Can You Train Ju Jitsu With Crushed Discs in Your Neck

Given that nosotros specialize in helping skinny guys bulk up, nosotros ofttimes get asked how to build a thicker neck. And I tin relate to that. I always hated how skinny my neck was. When I kickoff started bulking, my neck circumference 14 inches—a long way from the average man's 16-inch neck. And even afterward gaining a full 60 pounds, my neck had only gone up to 14.5 inches. Conspicuously, building muscle overall wasn't doing anything for my skinny cervix.

That's where neck training comes in. Doing musculus-building exercises to bulk upwards the muscles in our necks is a fairly new thing. It'south non common in either bodybuilding or force training. Simply neck training has a long history in contact sports and martial arts, given that it reduces the gamble of concussions, knockouts, and brain trauma. We can look at that enquiry and then modify it for our own goal of building thicker, stronger, and meliorate-looking necks. And, as a bonus, our necks will grow tougher, too.

Given the paucity of research, I was skeptical about how well a cervix bulking routine would piece of work. But within a few months of doing cervix training while resting betwixt sets, I was able to add together over an inch to my neck circumference. We were so able to reproduce those results with members of our customs.

Introduction

If you're a fan of Bony to Abominable, you'll know that nosotros're all about the bulking transformations. Marco and I have each gained sixty pounds at under 11% body fat, and over the past eight years, we've helped nearly 10,000 skinny guys bulk up (transformations here). Most of our articles are built around a mix of enquiry, personally having done it ourselves, and our experience helping others.

Then before we talk nearly edifice a thicker neck, I figure I should start by showing you my own results. As yous can encounter, I gained 55 pounds during my kickoff ii years of serious bulking, and I managed to add completely overcome my naturally skinny neck:

More seriously, over the course of gaining those 55 pounds, I gained effectually half an inch on my neck. My neck went from 14″ to 14.v″. To put that into perspective, I gained xiii inches on my shoulders (39 to 52″) and five inches around my biceps (10 to 15″), whereas my neck grew by less than an inch. In fact, because my shoulders had grown so much broader, my cervix looked actually looked proportionally skinnier by the end of my bulk.

The odd affair was, in photos where you could run into my whole body, I looked pleasantly muscular, merely then in photos of just my head, I looked as skinny as e'er. Until I started preparation my neck:

These earlier and afterwards photos were taken three months autonomously and show my cervix circumference going from 14.v inches upwards to xvi inches. I have candid photos showing the modify, likewise. Here are some progress photos of me holding my son, taken just a few months apart:

In retrospect, the reason that my neck lagged is obvious. I never trained it. It'southward like never training your chest and so wondering why your breast isn't growing. Just neither bodybuilders nor powerlifters train their necks, so I had causeless it must be dangerous or unnecessary. Little did I realize that neck training was ubiquitous in martial arts and contact sports. Had I known, I could have been doing cervix grooming correct from the very outset.

My goal was to bring upwardly my neck circumference to match my arm circumference: fifteen inches. Within a couple of months, my neck had grown to sixteen inches, outgrowing my artillery. The funny affair is, neck training has had a more positive impact on my appearance than arm training ever did.

Should We Build Muscle in Our Necks?

Are Neck Workouts Safety?

The short respond is that, aye, when neck training is done correctly, it'south quite safe. For example, if we're doing cervix curls with a 25-pound plate, the load is existence supported past our muscles, our hands are there to catch the weight if our neck muscles get tired, and 25 pounds is a fairly low-cal load on our spines anyway. It'south non probable to consequence in injury, and if it does, information technology's likely to exist a pocket-sized muscle strain that heals on its ain within a couple of weeks.

The long answer is that although neck training is safe overall, some ways of preparation our necks are less risky than others. Since training our necks usually involves flexing and extending our cervical spines, information technology can seem analogous to flexing and extending our lumbar spines when deadlifting. What nosotros're forgetting, though, is that neck training is much, much lighter than deadlifts. It's more than coordinating to flexing and extending our lumbar spines when doing crunches, which near research shows is completely rubber, fifty-fifty when doing for hundreds of repetitions every day for an unabridged lifetime.

But simply to be totally sure, I confirmed that cervix training was safety with both Greg Nuckols, MA, who runs the top research review, Monthly Applications in Strength Sport, and with my concern partner, Marco Walker-NG, BHSc, PTS, who'southward trained professional person and Olympic football and rugby players.

Even so, in that location'southward one extra affair to consider when flexing and extending our spines. Most of our joints, such equally our knees, elbows, hips, and shoulders, are designed to motility through a big range of motion. Our spine is made up of many different joints, and each is designed to movement through only a small range of motility. Equally a event, if we wanted to play it safe, nosotros might stop our range of motion a bit short, especially when lowering the weight. That may non be needed, only it'southward a more cautious way of training our necks.

It'southward besides possible to train our necks the same fashion that nosotros train our spinal erectors: with isometrics. When we squat and deadlift, we aren't flexing and extending our spines; nosotros're just belongings them steady under load. And over time, that yields quite a lot of growth in our spinal erectors and traps. The same can be done with our necks. Instead of lifting and lowering the weight, nosotros could hold it in place, letting our muscles fight to maintain proper neck posture. That'southward not the nearly efficient style to bulk upward our neck muscles, merely it volition work. I suspect that's over-cautious, though, given that athletes routinely train their necks with a large range of motion and don't run into bug across the occasional pulled muscle or "zinger" (which we'll embrace below).

Plus, having a stronger neck tin can help us avert injuries. Fifty-fifty if we don't do martial arts or play contact sports, having stronger necks can help us avert injury if we ever go into a fight or car blow. This is especially important for those of us with skinny necks, given that there'due south less muscle there to buffer the impact.

Neck Size & Slumber Apnea

Seventeen inches. According to a study published in the European Respiratory Journal, that's how thick y'all tin can build your cervix before it starts to increment your risk of sleep apnea. A second study and then confirmed this finding. But it's not quite that simple. Nigh people have oversized necks because they're overweight, not because they accept muscular necks.

Dr Brandon Peters, Doc, a sleep medicine specialist, wrote that sleep apnea might be caused by fat in and around the cervix, not simply having a thicker neck.

First, every bit an individual becomes more overweight or obese, one area of the torso that becomes larger in circumference is the neck. Therefore, a big neck likely corresponds to increased fat tissue elsewhere in the body, including at the base of the tongue and lining the airway. Bated from having a large stomach, there will also be tissue crowding forth the airway, peculiarly in the pharynx.

–Dr Brandon Peters, MD

Nosotros get the same hypothesis from the Mayo Clinic:

In well-nigh people, a neck size greater than 16 or 17 inches is a sign of excess fat in the neck area. This may contribute to crowding and narrowing of your animate tube, making obstacle or blockage of your airway while you sleep all the more likely.

–The Mayo Dispensary

In that location seems to exist a consensus that slumber apnea is linked to cervix fat, not neck musculus. However, it might still be prudent not to push button it. There isn't much research looking into what happens if we build our necks much bigger than 17–18″ inches, and given how of import sleep is, I'm not eager to become a guinea sus scrofa.

Regardless, for someone like me, starting off with a fourteen-inch neck and bulking information technology up to sixteen inches, that's simply not a concern. I'm not even flirting with that threshold.

Neck Aesthetics

What'southward the Boilerplate Cervix Size?

Co-ordinate to a study published in the Journal of Diabetes Research, the mean neck circumference for a human is 16.v inches. Other articles and studies take different findings, with some finding that the average male neck size is closer to xv inches. And then although we can't say for sure, information technology seems similar most men have necks somewhere between 15 and sixteen.5 inches.

When I showtime saw that, I thought of my own xiv-inch neck and felt disheartened. I had gained threescore pounds, and my cervix was still 1–2 inches smaller than average. Nevertheless, keep in listen that the average man has a big neck because he'south overweight, non because his neck is strong and muscular. If we build muscular traps and accept muscular necks fifty-fifty at lower body-fat percentages, I recollect our necks tin can await quite strong, even at smaller sizes.

Nonetheless, I think information technology'southward interesting that our necks will wait smaller-than-average upwards until around fifteen inches and won't start to look remarkably big up until around seventeen inches. It certainly explains why my fourteen-inch neck looked and so skinny. It also explains why I started beingness happy with how my cervix started looking once it started getting up to around sixteen inches.

What'southward the Ideal Neck Size?

Dr Casey Butt, PhD, famous for studying genetic muscular potential and ideal torso proportions, wrote in Your Muscular Potential that the ideal cervix size is the aforementioned every bit the ideal biceps size. He then lists the virtually bonny biceps circumference equally existence 0.36 the size of our chests.

Nonetheless, I and then spoke with Dr Aaron Sell, a prominent attractiveness researcher, who told me that the link between neck size and attractiveness hasn't been studied in isolation from overall muscularity and forcefulness. His research shows that the stronger and more formidable nosotros appear (especially in our upper bodies), the more attractive we look to women. Neck size is certainly a predictor of formidability—every bit evidenced past how essential cervix strength is when fighting—and so I'd look information technology to be strongly linked with attractiveness. But since neck size hasn't been studied in isolation from overall muscularity, we can't actually be sure, allow alone put a specific number to it.

Information technology seems fairly logical, though, that having a muscular-but-not-apnea-inducing neck would look best, and I doubtable that Casey Barrel's ratios are pretty close to hitting that mark. According to his research, we get ratios that wait something like this:

• Ideal waist size: our waist size at 8–15% body fat.
• Ideal biceps size: waist × 0.50
• Ideal neck size: waist × 0.fifty

For example, my waist is 31 inches, giving me an ideal biceps and neck size of 15.v inches. Fortunately, that puts my ideal neck size well below what would put me at higher run a risk for developing sleep apnea. Information technology also lines up with the results of our attractiveness survey.

These are loose ratios, though. Our necks can vary in length, as can the size of our traps, as can our shoulders' width. It might be that your neck looks best at a size that's a little different from those recommendations. Still, it's the best dominion of thumb that we have.

The good news most the ideal neck size beingness and then reasonable is that although it took me over two years to get from ten to fifteen-inch biceps, it only took a few months to bring my fourteen-inch neck up to xvi inches. Edifice an aesthetic neck is far easier than bulking upward the rest of our bodies.

How to Build A Thicker Neck

Cervix Muscle Anatomy

Our necks are riddled with muscles that assist united states flex, extend, twist, and turn our necks. When we railroad train our necks, we'll gain size and strength throughout our necks, but most of our results will come from bulking upwardly just ii muscles: our upper trapezius and the sternocleidomastoid.

Our upper traps are by far the biggest muscle that affects the appearance of our necks. The skillful news is that because they assistance us shrug our shoulders, they're trained quite thoroughly with deadlifts, loaded carries, overhead presses, and even lateral raises. We don't need any dedicated lifts for our upper traps; we simply demand to build muscle overall.

Our spinal erectors are a dissimilar story. Spinal erectors are notoriously short, spanning simply a couple of vertebrae. These particular spinal erectors attach and then loftier upwardly on our necks that they're only trained by lifts that have united states of america driving our heads backwards, such as neck bridges and neck extensions. Growing these spinal erectors volition toughen our necks and make our necks look more than muscular when viewed from the side. But they won't actually make our necks look "thicker." For that, let's turn to the front view:

If we look at our neck muscles from the front, we see that our spinal erectors aren't visible. The muscles that influence the thickness of our necks are our upper traps (which are trained by compound lifts) and our sternocleidomastoid muscles.

Our sternocleidomastoid muscles are neck "flexors," pregnant that they're trained past lifts that accept us driving our heads forward, such as neck curls. What's slap-up nigh those sternocleidomastoid muscles, though, is that they also assist united states of america tuck our necks, giving the states better neck posture. Now, to be clear, poor cervix posture doesn't commonly originate in the neck. It usually stems from poor rib and hip posture. But even so, strengthening these muscles may help improve so-called "frontward caput" posture, like and then:

Finally, our neck muscles tin bend and twist our necks from side to side, and then doing side raises with our necks can certainly assistance to bulk them up. However, those same muscles are trained with just neck curls, so we don't have to do whatsoever side raises to build a thick neck.

Overall, a good cervix bulking routine is going to include some heavy compound lifts to train our large meaty upper traps, some actress cervix extensions to make certain that we hit even the very uppermost fibres, and so enough of neck crimper to bulk up the sternocleidomastoid.

The Three Main Neck Lifts

As nosotros've covered to a higher place, the biggest "cervix" muscles are our upper traps, which can be built with deadlifts, the overhead printing, lateral raises loaded, carries, and, if you need even more than that, shrugs. However, our upper traps won't make our necks thicker, per se. For that, we need dedicated neck training.

The Neck Curl

The heart of any neck bulking routine is the neck curlicue. It trains the bulky sternocleidomastoid muscles that give u.s. a thicker neck when viewed from the front end.

The legendary neck curl.

Neck curls are fairly simple to do. You can think of them as doing crunches for your neck. The idea is to stretch out the muscles along the front of your cervix and so contract them. Notwithstanding, equally we mentioned above, don't worry too much nearly using a large range of motion. Just worry well-nigh feeling your neck muscles curl the weight up (as opposed to pulling the weight up with your hands).

I like to do these with rubber bumper plates, but y'all can practise them with really anything. You lot can even do them by pushing confronting your head with your easily. The only advantage that weights offer is that they allow us to add together precise amounts of weight every week.

Note: if you're using hard metal plates for these, you'll desire to wear a hat, bandana, or put a towel between the plate and your head. Otherwise, you may go a bruise or callus on your brow.

The Cervix Extension

In addition to doing neck curls, we also want to railroad train the spinal erectors and upper traps running along the back of our necks. To do this, we flip around and do neck extensions:

The simplest mode to do neck extensions is to put a plate on the back of your head and and then extend information technology backwards—the same technique as with neck curls, merely in contrary. Even so, if you want to take your neck training more seriously, you can get a cervix harness.

The reward of the neck harness is that we can plant our hands on our knees for upper-back support. That allows us to ameliorate focus on giving our necks a good, heavy workout. It'south a satisfying, strenuous movement, and y'all may be surprised by how much weight you can elevator.

To exist clear, though, y'all don't need a cervix harness, and if all you're trying to practise is build a pleasantly muscular neck, you probably don't need i. I bought a couple of them to test them out, and they exercise brand heavy neck extensions quite a fleck easier. I recommend getting one. But to make sure that my results were reproducible, I bulked up my neck using just weight plates.

Neck Side Raises

Finally, we have side raises. To do these, you tin prevarication somewhat awkwardly on the demote and flex your neck sideways. Again, whatsoever resistance will piece of work (including your easily). I used weight plates so that I could gradually apply heavier loads over fourth dimension, making information technology easier to gauge my progress.

Neck side raises aren't strictly necessary, but they're a overnice mode to increase our neck training book without needing to grind through the same lifts over and over again. They may also help us build our neck muscles more symmetrically.

Ease In But Dig Deep

Cervix training is a funny thing. If you're like me, you might be under the impression that your neck is weak and fragile. Strenuous weighted neck training might seem daunting, even reckless. And to be fair, if your neck is yet skinny, then it is weak. Later watching guys on YouTube curl 45-pound plates, I was ashamed to larn that I could only curl ten pounds. And if you've never trained your cervix before, then it is fragile. I was shocked by how sore my cervix got during my first week of training. But within a few weeks, y'all'll realize that your neck is tough and that cervix training actually feels quite safe.

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that you should dive all the fashion into hearty neck preparation in your very offset conditioning. The first time the muscles in your throat become sore, information technology feels fairly similar to having a sore throat, and you may fear that you've gotten sick. The harder you train in those first workouts, the more crippling that soreness will be. Better to ease into it. I recommend starting with only two sets per neck exercise and stopping a expert 2–iii reps shy of failure. That will keep the soreness is manageable.

As your neck grows thicker, stronger, and tougher, you can gradually add sets and start preparation closer to failure. A few weeks from now, doing five sets of neck curls per workout isn't out of the question. And expect to increment the load steadily. If y'all kickoff with a 10-pound plate in your beginning calendar week, await to gradually work your way upward to 25+ pounds in a month or two. Your cervix is tough, and the muscles will grow stiff. You'll be surprised past what y'all're able to achieve in a relatively short menstruum of time.

What surprised me most of all was that neck training started to feel really adept once I got used to information technology. Doing heavy neck extensions with a neck harness sends a pleasant rush of claret to my head, and the soreness that settled in afterwards feels like getting a day-long neck massage.

Equally I've gotten more experienced with neck grooming, my cervix has started to experience noticeably sturdier and tougher. The training has become hearty and strenuous. I've come to really enjoy it. It wasn't what I expected.

Warm-Ups and Neck Stiffness

When we cause a lot of muscle damage, it tin can brand our muscles feel quite stiff. When that stiffness is in our necks, information technology tin be quite annoying and sometimes a little scary. The primary style to avert that is to ease into your neck training. Don't go all-out in your very first workout. Start easy and gradually piece of work your style up.

However, even then, you might find that your neck feels a little bit stiff at showtime. I mode to avert that is to do some bodyweight neck stretches—twists, circles, and so on—earlier and afterwards your cervix training, as well as on rest days. You lot can also practise bodyweight neck curls and extensions every bit warm-up sets before loading them up heavier.

Sets, Reps & Preparation Frequency

You can train your neck 2–three times per week with 2–v sets per workout. Most research shows that we can maximize growth by training our muscles twice per calendar week. I recommend easing into your neck training slowly. These muscles accept likely never been trained before, so even a small amount of grooming volition be plenty to provoke growth and make your cervix muscles quite sore (which tin feel like having a sore throat). Start with two sets per exercise per workout and gradually work your way up.

At the summit of my neck training, I did 3 sets of curls, extensions, and side raises three times per week, which took around 10 minutes per workout. That's nine sets per movement per week, simply with both the neck curls and side raises working the sternocleidomastoid, that'southward a training volume of xviii sets per calendar week on the muscles that contribute most to our neck size and aesthetics.

Aim for 15–25 reps per ready and leave a couple of reps in reserve.Most research shows that we build muscle the most efficiently when we practise 6–20 reps per ready. Just since these are smaller isolation lifts that nosotros're doing, information technology's a bit of an exception, and it can pay to do even more reps than that. I recommend doing 15–25 reps, getting a good mind-muscle connection, and aiming for a fierce musculus pump.

Short rest periods are fine. Considering our neck muscles are relatively modest, we often get away with doing higher-rep sets with shorter remainder times without our cardiovascular fitness e'er limiting u.s.a.. A quick couple of runs through a circuit of neck curls, extensions, and side raises works nifty. Withal, short rest times aren't required, either. You could just as easily do your neck grooming while resting between sets of chemical compound lifts.

Rail your weight/reps/sets and always try to exist improving. Similar all of our other lifts, to gain muscle size, nosotros need to focus on getting stronger at our lifts. Nosotros need to be adding weight, adding reps, reducing residuum times, or adding sets. Our neck muscles take practiced potential for growth and can grow surprisingly strong. You might surprise yourself with how speedily y'all can improve.

Adding weight with limited equipment.When trying to add weight to our lifts, information technology's oftentimes best to add 2.five–5 pounds whenever nosotros get to the top of our target rep range (25 repetitions in this case). Yet, depending on what equipment y'all're using, that might be hard. If you're property a weight plate on your head, you might only be able to go up in increments of 5 or fifty-fifty 10 pounds. In that instance, exist a flake more than flexible with your rep ranges. Sets of up to 40 reps are just as good for stimulating musculus growth (they're just longer and more painful).

Avoiding forehead bruises.Most people practice their neck curls by belongings rough steel plates against their foreheads. To forbid the plates from bruising or callusing their faces, they article of clothing a toque or pad the plate with a towel. (I've been using safety bumper plates, and I bravely neglected to use any padding.)

Avoiding "zingers."I haven't run into this problem all the same because I've been lifting pretty cautiously, but it's adequately mutual for people to strain their cervix muscles past jerking the weight effectually. To avoid this, elevator steadily and maintain control of the weight, and if you're using a cervix harness, avoid bouncing the plates on the basis.

Build musculus overall.Given that your cervix is likely completely untrained, it's probably possible to make progress even if you aren't gaining weight on the scale each week. All the same, if you want to speed up your progress, make certain you're eating plenty calories and protein to gain weight. As always, nosotros need to fuel our musculus growth with the nutrient we eat.

Tracking Progress (& Neck Measurements)

As with building muscle in general, the most important thing is to track our results and adjust appropriately. That'due south the merely way to know if what nosotros're doing is working. And if what nosotros're doing isn't working, then no corporeality of patience or persistence will yield results. Results merely come from the accumulation of gradual progress.

Since our goal is to build a thicker neck, the first thing to practice is measure your neck. That will requite united states of america our starting measurement.

To measure your cervix circumference, wrap a measuring tape around the base of your neck, right to a higher place your traps (as shown above). This lines up with the cervix measurement you'd use to measure your collar size, but more than importantly, it's a slap-up place to mensurate the growth of our sternocleidomastoid and spinal erector muscles.

The other thing to continue track of is your neck forcefulness and piece of work capacity. To track your neck force, keep runway of how many reps you tin can become with a given weight. To track your neck's piece of work capacity, keep track of how many sets you're doing per workout (and per week). Write all of this downwards.

Every workout, endeavor to either add reps, add weight, or add together sets. Keep track of your progress week past week. If you're improving, great. If yous aren't making progress, consider calculation extra sets. Also, consider taking a set all the way to failure to make sure that you lot aren't accidentally leaving too many reps in reserve.

Finally, make sure that you're gaining at least a fiddling bit of weight on the scale each week. Yes, if your cervix is completely untrained, you can probably make progress without gaining weight. You lot may even exist able to make progress while losing weight. Even so, the single nigh important factor when trying to build muscle is that yous're eating plenty calories to add together overall mass to your frame. If you ever striking a musculus growth plateau, look first to the calibration. Have y'all been gaining weight?

Frequently Asked Questions

What Exercises Work Your Neck?

Which exercises train your neck muscles? If yous're request nearly compound lifts, none of them. None of the large chemical compound lifts will stimulate the muscles in your cervix. That's why until people offset grooming their necks directly, their necks don't grow.

The simply exception is that some lifts—such as deadlifts, shrugs, overhead presses, and lateral raises—train the traps, which are at the base of operations of your cervix. Edifice bigger traps will absolutely make your upper body await more muscular, only it won't make your neck any thicker.

The best exercises for the neck are isolation exercises:

• Cervix curls
• Cervix extensions
• Neck bridges
• Neck planks
• Neck side raises

Of these exercises, neck curls and neck extensions tend to be the best, and when combined, they make for a fairly consummate, minimalist neck preparation routine.

Why Don't Bodybuilders Build Bigger Necks?

If yous look at natural bodybuilders, you'll observe that many of them have fairly skinny necks. I was curious about this. I mean, bodybuilders care a great deal almost aesthetics, and building a more muscular neck is one of the all-time things you can do for aesthetics.

I asked Eric Helms, PhD, why bodybuilders don't train their necks. Helms is a muscle hypertrophy researcher as well as being a competitive natural bodybuilder. If anyone would know, he would. He explained that the biggest professional person bodybuilders develop thick necks simply from the gear they use. Their unabridged bodies bulk up, including their faces, their necks—everything. If they add together neck training on acme of that, they risk building such a thick neck that it restricts airflow (equally we've discussed above).

Notwithstanding, this obviously isn't a problem with natural bodybuilders. Afterwards all, they aren't using any gear, so their necks won't grow unless they deliberately bulk them up. And even if they intentionally train their necks, it's unlikely that their necks would abound so thick that it causes a problem.

Dr Helms then explained that cervix muscularity isn't a judging factor in bodybuilding. The rules of bodybuilding menses down from the professional bodybuilders, then if they aren't bulking their necks, then the natural guys won't do it either. Neck training just isn't part of bodybuilding civilization.

Finally, it seems like many bodybuilders are naturally muscular, with naturally thicker necks. They don't need to build thicker necks because they were born with thicker necks. Their necks shrink during the final stages of contest preparation because of how lean they're getting, but in their everyday lives, their necks are often quite proportionate.

Why Don't Powerlifters Railroad train Their Necks?

When information technology comes to powerlifting and strength preparation, people are judged based on their strength at the barbell squat, deadlift, and bench press. Strength preparation is likewise unique in that the idea of specificity is emphasized. Training is focused on condign stronger at just those three lifts. Neck strength isn't a factor, then information technology'south ignored.

Practise Deadlifts Build Thicker Necks?

No; deadlifts don't appoint our cervix muscles. The neck muscles that contribute most to our neck muscularity are in front of our necks, such as the sternocleidomastoid. These muscles aren't properly trained with any compound lift, including the deadlift.

The long answer is that deadlifts practise railroad train your traps, which are technically office of our necks. Furthermore, there are a few examples of people who bulked up their necks simply by deadlifting. Most people consider the traps an upper-dorsum muscle. Afterward all, at to the lowest degree when lifting weights, we utilize them mainly for deadlifting and rowing movements. However, the upper traps are also involved with neck extension, and so they're technically a neck muscle.

Your traps will admittedly get bigger simply from doing the big compound lifts:

• The classic barbell deadlift will bulk upwardly your traps no problem. By the time you lot can deadlift 405 pounds, you'll necessarily accept big traps.
• The overhead press and push press will likewise majority up your traps. When y'all press a weight overhead, your traps assistance your shoulder muscles. Both majority up together. A expert goal to work towards for a bigger shoulder girdle is to do a few reps in a row with 135 pounds.
• Even lateral shoulder raises are great for your traps. These are primarily used for building broader shoulders, simply they're also great for bulking upward your traps. Just similar with overhead pressing, the traps and shoulders piece of work together to heighten the weight.

Yes, we could utilise also use shrugs to bulk up our traps. Still, because of how thoroughly several dissimilar compound lifts stimulate them, in that location isn't actually much benefit to isolating them. (This is different from muscles similar our biceps, which aren't fully engaged past compound lifts, such as the chin-up. That's why adding in biceps curls helps with biceps growth.)

To make matters more confusing, some lifters do build visibly bigger necks simply from compound lifts. A good case of this is Omar Isuf, who built his cervix dangerously large without grooming it. He thinks this is due to deadlifting with quite a bit of neck strain. (Besides, go on in heed that he can deadlift over 600 pounds.)

All the same, other lifters become simply as strong every bit Omar Isuf without any increase in cervix size any. A adept example of this is Jeff Nippard. His neck was so small that he's one of the only natural bodybuilders who started intentionally preparation information technology. He's got a 500-pound deadlift, so he'south certainly a damn strong dude.

Every bit you can tell, I was more like Jeff Nippard. And in my experience helping thousands of skinny guys bulk up, this tends to be incredibly mutual for u.s. and then-called "ectomorphs." In fact, after helping nearly 10,000 skinny guys bulk upward, I oasis't seen a single person build a massive neck just from deadlifting. This leads me to believe that if you take a naturally thin cervix, it volition probably stay thin until you start training it straight.

Will Our Necks Compress if Nosotros End Grooming Them?

The interesting affair about building a thicker neck is that it seems similar a lot of one-time football players, boxers, and martial artists maintain muscular necks decades after they stop preparation them. A popular example is the actor Channing Tatum, who built a bigger neck while doing martial arts and playing football in college. Later on, he completely stopped preparation his cervix, however fifty-fifty twenty years later, people yet commented on how muscular information technology was.

That's a bit confusing because if our necks respond similarly to our other muscles, nosotros'd wait to lose at least a little bit of muscle size when we stop training them. Non all—some of the changes in our muscles are permanent— but it's likely that if we completely stop training our necks, they'd go at least a little flake smaller. Maybe never as small as they used to exist, merely non at acme size either.

However, this all depends on whether our necks become whatever stimulation from our other preparation. Information technology could exist that the small amount of neck strain nosotros get from, say, deadlifting that we're able to maintain our size with no additional neck isolation exercises.

After gaining about 2 inches on my neck, I stopped preparation it for a few months and recorded the changes. Within the offset calendar week, I lost a tiny bit of size as my cervix fully recovered from the training and the inflammation/extra glycogen in the muscles faded. I gradually lost a small corporeality of size during the next two months, merely not equally much every bit I'd expected. Of the two inches I'd gained, I kept near 1.25–i.5″ afterwards six months of not preparation my neck.

After that, I experimented with bringing a small amount of neck training back into my workouts to see what a minimalistic long-term neck training routine might expect like. Information technology seems like I tin maintain my neck size with two–3 sets of cervix curls per week, which can be done during a warm-up routine or while resting betwixt sets.

Then, if you lot get your neck strong enough, you lot won't ever need to worry virtually having a skinny neck again, especially if your cervix is being stimulated during compound lifts (such equally deadlifts). On the other hand, if you lot want to maintain your neck at meridian muscularity, yous'll need to go along at least a bit of neck curling in your workout routine.

How Can You Train Your Cervix at Home?

You lot don't need weights to train your neck. At that place are enough of bodyweight cervix exercises. The nearly famous is the neck bridge, which is how many wrestlers, fighters, and football players build thicker necks.

Are Cervix Workouts Bad for You lot?

No, in that location's no reason to think that neck workouts are unsafe or bad for y'all. They do train the spine, and it's always wise to be conscientious when training your spine. Still, cervix exercises tend to exist relatively light, especially compared to other exercises that load the spine, such as the deadlift. Because of the lighter loads you're using, there's less shear stress on your spine, and then the chance of injury is quite a chip lower.

Plus, neck training has several benefits, including increased resilience to concussions and traumatic encephalon injuries, such as those y'all might make it a fight or car crash. That'south why cervix training is so ubiquitous in gainsay sports like battle, MMA, and football.

Do Shrugs Train the Neck?

Will shrugs help united states of america build a thicker neck? Aye and no. Shrugs railroad train the traps (upper trapezius muscles), and our traps practice connect to our necks. But when almost of us call back of our cervix muscles, nosotros're thinking of our neck flexors and extensors, not our traps. To build thicker necks, nosotros demand to railroad train our necks straight.

Summary

The big chemical compound lifts don't stimulate our neck muscles, and so unless nosotros train them straight, they will stay small, no matter how much muscle we build overall. Fortunately, neck preparation is a condom and effective way to build a thicker neck.

In that location are three primary movements that volition help united states build bigger neck muscles:

1. The Cervix Curl trains the sternocleidomastoid (and other cervix muscles), making our neck thicker when viewed from the front.
2. The Cervix Extension trains our spinal erectors, making our necks thicker when viewed from the dorsum.
3. The Cervix Side Raise, which as well trains the sternocleidomastoid (and other cervix muscles), makes our neck thicker when viewed from the side.

Although our upper traps are more than of an upper-back musculus than a neck muscle, they tin can certainly make our necks look more than muscular. Fortunately, our traps get plenty of stimulation from compound lifts similar the deadlift, which loads them heavy in a stretched position, and the overhead press, which works them through a large range of movement. Lateral raises and shrugs also aid to bulk up the upper traps.

We can train our necks 2–3 times per week with two–5 sets per movement, giving us a weekly training book of somewhere between vi–xviii sets per musculus group. Sets of 15–25 reps tend to work best, but doing up to 40 reps per ready is effective.

Information technology's not uncommon for people to gain an inch or two in neck circumference within just their first few months of training. Not only will that make your neck stronger and improve your aesthetics, just it will too permit you lot make other improvements to your appearance, such every bit beingness able to vesture heavier hats.

If you want more muscle-building information, we have a free bulking newsletter for skinny guys. If you want a full bulking program, including a 5-month workout routine, diet guide, recipe book, and online coaching, bank check out our Bony to Beastly Bulking Programme. Or, if you want an intermediate bulking routine, bank check out our Outlift Intermediate Bulking Program.

Shane Duquette

Shane Duquette is the co-founder and creative pb of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, and has a degree in design from York University in Toronto, Canada. He's personally gained 60 pounds at 11% body fat and has 9 years of feel helping over ten thousand skinny people bulk up.

Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS

Marco Walker-Ng is the co-founder and strength motorcoach of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, and is a certified trainer (PTS) with a Available'due south degree in Wellness Sciences (BHSc) from the University of Ottawa. His specialty is helping people build muscle to improve their strength and full general health, with clients including college, professional, and Olympic athletes.

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Source: https://bonytobeastly.com/how-to-build-a-thicker-neck/

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