No Equipment Neck Strengthening
The two best neck strengthening things I have found are:
- The headstand
- 4 way neck isometrics
Notice how neither require equipment.
The Headstand
The headstand is quite self explanatory. I throw a pillow on the floor, or put my head on grass and with three points of contact (head, both hands, I do this a bit differently than the normal forearms on floor yoga manner) and hold for time.
When you’ve become good at these the ability you’ve gained to sustain impact will surprise you.
4 Direction/4 Way Neck Isometrics
For the 4 way neck isometrics I don’t actually use my hands as self resistance during the reps.
I do them like so : Standing up, generally shirtless and in front of a mirror, I flex hard downward first, then to the sides and backwards. I do slightly more reps backwards than to the other three directions for the postural benefits, and during each rep there is a noticeable shaking seen and felt. If I feel it is necessary and safe I will circle my neck to loosen it, but this I dont always do.
Strength Not Size
Now I find that these two things are the best things for my neck strength, the thing is though, that they seem to do nothing for the size of my neck.
I can feel that my neck is stronger, in fact in agreement with some old time strongman, I do in fact feel the vigor and vitality stemming from this increase in strength. In a nutshell I feel more rugged.
The look it’s building is a lean and mean neck not a Tyson neck.
For Neck Size
The only thing that has ever really built up my neck size was wrestling season in high school, the ~10 hours a week of having a person of 190lbs-300lbs pulling down on, and falling on my neck the only stimulus so far to build that fucker up in size. It was hilarious how disproportionately large my neck would get in season compared to the rest of me.
I think with partner isometrics this could be simulated, but it would need a willing and able partner (partner neck isometrics without good communication could equal death) a lot of man hours, and the better way would just be to go wrestle for some hours. (Yes, I’ve done the partner neck isometrics up and down, great contraction, but good luck getting a partner to assist you for 1 hour 4x a week).
That being said, once you’re reasonably strong in the neck, get a competent partner and try the up and down partner isometrics. To do them you’ll need to be on all fours, and the partner holding a rag or towel and pulling on it as this works better than him applying pressure via his hands to your skull/forehead.
However, you don’t need the equipment or a partner for neck strength.
-J