Only as strong as the weakest link: the neck

[curlbroscience]

One of our dojo members mentioned that he was including neck bridges in to his BW routine. Envious I cheered him on, grabbing at my own stack of dimes.

The abdominal muscles can be callused and built fairly easily with dojo activity and compound lifting; however the neck needs dedicated time and patience. Not only that but being overzealous with the neck will only result in heartache and a neck brace.

We do neck bridges in our Judo warm up and frankly I love the way Judoka warm up. The tumbling et al.

Also another video from Ross' page regarding the Homemade neck trainer.

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NkxWFmUPZnA


Anyway this is my vow to get stronger in the neck. How important should neck training be?

[MMX]

I do the OS resets which include Neck Nods. This minimal neck activity has actually put some muscles on my neck. Even my wife noticed.

[curlbroscience]

A lot of talk about head neutral in the swing but nothing to the effect of neck tension in the press. A mentor taught me that there is a good amount of neck tension in Sanchin and will slowly work it in if/when I start up that shenanigans.

[MMX]

Mar 28, 2014 16:02:01 GMT -5 curlbroscience said:

A lot of talk about head neutral in the swing but nothing to the effect of neck tension in the press. A mentor taught me that there is a good amount of neck tension in Sanchin and will slowly work it in if/when I start up that shenanigans.

I never got into the neck neutral/packed thing. After reading Original Strength I saw that I naturally follow the horizon that allows my neck to move. Much in the same way some very good power lifters Deadlift. SFG allows neck movement in the Swing moves as long as it is not over extension.

[GJEC]

This triggered some memories. At the old Leicester dojo (TA centre) the last thing we did at night was take off and fold up our gi jackets, put our head on them and do a headstand with our feet against a wall.

The tough guys then folded their arms, but at 15 I had neither the strength nor the confidence.

Surprised no one broke their neck. Sweaty jackets, slippery floor. No H & S then.



Gary

[meguro]

Interesting that this topic should come up on the day I wake up with a stiff neck. I feel as if I walked away from a car wreck. Not sure what activity caused the pain but there are plenty of suspects: db c&p; take downs; crunches. All these activities contribute to building up the traps and those muscles in the front of he neck (I forget their names). The c&p, in particular, and cleans in general, will bump you up a couple dress shirt sizes in the neck. Practicing lots of takedowns, your neck works to keep your head from bouncing off the mat. As for crunches, not my choice but I go with the flow, I use the neck muscles instead of my hands to maintain the hollow body.

I have thought often about doing neck bridges, head stands, etc. but resist out of laziness. I like the idea about chewing big wads of bubble gum to build up the jaw muscles (massetters?). I have not seen any signs of Double Bubble in my area however.

[senshido]

Mar 29, 2014 1:41:12 GMT -5 GJEC said:

This triggered some memories. At the old Leicester dojo (TA centre) the last thing we did at night was take off and fold up our gi jackets, put our head on them and do a headstand with our feet against a wall.

The tough guys then folded their arms, but at 15 I had neither the strength nor the confidence.

Surprised no one broke their neck. Sweaty jackets, slippery floor. No H & S then.



Gary

Ah, the good old days!!

[GJEC]

Thought you'd put "We used to dream about folded gi jackets. We did it on broken bottles"

... then Wullie, "You had bottles? That were luxury ..."

Gary

[senshido]

ha ha... I wish I had thought of that!!