Roman wrestling with a thin neck? As for fitness, bodybuilding and other sports, a pumped-up neck is an exception, not a common rule.

This should lead to a certain thought-question: what do these sports have in common in the context of neck training? Thanks to modern data from physiology, we know that it is possible to develop the neck and promote its hypertrophy only with the presence of strength loads that force the neck to experience a certain stress.

Strongmen constantly lift awkward objects, which forces them to use relatively "dirty" techniques that involve the maximum number of muscles, and the neck is no exception. In martial arts and wrestling, the neck is subject to the greatest load. During blows to the head, it is held only by the neck. Regular sparring helps to improve the tone of the neck. In wrestling, a number of exercises, in particular the bridge, have a positive effect on the development of the neck.

However, these methods are of no practical use to us, because we will not start wrestling, martial arts or strongman training purely for the sake of the neck muscles. Therefore, we need to turn again to the physiology of skeletal muscles.

Our task is to give a power stimulus to the neck. It will not work to do this in an isolating format. The body regards a load exclusively for the neck as a potential danger , because the neck is directly connected to the head, brain and central nervous system. These systems have priority in the internal security system. Therefore, various head lifts and bends with special straps and weights on them will not give results. The working weight will be small, since the body will not provide normal innervation.

Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the overall strength load. Heavy basic exercises for the back and core muscles are suitable for this task. Using them will not guarantee you a huge bull neck, but they can pump it up and significantly improve its appearance.

How to pump up your neck exercises

Forget about all the isolation exercises with additional weights. This injures the neck and does not lead to progress, both in strength and in visual indicators. A number of neck exercises rely on basic movements, and only a few on specialized ones, which do not look like what most beginners imagine.

Best exercises:

Farmer's Walk;
Deadlift ;
Dumbbell Crossover;
Pull-ups on gymnastic rings;
Neck flexion and extension without weight, lying on a bench.
Supplement your back workout with one of these exercises of your choice. Pay special attention to the farmer's walk, which is great for developing the core, trapezius, forearms, and legs. The downside of this exercise is that it requires a lot of space, which makes it difficult to perform during peak hours, such as in the evening.

Separately, we will note neck bends . The technique is simple, and in no case does it imply the use of weights in the form of dumbbells, cables or weight plates for a barbell. Lie down with your back closer to the edge of the bench so that your head hangs down. Place a towel on your forehead or eyes. Put your palms on it. Smoothly begin to press your hands on your head, trying to tilt it down. In parallel with this effort of the neck muscles, lift your head up and slightly forward - towards the chest.

Perform 20-30 such repetitions, distributing the load evenly so that there is no feeling of failure. 2 such sets in each direction once a week after a back workout will significantly improve the condition of the neck. Once again, do not use weights .

Neck Training Mistakes

We have already listed the main mistakes above - these are isolating special movements and weights in them. Follow the standard scheme - basic exercises. The human body develops harmoniously only with an adequate overall load volume, and all sorts of head swings with a weight suspended from a barbell are a drop in the ocean compared to the same deadlift or farmer's walk.

How to pump your neck correctly

Avoid stereotypes and do not give in to the persuasion of low-qualified trainers who force you to perform neck curls and extensions in a cable machine with a high load factor.

Add a few exercises to your regular back workout , and don't get hung up on making your neck bigger. This muscle segment won't grow separately. It's necessary to work on the entire muscular system so that it responds with equal adaptation processes.

A large back muscle mass does not mean a large, massive neck, and bodybuilders are a clear example of this. However, in this case, it is easy to train the neck by shifting the focus of the load. If you do not have a decent muscle mass, and you are trying to purposefully increase the neck, your attempts will be unproductive. To begin with, get a general muscle corset.

Training the neck muscles is not like training other skeletal muscles. The specific focus and non-standard anatomical function of the neck are to blame. It is difficult to do strength work with it, which imposes certain limits.

You won't find a way to pump up your neck in a couple of months. Unlike the chest or biceps, here the hypertrophy of the fibers is extremely inexpressive, since the lion's share is made up of red slow-type fibers, and they practically do not change in size, even with regular physiological stress.