Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Weight Lifting Exercises For Your Neck

By Westy

It is very noticeable when you see a bodybuilder who has developed the muscles in their neck. The appearance of well developed neck muscles is one of the ways that you can determine who has been working on their body for a while and who has not. You will also be doing something to prevent any injuries that could occur from your other exercises.

One exercise that is very common to improve the muscles in the neck is the shrug. There are some variations that can be used, but it is actually a very simple exercise. Just shrug your shoulders.

It is possible to do the shrug using dumbbells or a barbell. You might be surprised at how much weight you can actually lift with the shrug. The exercise has a very short range of motion and can be done very simply. Just hold the weight near to your waist and shrug your shoulders. One of the important factors in this exercise is the amount of control that you use to complete the exercise. Make sure that you shrug slowly up and down.

The amount of strength that you can develop is quite high with this exercise. The ideal amount of repetitions is between five and seven. Make sure that you are well warmed before you do your shrugs. Do some workouts using a lesser amount of weight to determine where your repetition range should be. You don't want to have an injury in the neck, it can affect your entire workout.

There's another exercise you could try if you've been developing your neck for a while and you want more strength and definition.

The exercise is called the weighted neck flexion and it is performed as follows:

1. Take your weight plate and wrap it up in a towel.

2. Lay back on your weight bench with your head off of the bench.

3. Put the plate on your forehead and use your hands to support the weight.

4. Lift your body as though you are doing a situp and touch your chin to the chest.

5. Bring your body back down to your original position.

6. Repeat until you're done.

Do this exercise in reverse on your stomach.

There are other exercises that can be used to improve the strength of your neck. Put your hands on one side of your head and push your head in the other direction. You will be using your own body to perform the exercise and not risking injury with weights. This is the ideal way to start the exercises for your neck. It is important that you do not do neck exercises like the neck bridge unless you have been working out for some time and already have a strong neck. This type of exercise is most often done by those that are into wrestling.

The neck is a small part of your upper body workout. When you are working on the strength of your upper body you should make sure to include your neck in the workout. You will find an improvement in your upper body workout when you include the neck muscles in your program. - 16887

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