Written by Team Juggernaut
By Brandon Lilly
If you wanna look like a lifter, and I don’t mean somebody that goes to the gym and does curls in the squat rack, but I mean a certified lifter. Look no further than that hunk of flesh that connects your body to your head. Show me one dude that has a neck like a tree trunk that isn’t a badass. So why do so many guys neglect neck work? Because it sucks not being able to turn your head for a week after a hard neck workout. So what I did was set out to do one neck movement per day, rather than an all out assault on my neck I worked a little bit at a time and the results kept coming.
If you have ever been in a fight, or if you are a wrestler, you know that if you can get a guy’s head rocking you are in a prime position to knock him on his ass. Same goes for lifting. Your body will follow your head. What happens in a squat if your head is down and you are looking at the floor? More than likely if you don’t do a goodmorning to squat the weight you will end up with a face full of floor in short order. Thats why when guys hit a sticking point on the squat or deadlift most coaches yell “Head Up!!!” as they know the torso follows the head.
So… If you have a stack of dimes here is how you can work your way up to a 21.5″ neck like myself.
Everyday I take a towel and wrap it around my head, and grab the end of towel with both hands and pull down, and I flex my head back, and resist the pressure on the way down like a negative. I do 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps per day. Some days in the gym I put a band around something then around my forehead and I do a “nodding” motion for time and this absolutely sucks but it works.
There are numerous other neck exercises, but these two are simple, effective, and safe. Lots of guys have traps… Not many have a neck worth envy.
