Neck Training With Calisthenics: A Guide To Building a Stronger Neck With No Equipment

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raykay

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Intro

Strengthening your neck muscles is an overlooked part of a training regimen. It insulates you from injuries during high-impact activities, and affects your upper body aesthetics. With the right bodyweight exercises, you can build a strong and healthy neck without the need for any equipment. In this post, I'll go over best practices for safe and efficient progression in your neck training.

For Best Results

Neck and upper traps have a lot of overlap, I suggest training them both at the same time to maximize results. Make sure to stretch your neck and traps after exercising them to avoid being tense.
https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/viayu5/upper_trap_training_with_calisthenics_a_breakdown

Important Things To Know
  • Equipment is not needed. The muscles of the neck are actually some of the easiest and most convenient to train, since you can do all the key exercises with no equipment, while either laying on the floor or hanging off the edge of a bed.
    • This no-equipment style of neck workout was a staple of training for old-time strongmen and wrestlers such as Martin "Farmer" Burns, famous for a stunt where he survived hanging himself due to his absurd neck strength. I am not always one to claim that "old school" did it better, but in this case the old school athletes seemed to have figured it out. https://lastwordonsports.com/prowre...-farmer-burns-the-godfather-of-pro-wrestling/
    • This should be obvious, but do not try to replicate that stunt.
  • Neck bridges are not needed. Neck bridges put extra strain on the fragile vertebrae of your cervical spine, while being entirely unneeded to have consistent neck strength gains. They are uncomfortable, risky, and are harder to progress/regress than other options. Instead I'll be showing some much lower risk exercise options.
Adding Resistance

Progression for neck training should be focused on fatiguing the muscles rather than maximum load. Therefore, prioritize training volume, slowing tempo and pauses, increasing ROM, and shortening rest periods between sets.

If you do still wish to load the neck, a light resistance band and/or resistance from placing your hands on your head as muscular resistance is very simple and easy to implement. Add load very gradually. Here is an example

Highly advanced trainees can feel free to use small weight plates (2-6 kg), but if you're someone with a large and heavy head it's unlikely you'll ever need anything more than just bodyweight and perhaps a light band.

Gold Standard for Progression

Slow sets of 15-20 reps at a paused tempo of 1-3-1-1, perform all neck exercises as a giant set running through each exercise 1 time with no rest between for 2-4 rounds.

The majority of people, if they are strict with form and not allowing their neck to relax during the giant set, will find this quite challenging. If you still manage to progress beyond this, then you should consider adding load.

Neck Exercises

Regardless of the variation you use, make sure to train all the key movements of the neck like you would the muscles of your core: rotation, side bending, forward bending, and backward extending.

Front/Side of Neck Training

Neck Training Advanced (non-floor) Progressions,

Rear Neck Training:
 
@raykay You seem to know your stuff so I’ll ask - I saw an exercise where you wrap a towel around a kettlebell, chomp down on the towel and pretty much deadlift. Given that your neck is in a static position the whole time, would this be a safe and effective exercise for strengthening your chomping power?
 
@trob442 I have absolutely no idea if this is a joke or not, but I'm thrilled and very amused by your question. Are you asking about strengthening your jaw muscles? Like how the old school boxers would chew on wood to make themselves (allegedly) more durable against punches to the jaw?
 
@raykay Yeah I’ve never seen this exercise before. Strengthening the jaw and general neck area - you’re just holding on to the towel with your mouth and lifting a kettlebell off the floor. No flexion of the neck involved, just static. Might be an absolute meme exercise because I’ve never seen anyone else do it.
 
@trob442 So I'm not very knowledgeable in jaw training, but this exercise seems like it would be okay on your neck, assuming the load is very light and you can maintain your neck posture.

However, I don't really see the need to do jaw training at all, outside of maybe a physical therapy context for an injury. You use the muscles of the jaw constantly to eat and talk, chew gum, yawn, move your face, etc. It's not an area that is being neglected.

I mentioned the wood-chewing from old time boxers, but to clarify when I read about it I thought it was absurd. I don't imagine a stronger jaw did much to protect them from a massive blow to the face. It's a good reminder that "old school" does not mean always good, there's just sometimes useful info because they had to train in a time before most equipment existed.

An easy way to determine if an exercise is a fad and/or just something being done for attention on social media is asking if the exercise has utility. Does it fulfill a training purpose, effectively? If not, then it's a gimmick. In this case I'd call this exercise a gimmick for social media.
 
@raykay Fun fact, (some) scientists think men developed beards to help them withstand facial impacts. Apparently a beard dispersed the force over a larger area, effectively softening the blow. No clue if it’s real or not, but could be at least as real as chewing on wood lol
 
@gigi85 Much better to say that study supported it or rather than proved it. Science doesn't conclusively prove anything, since all science is based on inference.
 
@gigi85 Funny that the paper has a mistake in the wording of the abstract. Ought to say that furred samples had LOWER peak force and greater total energy absorbed. This can be confirmed by reading the results section. Amazing that no one caught the wording mix up.
 
@raykay As far as an exercise for taking a facial blow goes, your neck exercises are it. Your neck will stiffen to add the inertia of the rest of your body to that of your head and minimize the jostling of your brain. I've been in umm a few fights, and every time I took a shot to the head my neck muscles were stiff the next day. Never did any neck training, I assume my normal activities, like helmeted motorcyling, buffed it
 
@trob442 I saw some infomercial about a product that provides resistance as you chew on it, in order to strengthen your jaw. I figure you can get similar results just by chewing gum all day, everyday.
Id try that before risking serious injury to your neck (static or not) by trying to lift weights with your teeth.
 
@raykay Neck rotations are thing,.I also knew a guy who modified a helmet to have weights attached he would hang his head off the head and move it in rotation for 100 reps before bed

Look up look left look right look down repeat
 
@raykay When I do the floor neck exercises, I find them terribly difficult and am straining to do even 5 on the rotations. I’m doing them upright to get started, so that I’m not fighting against gravity. I also find my upper back muscles feel really sore/tight when I do these exercises. I wonder if my body is compensating for weak neck muscles using my upper back?
 
@adamsharrisoniii You are correct, it is your upper back compensating. This is very common when you are starting out, and the upper back soreness will not be a consistent issue as your neck becomes more conditioned. Many people's neck muscles start out totally detrained, so your situation is nothing abnormal.

To prevent upper back movement it's best to lay your torso flat on something (the ground, bed, table, bench, etc.) that will prevent your torso from taking over the neck movement. A good cue is to make sure your shoulders do not lift off the surface at any point during the set.

It's also totally okay to focus on sets of 1 or 2 with pauses for rest, use a shorter ROM if you need, then work your way up to longer sets and more ROM. As long as you focus on improving technique you will be able to handle much more in a few weeks.
 
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