Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Best 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.

The shrug is the most common exercise that you can use to improve the muscles in your neck. There are variations on the shrug that you can use to help give the exercise a little more intensity, but it is a very simple exercise to perform.

You can do the shrug using dumbells, or a barbell. And surprisingly you can often lift a fair bit of weight doing this exercise too. It's only got a short range of motion so you don't have to really do all that much work. It's easy to do the shrug, just grab the weight, hold near your waist and shrug your shoulders like you don't give a damn. Lift them, up, then down slowly. The control of this exercise is important.

You might be surprised at the amount of strength you can acquire from doing this type of exercise. You should find your ideal repetition between five and seven. You should always warm up before you do any type of exercise. You don't want to injure the neck muscles. Start off with a lesser amount of weight until you determine what your best repetition and weight is.

There are other exercises that you can perform for your neck that work quite well. You should keep to the simpler exercises when you are just starting working on your neck muscles.

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. Place the plate on the forehead and support it with your hands.

4. lift your body in a situp style movement using your neck muscles till your chin touches your chest

5. lower your body slowly till you are fully extended again

6. Repeat until you're done.

You can do this exercise in reverse from your stomach.

There are many exercises that can be used to strengthen your neck muscles. You can even use your own body to perform a simple exercise when you are trying to increase the strength. Place your hand on one side of the head and push your head in the opposite direction against your hand. You will find that this is a great way to start off with neck exercises. Do not attempt a neck bridge unless you have been working the neck muscles for some time. Most of the people who use this exercise do so because there is a need such as for wrestling or martial arts.

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. - 16004

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